Thomas Hales (c. 1515 – at least 1585)

Thomas Hales (c. 1515–1585 or later), of Thanington, near Canterbury, Kent, was an English politician.

Thomas Hales was the second son of John Hales (1469/70–1540?), Baron of the Exchequer, of The Dungeon or Dane John, Canterbury, Kent, by Isabel or Elizabeth Harry. He had three brothers and a sister:

• Sir James Hales of The Dungeon, Canterbury.
• Edward Hales of Tenterden, who married Margaret Honeywood, the daughter of John Honeywood.
• William Hales of Nackington, Kent.
• Mildred Hales, who married John Honeywood of Seen.

• Dane John Manor at machadoink.com, accessed 6 January 2013.
• Hales 1882, p. 62; Baker 2004.
• Betham 1801, pp. 130–6; Hales 1882, pp. 62–3; Burke 1838, pp. 233, 235.
• R. Cox Hales does not mention this brother.

Hales is thought to have been about 30 years of age when he was sworn to the liberties of Canterbury on 19 September 1547. He appears to have been in the service of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, and is thought to have secured a seat in Parliament for Canterbury in 1547 through Cranmer's patronage. After Cranmer's death Hales was not re-elected to Parliament, and was only active in local matters in Kent. He was appointed a justice on the Kent bench in 1558, and remained in that post until his death, which took place c. 1585, at which time a document contains his named, crossed out, with 'mortuus' written beside it.

Hales was the ancestor of the Baronets Hales of Thanington and Bekesbourne.

Hales married firstly, Joan Holway, the daughter of Clement Holwey of Hythe, Kent, by whom he had one son and three daughters, and secondly, by 1552, Alice Evyas, the daughter of Humphrey Evyas, by whom he had a son and a daughter.