Men of Kent and Kentishmen/Stephen Hales
Stephen Hales,
NATURALIST AND DIVINE,
Was born at Bekesbourne in 1677, and educated at Cambridge, where he took to the studies of botany and anatomy, in company with the celebrated antiquary. Dr. Stukeley. He held in succession several benefices, but resided chiefly at Teddington, in Middlesex, where he was visited by persons of rank and taste. Being made a Fellow of the Royal Society, he communicated several Essays on "Vegetable Physiology," which attracted attention, not only in England, but abroad. He was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1753, in the place of Sir Hans Sloane, who died that year. In the midst of all his philosophical and scientific labours he did not neglect his parochial duties, and he is held up by Pope under the epithet of "Plain Parson Hale," as a model of sincere piety. He died at Teddington in 1761. There is a monument to his memory in Westminister Abbey, erected by the Princess of Wales.
[See "Gentleman's Magazine," 1799; "Annual Register," 1764; "Master's Corpus Christi College," "Lyson's Environs of London."]