ACCORDING to the most reliable information which I have been able to obtain, the original ancestor of the family was Tonne, Lord of Hale and Luceby, in the time of Edward the Confessor. Among his descendants there is no one calling for particular notice till we come to Sir Robert de Hales, Prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England, in the reign of Edward III; Admiral of the King's Fleet, and Treasurer of the King's Exchequer, in the fourth year of Richard II. The hard fate which befell him is well known. During the rebellion of Wat Tyler, when the King, who had previously been fortified in the Tower, was induced to

go out and meet the insurgents, the rebels broke into the fortress and pillaged it; beheading Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, (who had abused them as "shoeless ribalds,") Sir Robert de Hales, the Treasurer, and others whom they found there.
   Sir Robert de Hales appears to have died childless, and the family was represented by his brother, Sir Nicholas Hales, whose grandson, John Hales, built Hales Place, Tenterden. Among his descendants was Sir Christopher Hales, Attorney-General and Master of the Rolls, in the reign of Henry VIII; he died in 1542.
   Thomas Hales, brother of the above-mentioned