Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hale, Bernard
HALE, Sir BERNARD (1677–1729), judge, eighth son of William Hale of King's Walden, Hertfordshire, by Mary, daughter of Jeremiah Elwes of Roxby, Lincolnshire, was born in March 1677, entered Gray's Inn in October 1696, was called to the bar in February 1704, was appointed lord chief baron of the Irish exchequer on 28 June 1722, and was transferred to the English court of exchequer as a puisne baron on 1 June 1725 and knighted on 4 Feb. following. He died in Red Lion Square, London, on 7 Nov. 1729, and was buried in the parish church of King's Walden, the manor of which had been in his family since the time of Elizabeth, and still belongs to his posterity. He married Anne, daughter of J. Thoresby or Thursby of Northamptonshire, by whom he had four sons and three daughters. Of his sons, the eldest, William, died in 1793, and was buried at King's Walden; the second, Richard, died in 1812 in his ninety-second year; the third, Bernard, entered the army and rose to the rank of general, was appointed lieutenant-governor of Chelsea Hospital in 1773, and afterwards lieutenant-general of the ordnance. He married in 1750 Martha, daughter of Richard Rigby of Mistley Hall, Essex, by whom he had one son, who assumed the name of Rigby, and married Frances, daughter of Sir Thomas Rumbold [q. v.], governor of Madras, by whom he had issue one daughter only, who married Horace, third Lord Rivers. Hale's fourth son, John, also served with distinction in the army, attaining the rank of general, being appointed governor of Londonderry and Culmore Forts in 1781. He died on 20 March 1806, leaving eleven children by his wife Mary, second daughter of William Chaloner of Gisborough.
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Hist. Reg. (Chron. Diary) 1725; Berry's County Gen. Hertfordshire, p. 36; Misc. Gen. et Herald. new ser. iv. 134; Smyth's Law Officers of Ireland; Cussans's Hertfordshire, Hundred of Hitchin, p. 122; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, iii. 133; Burke's Landed Gentry.]