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Sir Matthew Hale

Sir
Matthew Hale
SL
A Portrait of Matthew Hale.  He stands in a full-length brown judge's robe with a black cap on his head.  In his right hand, he holds a paintbrush.
Chief Justice of the King's Bench
In office
18 May 1671 – 20 February 1676
Preceded by John Kelynge
Succeeded by Richard Raynsford
Chief Baron of the Exchequer
In office
7 November 1660 – 1671
Preceded by Orlando Bridgeman
Succeeded by Edward Turnour
Justice of the Common Pleas
In office
31 January 1653 – 15 May 1659
Preceded by John Puleston
Succeeded by John Archer
Personal details
Born (1609-11-01)1 November 1609
West End House (now The Grange or Alderley Grange), Alderley, Gloucestershire, England
Died 25 December 1676(1676-12-25) (aged 67)
The Lower House (see Alderley House)
Spouse(s) Anne Moore
Anne Bishop
Residence The Lower House (see Alderley House)
Alma mater Magdalen Hall, Oxford (now Hertford College)

Sir Matthew Hale SL (1 November 1609 – 25 December 1676) was an influential English barrister, judge and lawyer most noted for his treatise Historia Placitorum Coronæ, or The History of the Pleas of the Crown. Born to a barrister and his wife, who had both died by the time he was 5, Hale was raised by his father's relative, a strict Puritan, and inherited his faith. In 1626 he matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford (now Hertford College), intending to become a priest, but after a series of distractions was persuaded to become a barrister like his father thanks to an encounter with a Serjeant-at-Law in a dispute over his estate. On 8 November 1628 he joined Lincoln's Inn, where he was called to the Bar on 17 May 1636. As a barrister, Hale represented a variety of Royalist figures during the prelude and duration of the English Civil War, including Thomas Wentworth and William Laud; it has been hypothesised that Hale was to represent Charles I at his state trial, and conceived the defence Charles used. Despite the Royalist loss, Hale's reputation for integrity and his political neutrality saved him from any repercussions, and under the Commonwealth of England he was made Chairman of the Hale Commission, which investigated law reform. Following the Commission's dissolution, Oliver Cromwell made him a Justice of the Common Pleas.


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