Sir Edward Hales, 3rd Baronet

Sir Edward Hales, 3rd Baronet (28 September 1645 – October 1695) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England from 1679 to 1681. He became a Catholic and supported King James II at the time of the Glorious Revolution.

Hales was the only son of Sir Edward Hales, 2nd Baronet, of Tunstall, Kent, a Royalist, by his wife Anne Wotton, the youngest of the four daughters and coheirs of Thomas Wotton, 2nd Baron Wotton. He was a descendant of John Hales, baron of the exchequer. He was educated at University College, and his tutor Obadiah Walker influenced him in the direction of Roman Catholicism.

On 28 November 1673 Hales was admitted to the rank of colonel of a foot regiment at Hackington, Kent. He purchased the mansion and estate of St. Stephen's, near Canterbury, where his descendants afterwards resided. He was elected Member of Parliament for Canterbury in 1679 and held the seat until 1681. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1684.

Hales declared himself a Catholic on the accession of James II and was formally reconciled to the Catholic Church on 11 November 1685. He had not received the sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England within three months of his commission in 1673, contrary to the statute 25 Charles II and had not taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. James II now gave him a dispensation from these obligations by letters patent under the Great Seal. In order to determine the legality of the exercise of his dispensing power in such cases, a test action was arranged. Arthur Godden, Sir Edward's coachman, was instructed to bring a qui tam action against his master for the penalty of £500, due to the informer under the act of Charles II. Hales was indicted and convicted at the assizes held at Rochester 28 March 1686. He pleaded the king's dispensation, and on appeal the question was argued at length in the court of king's bench before Sir Edward Herbert, Lord Chief Justice of England. On 21 June 1686, Herbert, after consulting his colleagues on the bench, delivered judgment in favour of Hales, and asserted the dispensing power to be part of the king's prerogative. The dispensing power was effectively outlawed by the Bill of Rights in 1689.

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