created a baronet 25 Aug. 1660. This branch of the family being, as I believe, quite extinct; and having, moreover, no particular connection with Kent, I here leave, and go on to the Woodchurch and Bekesbourne branches.
   Sir John Hales, great-grandson of the original builder of Hales Place, was a baron of the Exchequer, and lived at the Dungeon—now the Dane John—Canterbury.
   His second son, Thomas Hale, of Thanington, and his third son, Edward Hales, of Tenterden, were the ancestors of the Bekesbourne and Woodchurch branches respectively.
   Sir Robert Hales, great-grandson of Thomas Hales of Thanington, was created a baronet 12 July 1660. His descendants are all extinct, so I will leave this branch also; although there were several persons of note among this family, one of whom was Stephen Hales, well

known for his researches and experiments on plants. Liebig says, "They remain to this day as a pattern of an excellent method, and are unsurpassed in the domain of vegetable physiology."
   I proceed, then, with the ancestry of the first Sir Edward Hales, of Woodchurch.
   Edward Hales, the third son of Baron Hales, was married to Margaret, daughter of John Honeywood, of Seen, by whom he had a numerous family. His two eldest sons (namely, John Hales, who married Mary, daughter of Robert Horne, Bishop of Winchester; and Edward Hales, of Chilham, who married Mary, daughter of Stephen Ford, of Tenterden) having both died issueless, his third son, William Hales, of Tenterden, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Paul Johnson, of Fordwich, became his heir.