John Hales (died 1540)
English judge
John Hales (by 1470 – 1540), of The Dungeon in the parish of St. Mary Bredin, Canterbury, Kent, was an administrator, politician and judge who was appointed a Baron of the Exchequer in 1522.
Origins
He was born before 1470, a son of John Hales, of Tenterden in Kent. His mother's name is not recorded. His grandfather was Henry Hales, of Hales Place at Halden in Tenterden, who married Juliana Capell, a daughter of Richard Capell of Lenden in Tenterden. His great-uncle Thomas Hales was the father of the judge Sir Christopher Hales, Master of the Rolls.
Career
Probably admitted to legal studies at Gray's Inn about 1490, by 1501 he had been appointed steward of the Priory of Christ Church at Canterbury. In 1503 he was made a justice of the peace for Kent, and in 1504 was appointed counsel to the corporation of Rye, and was also elected bailiff of his home town of Tenterden. From 1508, he was appointed to various royal commissions in his native Kent, in Middlesex and Sussex, and across the Channel in the English possessions of Calais and Guînes. By 1509 he had residences at both Canterbury, where he had acquired the manor known as The Dungeon just outside the city walls, and at Nackington.
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