John Hales was christened 30 March, 1696 at Yalding, the eldest son of Jacob Hales and Elizabeth Penny. He had eight siblings.
His tombstone, in Boxley, states, he married twice.
John Hales of this parish
died July 29th 1756, aged 62 years
Also Mary his wife, died July 1st 1737 aged 38 years
also Sarah his second wife died October 9 1754, aged 81 years
Leaving issue 4 sons and 1 daughter
Thos John Stephen Lawrence and Mary
FIRST MARRIAGE
In the HALES CHRONICLES, the late Kenneth Glyn Hales proposes that John Hales might have initially come to Frinsted to visit a relative. This would agree with my reconstruction, in which he is a direct descendant of "Arnold Haille, Gentleman" of Frinsted. John Hales married Mary Foster in Frinsted - sixteen miles East of Yalding - on April 7 1724.
They took up residence in Boxley, which overlooks the city of Maidstone, where Mary gave birth to eight children.
According to Tithes of the vicarage of Boxley, 1724, P40/3/1 John paid an annual rent of £2 plus a tithe of his produce “12 young well grown rabbits, 8 in summer and 4 at Christmas ad 12 shillings worth of woad” (from which blue dye is made). The price of woad was wildly unstable.
Duncan Harrington, a genealogist/historian I hired to peruse the records, said “The layout of this listing makes it very unclear as to whether John Norris was the owner during the period 1724 to 1727, when John Peirson a wheelwright becomes the owner.
According to Harrington, there is no Hales in the list of tenants from 28 Nov 1733 or 14 June 1734.
Assuming John was now a labourer his services would have been in demand during summer and the harvest months, but the rest of the year he would have taken whatever work was available. The Hales family would have lived with whoever employed them.
Mary Hales died in July 1737, leaving John (about 43) with four sons and a daughter: According to Harrington, there is no Hales in the list of tenants from 28 Nov 1733 or 14 June 1734.
Assuming John was now a labourer his services would have been in demand during summer and the harvest months, but the rest of the year he would have taken whatever work was available. The Hales family would have lived with whoever employed them.
Mary Hales died in July 1737, leaving John (about 43) with four sons and a daughter: Thomas (12), John (11), Stephen (8), Lawrence (7) and Mary (who I assume was born after 1734, when the family ceased to be as prominent in parish records).
SECOND MARRIAGE
The Hales family disappeared from the records until John Hales buried his second wife, Sarah, in Boxley on Oct 12, 1754. Given their difference in ages, and the fact he had five children to look after when Mary died, I suspect John Hales' second marriage was to provide his children with a mother.
John Hales was buried in Boxley on July 29th 1756.
CHILDREN:
1. Thomas Hales (c Mar 3 1725 at Boxley, Kent - 1788) m Mary Clinch (chrs July 9 1738 - 1770). Their marriage record says “Oct 16 1758 Bredgar - Thomas Hales of Frinsted married Mary Clinch. His brother Stephen, husband of Mary's sister Ann Clinch, was one of the witnesses. Thomas Hales He was one of the witnesses for William Clinch's will and, unlike his father-in-law, could write his name.
2. John Hales ( chrs 19 June 1726 at Boxley) m Margaret Bennet (born 1736 at Boxley) at Boxley on 6 Oct 1757
3. Richard Hales (chrs 31 Dec 1727 - bur 8 JUN 1728) from Boxley.
4. Stephen Hales (chrs 1 MAY 1729 at Boxley) - click here
5. Lawrence Hales (chrs 28 OCT 1730 at Boxley- bur 8 Dec 1791) m Elizabeth Brimstead (c 1735 at Detling) at Detling, Kent, on Oct 11 1756.
6. Henry Hales (chrs 9 JUL 1732 - buried 5 June 1734/35) from Boxley
7. Elizabeth Hales (chrs 3 or 24 FEB 1734 - bur 15 MAR 1734/5.)
8. Mary Hales (no christening record) m William Fulliger in Boxley on 24 Nov 1757
NOTE ON JOHN HALES
Canterbury Marriage License entry: 4 Oct 1757 John Hales of Boxley, yeoman, bachelor, 29, and Margaret Bennet of the same, 18, father Richard Bennet, husbandman, at Boxley.