John Hales (bishop of Coventry and Lichfield)

John Hales (c. 1400-1490)^[2] (alias Hals, Halse, etc.) was Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield (1459-1490). He was one of the Worthies of Devon of the biographer John Prince (d.1723).^[3]

The Right Reverend John Hales
Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield
Arms of Hals of Kenedon in the parish of Sherford, Devon: Argent, a fess between three griffin's heads erased sable[1]
Appointed	20 September 1459
Term ended	between 15 September and 30 September 1490
Predecessor	Reginald Boulers
Successor	William Smyth
Orders
Consecration	25 November 1459
Personal details
Died	September 1490
Denomination	Catholic

Origins

Hales was the second son of John Hals (fl.1423) of Kenedon in the parish of Sherford, Devon (a Justice of the Common Pleas and in 1423 a Justice of the King's Bench) by his first wife, a daughter of the Mewye (alias Mewy^[4]) family of Whitchurch near Tavistock, Devon. ^[5] His great-uncle was Richard Hals (d.1418), a Canon of Exeter Cathedral in Devon, and Treasurer of Exeter Cathedral in 1400, who in 1414 was sent as Ambassador to Brittany.^[6] Bishop Hals appointed his kinsman Edmund Hals as Archdeacon of Salop from an unknown date until 1485 and as Archdeacon of Derby from 1485, probably until his death.^[7] The mansion house of the Hals' at Kenedon, originally quadrangular in form, is today represented by a small 16th c. farmhouse known as Keynedon, about 1 mile south of the village of Sherford.^[8] The early 15th century gate-tower of the house was demolished in about 1850.^[9]

Career

Hales was Provost of Oriel College, Oxford, from 1446 to 1449.^[10] He was Dean of Exeter between 1457 and 1459.^[11] In 1470, during the reign of King Henry VI, Hales was appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal, but lost the office on the restoration of King Edward IV in 1471.^[12] Hales was nominated as Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield on 20 September 1459, and was consecrated on 25 November 1459. He died between 15 and 30 September 1490,^[13] aged about 90,^[14] and was buried in Lichfield Cathedral.^[15]

References

1. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.439; Tinctures reversed per Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.485
2. Date of birth c.1400 as died "aged about 90" per Vivian, p.439
3. Prince, John, (1643–1723) The Worthies of Devon, 1810 edition, London, pp.455-7
4. Pole, p.288
5. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.439
6. Vivian, p.439
7. Southworth, Carol M., Pluralism and Stability in the Close: The Canons of Lichfield Cathedral in the Last Quarter of the Fifteenth Century, Thesis, University of Birmingham, January 2012, University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository, p.18, footnote 40, quoting: "Le Neve, John, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300-1541 X Coventry and Lichfield Diocese, compiled by B.Jones (London 1964), p.17; Emden, A.B., A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to 1500, 3 volumes (Oxford 1957-9), p.856"; "Edmund Hals" not listed in the family's pedigree in the Visitations of Devon (Vivian, p.439)
8. Pevsner, Nikolaus & Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p.727
9. Hoskins, W.G., A New Survey of England: Devon, London, 1959 (first published 1954), p.475
10. ‘Oxford College Histories: Oriel College’ Ranie, D.W. p57: London; F.E. Robinson & Co;1900
11. Ursula Radford (1955). "An Introduction to the Deans of Exeter". Report & Transactions of the Devonshire Association 87: 1–24.
12. Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 96
13. Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 254
14. Vivian, p.439
15. Prince, p.457

Sources

• Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.

Academic offices
Preceded by Walter Lyhert	Provost of Oriel College, Oxford 1446–1449	Succeeded by Henry Sampson
Political offices
Preceded by Thomas Rotheram	Lord Privy Seal 1470–1471	Succeeded by Thomas Rotheram
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by John Cobethorn	Dean of Exeter 1457–1459	Succeeded by Henry Webber
Preceded by Reginald Boulers	Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield 1459–1490	Succeeded by William Smyth