Lives Characters And An Address to Posterity

ad given several parcels of land for the use of the poor, which are enjoyed by them to this day. This Robert, acquired an estate of ten thousand pounds; which he divided, almost equally, amongst his five sons; besides the portions he gave his daughters, from whom a numerous posterity has sprung. His second son was Robert Hale, a barrister of Lincoln's-inn: he married Joan, the daughter of Matthew Poyntz, of Alderley, Esquire, who was descended from that noble family of the Poyntzes of Acton. Of this marriage, there wasno other issue, but this one son. His grandfather, by his mother, was his godfather; and gave him his own name, at his baptism. His father was a man of that strictness of conscience, that he gave over the practice of the law, because he could not understand the reason of giving colour in pleadings, which, as he thought, was to tell a lie; and that, with some other things commonly practised, seemed to him contrary to that exactness of truth and justice, which became a Christian: so that, he withdrew himself from the inns of court, to live on his estate in the country. Of this I was informed, by an ancient gentleman, that lived in a friendship with his son, for fifty years; and he heard Judge Jones, that was Mr. Hale's contemporary, declare this, in the King's Bench. But, as the care he had to save his soul, made him abandon a profession, in which he might have raised his family much higher; so, his charity to his poor neighhours, made him, not onl...