(Volume 2)
Volume 2
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Hales was born on September 17, 1677, at Bekesbourne, Kent, United Kingdom. He was the sixth son of Thomas Hales, heir to Baronetcy of Beakesbourne and Brymore, and his wife, Mary (née Wood), and was one of twelve or possibly thirteen children.
Hales was educated in Kensington and then at Orpington before attending Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (or St Benedict's as it was then known) in 1696. Although he was an ordinand studying divinity, Hales would have received his degree in the Classics, mathematics, natural sciences and philosophy while in Cambridge. Hales was admitted as a Fellow of Corpus Christi in 1703, the same year as he obtained the degree of Master of Arts, and was ordained as Deacon at Bugden, Cambridgeshire.
He continued his theological and other studies in Cambridge, where he became friends with William Stukeley who was studying medicine. He attended chemistry lectures by Giovanni Francisco Vigani while at Cambridge.
In 1709 he was ordained Priest at Fulham and on 10 August 1709 he was appointed Perpetual curate of the parish of Teddington, Middlesex and left Cambridge, although he retained his Fellowship until 1718. He became a Bachelor of Divinity in 1711.
Hales remained in Teddington for the rest of his life, except for occasional visits to his other parishes. He was an assiduous minister - in addition to parish duties he enlarged and repaired the church and commissioned a new water supply for the village - and well regarded although there is some evidence that his experimental work on animal physiology was viewed with misgivings.
In 1718 Hales was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and in the same year became rector of Porlock, Somerset, a post he held alongside the curacy of Teddington.
In 1723 he was installed as Rector of Farringdon, Hampshire. Hales spent his summers there and became a friend of Gilbert White, the naturalist, whose family lived nearby.
Hales' fame as a scientist grew from 1718 onwards, and by the mid part of the 18th century he had achieved an international reputation. He was one of the eight Foreign Members of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Paris and was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences of Bologna. He received the Copley Medal in 1739 and also became a public figure as a result of his campaigns against the gin trade and his involvement in the Georgia Trust. He was made a Doctor of Divinity by Oxford University in 1733.
In his later years he received frequent visits from Frederick, Prince of Wales and his wife, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, both of whom were interested in gardening and botany. He gave Princess Augusta advice on the development of Kew Gardens, and in 1751 he was appointed Clerk of the Closet to the Princess Dowager, following the death of Prince Frederick, a post he held until his death.
At the age of seventy Hales was chosen by the president and fellows of the Royal College of Physicians to preach the annual Crounian Sermon in the church of St Mary-le-Bow.
Hales died in his 84th year at Teddington on 4 January 1761 after a short illness.
In 1720 he married Mary Newce, but she died the following year probably in childbirth, there were no children and he never remarried.
(died 1692)
