Hales family lose Chart Manor

Humphrey Hales (d.1571) married Joan Atwater and was the father of James (died at sea in 1589), Humphrey, Margaret, Mary, Elizabeth, Abigail, Samuel, John, Robert and Susan. These ten children were named in Hunphrey's Will, as well as an eleventh child that his wife was pregnant with at the time of his death;

"Item, I will that my executrix shall pay to the child my wife now goeth withal two 

hundred pounds if it shall fortune to be a daughter, and shall live to accomplish the said 

age of 24 years"

Abigail married in 1572 to Anthony Sampson.
Mary married Sir Isaac Sidly.
Margaret married Mr Barnard.
Humphrey married Elizabeth.
James Hales married Alice Kempe (d.1592) and had a son; Cheyney Hales (d.1594). After James' death, Alice married Sir Richard Lee (d.1608).
Monument in Canterbury Cathedral to Alice, her two husbands and her son Cheyney;

Hales family monument, Canterbury Cathedral

Detail of Alice, wife of James Hales

Richard Lee claimed the lease of Chart Manor, through his late wife's first husband James. The manor had belonged to James Hales and according to his Will, it was to be returned to his surviving Hales relatives, and therefore it should be taken from Richard Lee and be returned to the Hales family.

"Item, I will that the profits of my lease of Chart, being first redeemed from young Mr 

Boyes to whom I have pawned the same, shall both pay my brother, Humphrey Hales, 

twenty-six pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence by the year and my brother John Hales 

twenty pound by the year, and to my mother three pounds a year for Naylers farm sold by 

me, and also that upon ye yearly profits of the same so much of my father’s will as yet is 

not accomplished shall be fulfilled; 

Item, after those annuities expired which depend both upon their own lives and the life of 

my mother, then I will the same lease of Chart to my son Cheyney at his age of one and 

twenty years, and that the profits thereof until the same his age of one and twenty years 

shall be taken by my executrix to the uses before limited"

Margaret, Mary, Elizabeth and Abigail Hales sent a petition to Queen Elizabeth after the death of Alice in order to have the matter resolved.
A second petition on this matter was brought in 1592 by Joan Clarke - the widow of Humphrey Hales who had remarried - and was opposed by Thomas Kempe, the step-brother of the late Alice.
The case was referred to the Dean of Canterbury, as it was this town in which the Hales family and Richard Lee lived. It appears that Richard Lee won the case, however shortly after he chose not to renew his lease of the building as he could not afford the new higher rent.

Canterbury Cathedral and its medieval graffiti

   

My sister came to stay with me this week and I decided to show her the icon that makes Canterbury so famous; its cathedral. As a local student the entry was free for me, as usually it costs £9.50 for an adult.

The cathedral was founded in 597 by an abbot called Augustine who was sent as a missionary by Pope Gregory the Great. Due to its long history it has been the site of many important events, such as the murder of Thomas Becket in December 1170.

Edward The Black Prince 

                                                                                              Henry IV and his wife Joan of Navarre

Despite the more famous and prominent aspects of the cathedral, it was the smaller, forgotten and bypassed details of its long history that got my attention. While walking around the alcoves of the cathedral, I became interested in the walls themselves; just like children still like to graffiti on any surface available, there were initials with dates and symbols carved into the stone to leave their identity and make their for future posterity. There is something beautiful about seeing a name that someone had taken the time to carve into the stone that dates back hundreds of years in the hope that it lasts and that their name is remembered.