Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hale, William Hale

​HALE, WILLIAM HALE (1795–1870), divine, son of John Hale, a surgeon, of Lynn, Norfolk, was born on 12 Sept. 1795. His father died about four years later. He became a ward of James Palmer, treasurer of Christ's Hospital, and from 1807 to 1811 went to Charterhouse School. On 9 June 1813 he matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford, and graduated B.A. in 1817, and M.A. in 1820, being placed in the second class in classics and mathematics. He was ordained deacon in December 1818, and served his first curacy under Dr. Gaskin at St. Benet, Gracechurch Street. In 1821 he was appointed assistant curate to Dr. Blomfield at the church of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, and when Blomfield accepted in 1824 the bishopric of Chester Hale became domestic chaplain, a position which he retained on the bishop's translation to London in 1828. Hale was preacher at the Charterhouse from 1823 until his appointment to the mastership in February 1842. He was prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral from 1829 to 1840, and was archdeacon of St. Albans from 17 June 1839 till his appointment to the archdeaconry of Middlesex in August 1840.

​The latter preferment he vacated in 1842, being installed, 12 Nov., in the more lucrative archdeaconry of London. In 1842 he became master of the Charterhouse, and from 1847 to 1857 he retained the rich vicarage of St. Giles, Cripplegate. Hale was a staunch tory, and a determined opponent of reform. He hotly resisted the passage of the Union of Benefices Bill, under which some of the ancient city churches were pulled down, and the proceeds of the sales of the sites applied to the erection of churches in more populous districts, and he strenuously resisted the proposed abolition of burials within towns. Bishop Blomfield used to say that 'he had two archdeacons with different tastes, one (Sinclair) addicted to composition, the other (Hale) to decomposition.' Hale died at the master's lodge, Charterhouse, on 27 Nov. 1870, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral on 3 Dec. He married at Croydon, 13 Feb. 1821, Ann Caroline, only daughter of William Coles, and had issue five sons and three daughters. His wife died 18 Jan. 1866 at the Charterhouse, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.

Hale's antiquarian learning was generally recognised. For the Camden Society he edited: 1. 'The Domesday of St. Paul's of the year 1222 . . . and other Original Documents relating to its Manors and Churches,' 1858. 2. 'Registrum prioratus beatæ Mariæ Wigorniensis,' 1865. 3. 'Account of the Executors of Richard, bishop of London, 1303, and of the Executors of Thomas, bishop of Exeter, 1310,' 1874 (in conjunction with the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe), the introduction to which Hale finished just before his death. His zeal in arranging the records and documents at St. Paul's is acknowledged in Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. p. 1. 'Some Account of the Early History and Foundation of the Hospital of King James, founded at the sole costs and charges of Thomas Sutton,' anonymous and privately printed, 1854, was by him, and he also wrote 'Some Account of the Hospital of King Edward VI, called Christ's Hospital,' which went through two editions in 1855. He edited and arranged the 'Epistles of Joseph Hall, D.D., Bishop of Norwich,' 1840, and the volume of 'Institutiones piæ originally published by H.I., and afterwards ascribed to Bishop Andrewes,' 1839. Together with Bishop Lonsdale he published in 1849 the 'Four Gospels, with Annotations.' His translation of the 'Pontifical Law on the Subject of the Utensils and Repairs of Churches as set forth by Fabius Alberti' was privately printed in 1838. For E. Smedley's 'Encyclopædia Metropolitana,' 1850, 3rd division, vol. vii., he wrote 'The History of the Jews from the time of Alexander the Great to the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus,' with other articles. Hale also published sermons of all kinds, besides charges and addresses on church rates, the offertory, intramural burial, the proceedings of the Liberation Society, and many other topics.

W. P. C.