Patrick Henry Van Hale was an escaped Mesan genetic slave and a Manticoran citizen. He was bred as a pleasure slave by Manpower Incorporated, but the ship he travelled on was intercepted by a Royal Manticoran Navy warship. Van Hale became a Manticoran citizen and went to live on the planet Sphinx, where he met Lydia, a niece of the captain of the ship that had freed him. They both worked for the Sphinx Forestry Service, got married, and had at least six children, the eldest of which was Judson Van Hale.