HALE, SIR MATTHEW (1609-1676), lord chief justice of England, was born on Nov. 1, 16o9, at Alderley, Gloucestershire. Left an orphan when five years old, he was placed by his guardian under the care of the Puritan vicar of Wotton-under-Edge, with whom he remained till his 16th year, when he entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford. At Oxford, Hale studied for several terms with a view to holy orders, but, attracted by a company of strolling players, he threw aside his studies, and plunged carelessly into gay society. He resolved to trail a pike as a soldier under the prince of Orange in the Low Countries. But, before leaving Eng land, he had to go to London to defend his patrimony. His lead ing counsel was the celebrated Serjeant Glanville who detected his great ability and pursuaded him to enter Lin coln's Inn (1629). Hale devoted himself to his legal studies with intense application. The rules which he laid down for himself prescribed 16 hours work a day. He read over and over again all the year-books, reports and law treatises in print, and care fully studied the extant records from the foundation of the Eng lish monarchy down to his own time. Hale dedicated part of his time to the study of pure mathematics, to investigations in physics and chemistry, and even to anatomy and architecture ; and this varied learning enhanced considerably the value of many of his judicial decisions.
He was called to the bar in 1637, and almost at once found himself in full practice. In a very few years he was at the head of his profession. He entered public life at perhaps the most critical period of English history. But amidst the confusion Hale steered a middle course. Taking Pomponius Atticus as his political model, he was persuaded that a man, a lawyer and a judge could best serve his country by holding aloof from partisan ship and its violent prejudices. It has been said, but without cer tainty, that Hale was engaged as counsel for the earl of Strafford; he certainly acted for Archbishop Laud, Lord Maguire, Christo pher Love, the duke of Hamilton and others. It is also said that he was ready to plead on the side of Charles I. had that monarch submitted to the court. The parliament having gained the as cendancy, Hale signed the Solemn League and Covenant, and was a member of the famous assembly of divines at Westminster in 1644; but although he would undoubtedly have preferred a Pres byterian form of church government, he had no serious objection to the system of modified Episcopacy proposed by Usher. Hale took the engagement to the Commonwealth as he had done to the king, and in 1653, already serjeant, he became a judge in the court of common pleas. Two years afterwards he sat in Crom well's parliament as one of the members for Gloucestershire. After the death of the protector, however, he declined to act as a judge under Richard Cromwell, although he represented Oxford in Richard's parliament. At the Restoration in 166o Hale was graciously received by Charles II., and in the same year was ap pointed chief baron of the exchequer, and accepted, with extreme reluctance, the honour of knighthood. After holding the office of chief baron for II years he was appointed lord chief justice. He retired in 1676 to his native Alderley, where he died on Dec. 25 of the same year.
As a judge Sir Matthew Hale discharged his duties with reso lute independence and careful diligence. His sincere piety made him the intimate friend of Isaac Barrow, Archbishop Tillotson, Bisht,p Wilkins and Bishop Stillingfleet, as well as of the Non conformist leader, Richard Baxter. He is chargeable, however, with the condemnation and execution of two poor women tried be fore Lim for witchcraft in 1664, a kind of judicial murder then falling under disuse. He is also reproached with having hastened the execution of a soldier for whom he had reason to believe a pardon was preparing.