There are approximately 8,195 people named Hales in the UK. Approximately 130 out of every million people in the UK are named Hales.
Some members of the family believe was a single Hales Family, ancestral to every Hales in Kent and England.
"This interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a topographical name for someone who lived in a nook or hollow, deriving from the Olde English pre 7th Century "halh" a nook, hollow, recess. In northern England the word often has a specialized meaning, denoting a piece of flat alluvial land by the side of a river, originally one deposited in a bend; in the south-east it seems often to have referred to a patch of dry land in a fen. In some cases the surname may be a locational name from any of the several places in England named with this archaic form. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Hales, which was dated 1180, in the "Pipe Rolls of Shropshire", during the reign of King Henry 11, "The Builder of Churches", 1154-1189." - The Internet Surname database
From a genealogical perspective, it is noteworthy that there were a number of Hale entries in Archbishop Pecham's survey of Kent Manors 1283-85(Kent Archaeological Society 2006):
- Richard, Thomas & Robert at Hale - From the Demese of Hale in Wrotham Hundred (p 293)
- Henry at Hale in Boughton (pp 170 & 174)
- John at Hale in Maidstone (p 107)
- John at Halle (p 76 & 78) and Helewis at Hale (pp 78, 82) in Reculver (Bleangate Hundred)
- Willliam at Halle (p 34) , Richard at Hale, John at Hale (p 42) in Wingham
These were Hales families living on the Archbishop of Canterbury's manors.
The lay subsidy of 1334 - compiled when Nicholas de Hales had two sons (Robert & Nicholas) - has 40 "ate Hale/Halle" entries, many in areas outside of the Archbishop's control, though there is an overlap. These all pertained to landed families, whose name would now be translated as either "Hale" or "Hales.":
- Adam atte Hale - Aylesford Hundred (1s 61⁄2d)
- Cecily atte Hale - Felborough Hundred (6s 10d)
- Christine atte Hale - Bleangate Hundred (2s) - see Archbishop Pecham's survey, above
- Goldman atte Hale - Hundred of Chatham & Gillingham (1s)
- John ate Halle - Aylesford Hundred (6s 2d), Felborough Hundred (2s 1d), Wingham Hundred (2s), Blackburn Hundred (4s), Larkfield Hundred (2s), Maidstone Hundred (2s), Foreign Hundred of Rochester (7d) - see Wingham in Archbishop Pecham's survey, above
- John ate Halle Sr - Maidstone Hundred (2s 6d) - see Archbishop Pecham's survey, above
- John atte Hale Jr - Maidstone Hundred (1s)- see Archbishop Pecham's survey, above
- John in the Hale - Maidstone Hundred (9s) - see Archbishop Pecham's survey, above
- John s/o Thomas atte Hale - West in Milton (1s)
- Margery atte Hale - Blackburn Hundred (3s 4d)
- Nicholas atte Hale - Bleangate Hundred (3s 4d) - see Archbishop Pecham's survey, above
- Nicholas in the Hale - Larkfield Hundred (3s)
- Osbert in the Hale - Larkfield Hundred (2s)
- Richard atte Hale - Wrotham Hundred (6s) - see Archbishop Pecham's survey, above
- Robert atte Hale - Langport Hundred (9d)
- Robert atte Halle Sr - Bleangate Hundred (3s 4d)- see Archbishop Pecham's survey, above
- Robert Atte Halle Jr - Bleangate Hundred (6s 8d)- see Archbishop Pecham's survey, above
- Robert de Halle - Bircholt Hundred (8s 2¾d)
- Roger atte Hale - Eastry Hundred (5s 4d)
- Roger de Hale - Faversham Hundred (4s)
- Simon atte Hale - Longbridge Hundred (1s 31⁄2d), Hundred of Chatham & Gillingham (3s)
- Simon de Hale - Longbridge Hundred (9s)
- Stephen atte Halle - Aylesford Hundred (9s 3¾d)
- Thomas atte Halle Felborough Hundred (3s 4d), Larkfield Hundred (1s), Larkfield Hundred (2s), Hundred of Chatham & Gillingham (9s)
- Tristan atte Hale - Felborough Hundred (2s 1d).
- Walter atte Hale - Hundred of Brenchley (1s)
- William atte Halle - Blackburn Hundred (1s 4d), Larkfield Hundred (6s), Maidstone Hundred (1s 6d), Longbridge Hundred (3s), Hundred of Codsheath (1s 6d), Hundred of Codsheath (2s) ),
Three of the four Hales known from records of the great peasant rebellion of 1381 were from Kent:
- Sir Robert de Hales, (s/o Nicholas de Hales of High Halden) Lord High Treasurer of England, is the most famous. The peasants beheaded him because of the poll tax, used to finance the war with France. Hales was also a crusader, "hero" of the 1365 sack of Alexandria and the Lord/Grand Prior of the Knights Hospitallers of England. One of that order's historians believes he was the model that Chaucer used for the knight in Canterbury Tales.
