Simon de Hale

Simon de Hale (died after 1240) was a trusted and long-serving Crown official in the reign of King Henry III of England.

[1] He was probably born in Hale, Northhamptonshire (Hale, now long deserted, adjoined Apethorpe), and inherited land at Earls Barton in the same county from his cousin John de Buketon in about 1218: the King as a mark of favour gave him twelve royal oaks to build a house at Barton.

[2] He clearly discharged his duties efficiently, although it seems that in 1228 he still owed the King repayment of certain debts which he had collected in his official capacity.

[3] From 1224 Simon was regularly chosen, along with Sir Richard Duket, who also later served as a judge in Ireland, to act as an itinerant justice, with a salary of twenty marks a year.

The eminent jurist Henry de Bracton thought poorly of Richard Duket's judicial ability, calling him an "unwise and unlearned" man who had become a judge without being properly versed in the law, but is not known to have made any criticism of Hale.