HAKE, THOMAS GORDON (1809-1895). —Poet, b. at Leeds, ed. at Christ's Hospital, was a physician, and practised at various places. His books include Madeline (1871), Parables and Tales (1873), The Serpent Play (1883), New Day Sonnets (1890), and Memoirs of Eighty Years (1893).
HAKLUYT, RICHARD (1553?-1616). —Collector of voyages, belonged to a good Herefordshire family of Dutch descent, was b. either at Eyton in that county or in London, and ed. at Westminster School and Oxf. The sight of a map of the world fired his imagination and implanted in his mind the interest in geography and the lives and adventures of our great navigators and discoverers, which became the ruling passion of his life; and in order to increase his knowledge of these matters he studied various foreign languages and the art of navigation. He took orders, and was chaplain of the English Embassy in Paris, Rector of Witheringsett, Suffolk, 1590, Archdeacon of Westminster, 1602, and Rector of Gedney, Lincolnshire, 1612. After a first collection of voyages to America and the West Indies he compiled, while at Paris, his great work, The Principal Navigations, Voyages ... and Discoveries of the English Nation made by Sea or over Land to the Remote and Farthest Distant Quarters of the Earth ... within the Compass of these 1500 Years. It appeared in its final form (three folio vols.) in 1599. Besides it he pub. A Discourse of Western Planting, and he left a vast mass of MS. afterwards used (in far inferior style) by [S. Purchas] (q.v.). In all his work H. was actuated not only by the love of knowledge, but by a noble patriotism: he wished to see England the great sea-power of the world, and he lived to see it so. His work, as has been said, is "our English epic." In addition to his original writings he translated various works, among them being The Discoveries of the World, from the Portuguese of Antonio Galvano.
HALE, SIR MATTHEW (1609-1676). —Jurist and miscellaneous writer, has left a great reputation as a lawyer and judge. Steering a neutral course during the political changes of his time, he served under the Protectorate and after the Restoration, and rose to be Chief Justice of the King's Bench. He is mentioned here as the author of several works on science, divinity, and law. Among them are The Primitive Origination of Mankind, and Contemplations, Moral and Divine. His legal works are still of great authority. Though somewhat dissipated in early youth, he has handed down a high reputation for wisdom and piety.
HALES, JOHN (1584-1656). —Theologian, b. at Bath, and ed. there and at Oxf., became one of the best Greek scholars of his day, and lectured on that language at Oxf. In 1616 he accompanied the English ambassador to the Hague in the capacity of chaplain, and attended the Synod of Dort, where he was converted from Calvinism to Arminianism. A lover of quiet and learned leisure, he declined all high and responsible ecclesiastical preferment, and chose and obtained scholarly retirement in a Fellowship of Eton, of which his friends Sir Henry Savile and Sir Henry Wotton were successively Provost. A treatise on Schism and Schismatics (1636?) gave offence to Laud, but H. defended himself so well that Laud made him a Prebendary of Windsor. Refusing to acknowledge the Commonwealth, he was deprived, fell into poverty, and had to sell his library. After his death his writings were pub. in 1659 as The Golden Remains of the Ever-Memorable Mr. John Hales of Eton College.
HALIBURTON, THOMAS CHANDLER (1796-1865). —B. at Windsor, Nova Scotia, was a lawyer, and rose to be Judge of the Supreme Court of the Colony. He was the author of The Clock-maker, or Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville, and a continuation, The Attaché, or Sam Slick in England. In these he made a distinctly original contribution to English fiction, full of shrewdness and humour. He may be regarded as the pioneer of the American school of humorists. He wrote various other works, including The Old Judge, Nature and Human Nature, A Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia, etc. In 1856 he settled in England, and sat in the House of Commons for Launceston.