- Thomas Hales (nephew of the Robert above & grandson of the Nicholas de Hales who founded the High Halden branch of the Hales family) was one of Halden parish’s tax collectors during 1377 - Caroline C. Fenwick (ed), THE POLL TAXES OF 1377, 1379 AND 1381, Oxford University Press, vol 1, p 403
- John de Hales of Malling has been called "the first and principal originator of the insurrection" and looted Canterbury, (R B Robson, THE PEASANT'S REVOLT OF 1381 (edition of 1970, pp 120-122) but appears to be little known outside of Kent. He was not related to Nicholas de Hales.
- Stephen de Hales was the sheriff of Norfolk. He was captured by the peasants, but when the opportunity arose joined an attack against them. He is believed to have been distantly related to Nicholas de Hales, who allegedly came from Norfolk.
There are at least 19 Hales entries in surviving English muster rolls from 1370-1417, and six were archers (i.e. probably peasants who did not own land):
- John de Hales - Armed archer served under Brice, John (Lt of the Admiral towards the North) in 1370 TNA E101/30/37 m2
- John Hales, Esquire, Man-at-arms served under Ferrariis, Ralph de, Sir (Admiral of the North) 1371-1372 TNA E101/31/28 m3
- Nicholas Hales, Man-at-arms served under Leget, Helmyng 1372 Keeping of the Sea TNA E101/32/1 m3
- Thomas Hales, Esquire, Man-at-arms served under Hereford, Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford in the expedition of King Edward III 1372 Exped NavalTNA E101/32/20 m2
- Edward Hales, Man-at-arms served under Basset of Drayton, Ralph Lord in the army of Lancaster, John of Gaunt, duke of 1373-1374 Exped France TNA E101/32/38 m1
- William Hales, Man-at-arms served under Cambridge, Edmund of Langley, earl of Cambridge,who co-led the expedition with and Brittany, John, duke of in 1375 Exped France TNA E101/35/6 m1
- Hales Man-at-arms served under Percy, Thomas, Sir in the expedition of Buckingham, Thomas of Woodstock, earl of 1377-1378 Exped Naval TNA E101/37/28 m2
- Richard Hales, Archer, served under Percy, Thomas, Sir in the expedition of Buckingham, Thomas of Woodstock, earl of 1377-1378 Exped Naval TNA E101/37/28 m2
- William Hales, Esquire, Man-at-arms served under Hemenhale, Robert, Sir Arundel, Richard Fitz Alan, earl of 1387 Exped Naval TNA E101/40/33m15
- Esmon Hales, Esquire, Man-at-arms served under Hemenhale, Robert, Sir in the expedition of Arundel, Richard Fitz Alan, earl of 1387 Exped Naval TNA E101/40/33 m15
- William Hales, Man-at-arms served under Luttrell, Hugh, Sir in the expedition of Arundel, Richard Fitz Alan, earl of 1387 Exped Naval TNA E101/40/34 m15
- Esmond Hales, Man-at-arms served under Luttrell, Hugh, Sir in the expedition of Arundel, Richard Fitz Alan, earl of 1387 Exped Naval TNA E101/40/34 m15
- James Hales, Archer, served under Scrope, Stephen le, Sir Standing force Ireland TNA E101/41/39 m6i
- Nicholas Hales, Archer served under Wingfield, John de, Sir in the expedition of Arundel, Richard Fitz Alan, earl of 1388 Exped Naval TNA E101/41/5 m12
- John de Hales, Archer, served under Leche, Roger, Sir in the army of Somerset, John de Beaufort, earl of 1403 Standing force Wales/Garrison Carmarthen TNA E101/43/21 m4
- Walter Hales served under Waterton, John in Henry V 1415 Exped France TNA E101/45/1 m6
- Geffray Hales, Archer served under Clarence, Thomas of Lancaster, Duke of in Henry V 1415 Exped France TNA E101/45/4 m4
- John Hales, Man-at-arms served under Fiennes, Roger, Sir in the army of Gloucester, Humphrey, Duke of 1417 Exped France TNA E101/51/2 m16
- John Hales, Man-at-arms, served under Cornwall, John, Sir in the army of Gloucester, Humphrey, Duke of 1417 Exped France TNA E101/51/2 m35
Thus it would seem that only a specific stream of those bearing the surname "Hales" descend from the landed families of Norfolk and Kent. Some Hales families apper to have arisen independently.