General John Hale (1728–1806) was a British army officer who is remembered chiefly for his close friendship with General James Wolfe, and for his exceptionally large (22) number of children by his wife Mary Chaloner, a noted beauty who was painted by Joshua Reynolds.
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Career
As a very young officer, he played a part in suppressing the 1745 Rebellion, an experience which is said to have given him a lifelong aversion to the Scottish nation. He was stationed at Fort Edward earned distinction as a captain in 1755 at the siege of Fort Beauséjour. He later took part in the Siege of Louisbourg as the commander of the 47th Regiment of Foot under James Wolfe. He also commanded the regiment in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. He was a close friend of General James Wolfe, and it was Hale whom the dying Wolfe ordered to carry his final dispatches back to England. Hale received a grant of Crown lands in Canada, where several of his sons later settled.
John Hale co-owned the privateer Musketo, 120 tons, eighty men, and the Hertford. These vessels sailed on their first cruise in November 1756. The regiment was renumbered the 17th Lancers in 1761. That year they were stationed in Scotland, where Hale's proverbial dislike of Scots people caused him to become engaged in a serious fracas with a toll-keeper, which might have had ended fatally. He was not disgraced, but was personally reprimanded for his conduct by King George III. The following year he acted as secretary to Earl of Albemarle during the Battle of Havana. After 1762 he gradually withdrew from regimental affairs, due it seems to quarrels with some of his fellow officers. In politics he was something of a reformer, and during the Yorkshire by-election of 1785, he made a celebrated speech which was considered by most of the electorate to be dangerously radical.
Hale was promoted to major-general in 1772, lieutenant-general in 1777 and general in 1793. He was appointed Governor of Londonderry in 1776, holding that office until his death in 1806.
Family
John Hale was born in London in 1728, the youngest son of the eminent judge Sir Bernard Hale, former Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer and his wife Anne Thoresby of Northampton; his father died a few months after he was born. General Bernard Hale was his elder brother. The Hale family came originally from King's Walden in Hertfordshire and were prominent in local politics for generations.
On 11 June 1763, the 35-year-old John Hale married a 19-year-old girl named Mary Chaloner (22 December 1743 – 27 October 1803) , a daughter of William Chaloner III of Guisborough and his wife Mary Finny. Mary Hale was almost always pregnant during their marriage, giving birth to twenty-two children, eleven sons and eleven daughters, over 25 years:
John Jr. (27 March 1764 – 24 December 1838)
Henry (30 October 1765 – 16 May 1818)
Bernard (20 January 1767 – 3 November 1801)
Mary (10 May 1768 – 20 November 1837)
Ann (10 May 1768 – 5 December 1853)
Harriet (16 June 1769 – 18 April 1834)
Thomas (5 July 1770 – 1798)
Emily (5 July 1770 – 10 March 1851)
Colonel William (7 July 1771 – 23 November 1856)
Richard (25 August 1772 – 8 September 1772), died in childhood
Reverend Richard (10 August 1773 – 27 September 1854)
George Charles (15 November 1775 – 23 November 1800)
Frances Isabel (4 November 1776 – 29 May 1796)