HALES, Sir John (1603-1639), of Tunstall, Kent

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010
Available from Cambridge University Press

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

bap. 17 Apr. 1603, 1st s. of Sir Edward Hales* (d.1654) of Woodchurch and Tunstall, Kent and 1st w. Deborah, da. and h. of Martin Harlackden of Woodchurch, Kent. educ. G. Inn 1612; ?Emmanuel, Camb. 1619. m. 1 Mar. 1625, Christian, da. and coh. of Sir James Cromer of Tunstall, 3s. kntd. 15 June 1625.1 d. 14 Oct. 1639.2

Offices Held

Commr. sewers, Rother levels, Kent and Suss. 1623-at least 1637,3 Kent 1631-d.;4 freeman, Queenborough, Kent 1625;5 warden, Rochester bridge 1632-d. (jnr. warden 1634).6

Biography

Hales should be distinguished from a younger son of the Hales family of Coventry, who was knighted in Scotland as a gentleman pensioner in 1617.7 Following a conventional education, this Member was married to his seventeen-year-old step-sister, thereby enabling his father to gain control of the remaining Cromer estates in north Kent. He was subsequently granted the freedom of Queenborough, where his father defeated the earl of Montgomery’s (Sir Philip Herbert*) candidate, Robert Poley, a few weeks later. Poley regained the seat the following year, but after his death Hales reasserted his family’s interest. However, he took no known part in the third Caroline Parliament. It is unclear whether he was the Sir John Hales of London who belonged to the Westminster Soapmakers’ Company in 1636.8

Hales died in October 1639, and was buried at Tunstall. His son Edward succeeded as 2nd baronet in 1654, and sat for Maidstone and Queenborough after the Restoration.9

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Authors: Peter Lefevre / Andrew Thrush

Notes

  • 1. Cent. Kent. Stud. Tenterden par. reg.; E.R. Mores, Tunstall, 95; Al. Cant.; Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 188.
  • 2. The Gen. n.s. xxvii. 122.
  • 3. C181/3, f. 94; Cent. Kent. Stud. U274/L20.
  • 4. C181/4, f. 75v; 181/5, p. 292.
  • 5. Cent. Kent. Stud. Qb/JMS 4, f. 20v.
  • 6. Traffic and Pols. ed. N. Yates and J.M. Gibson, 295.
  • 7. Vis. Warws. (Harl. Soc. xii), 273.
  • 8. C66/2788/10; PC2/47, f. 33.
  • 9. Mores, 96.