Matthew Hale

Who was Matthew Hale?

Sir Matthew Hale (1 November 1609 – 25 December 1676) was an influential English 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. He was later persuaded to become a barrister, like his father, by an encounter with a Serjeant-at-Law in a dispute over his estate. He occupied various public offices both under the Cromwellian Commonwealth and the Stuart Restoration. From 1671 until his retirement in 1676, he served as Chief Justice of the King's Bench.

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 several Royalist figures in the prelude to the English Civil War and during the war itself. These included the Earl of Strafford and Archbishop Laud.

Historical significance

Hale is widely regarded as one of the key figures in the development of the common law.