Reverend John Hale was born June 3rd in 1636, in Charleston, Massachusetts. The intelligent Reverend John Hale grew older and attended the prestigious Harvard College in Boston, Massachusetts. He would graduate for Harvard College in 1657, ready to face the world with his superior intellect and faith in God. Ten years after his Graduation from Harvard College John Hale would be ordained as the first minister of the first parish in Beverly, Massachusetts. Reverend John Hale would minister for a total of thirty-two years at the First Parish church in Beverly Massachusetts.

John Hale would live life with his ministry, his wife Rebecca Byles, his second wife Sarah Noyes, his third wife Elizabeth Somerby, and his three children Rebeckah Hale, Dr. Robert Hale, and James Hale. In Reverend John Hale's life he would accomplish much and realized the bad in which he saw good.

Reverend John Hale is most known and remembered for his large involvement with the Salem Witch trials that took place around 1692. The reverend John Hale had a change of heart about the Salem Witch trials after his own wife Sarah Hale, his second wife, was accused of performing witchcraft. Although his wife Sarah Hale was never convicted on the account that the people of Beverly Massachusetts knew Sarah Hale as a pure and honest woman that could never do something as horrible and evil as witchcraft, John Hale concluded the Salem Witch trials short after these accusations.

John Hale's Wife would die in 1697. After his beloved wife's death he would write a book titled A Modern Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft. This book condemns those who took leading roles in the Salem Witchcraft trials. This book by John Hale can be found at the Beverly Historical Society.

Reverend John Hale's life would end on May 15th in the year 1700. He was buried in the graveyard behind the First Parish Church were he ministered for thirty-two years of his life.