HALE, Sir MArrnEw (1609-76). A distin guished English lawyer and judge, born at Al derley, in Gloucestershire, November 1, 1609. His paternal grandfather was a wealthy trades man, while his mother was a member of the noble family of Poyntz of Acton. Left an or phan at the age of five, he was placed under the care of the Puritan Vicar of Walton-under Edge, who prepared him for college. He entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, at sixteen; at the age of twenty he was enrolled as a member of Lin coln's Inn, and entered upon the study of the law with great zeal and industry. During this period he is said to have worked sixteen hours a day, reading and rereading all the year-books, reports, and law treatises in print, delving into the records of the Tower of London and other repositories of antiquarian law. He also devoted considerable time to investigations in Roman law, in mathematics, in physics, chemistry, history, philosophy, medicine, and theology. Called to the bar in 1637, he quickly gained a large prac tice, and soon became prominent also in public affairs. While a Puritan in principle, he was not a partisan by nature, nor was he an anti royalist. As long as possible he maintained a position of neutrality between the opposing fac tions in the State, having taken Pomponius At ticus as his political model. Upon the triumph of Parliament he signed the Solemn League and Covenant, sat in the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, tried to bring about a settlement between the* King and Parliament, and after the death of Charles I. threw in his lot with
the Commonwealth. Although, as a member of the Commons, he spoke in favor of subordinating `the single person' to Parliament, the Protector made him a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1653. He declined a reappointment by Richard Cromwell. Having taken an active part in the restoration of Charles II., that monarch appoint ed him Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1660, and made him a knight. Eleven years later Hale was advanced to the Chief Justiceship, which he held until failing health forced him to resign in February, 1676. Upon his withdrawal from public life he retired to his native Alderley, where he died the following Christmas.
Hale's fame as a lawyer and a judge is very great. Lord Campbell accounts him "the most eminent judge who ever filled the office of Chief Baron." His authority upon legal questions was deemed well-nigh infallible during the latter • years of his life. His Analysis of the Law fur nished Blackstone with an outline for his Com mentaries. The other legal publications of Sir Matthew Hale which are most highly esteemed are: De Jure Maris; Commentary to Fitz/ter bert's Natura Brevium; and A History of the Common Law. He bequeathed many valuable manuscripts to Lincoln's Inn, where they are still treasured. Consult: Burnet, Life and Death. of Sir Matthew Hale (London, 1682) ; Williams, Life of Hale (London. 1835) : Campbell, Lives of the Chief Justices (Boston, 1873).