JOHN HALE

JOHN HALE


HALE, John, clergyman, born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, 3 June, 1636; died 15 May, 1700. He was graduated at Harvard in 1657. In 1664 he went to Beverly as a religious teacher, and on 20 September, 1667, was ordained pastor of the newly organized church at that place--a charge which he retained till his death. He was chaplain in the expedition to Canada in 1690, and in 1734 his services were rewarded by a grant of three hundred acres of land to his heirs by the general court. During the Salem witchcraft trials in 1692, Mr. Hale attended the examinations of the accused persons, and approved of the judicial murders resulting from the charges. He afterward published "A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft" (1697), which indicated a change of opinion relative to the justice of the executions. His only other publication was an "election sermon" of nearly two hundred pages (1684).--His grandson, Robert, physician, born in Beverly, Massachusetts, 12 February, 1703; died 20 March, 1767, was graduated at Harvard in 1721, and subsequently practised as a physician in his native town. He commanded a regiment under Sir William Pepperell at the capture of Louisburg in 1745,
 in 1747 was appointed by the legislature of Massachusetts a commissioner to New York to adopt measures for the general defence, and in 1755 was a commissioner to New Hampshire to concert an expedition against the French. He was appointed sheriff of Essex county, Massachusetts, in 1761, and was for thirteen years a member of the legislature.--