LACY, William (c.1648-95), of Hartrow, Stogumber, Som.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1679

Family and Education

b. c.1648, 1st s. of William Lacy of Hartrow by Sarah, da. and coh. of Nicholas Hole of Upton Pyne, Devon. educ. Queen’s, Oxf. matric. 25 May 1666, aged 18; M. Temple 1666. m. Susanna, da. of Robert Hunt of Compton Pauncefoot, Som., 1da. suc. fa. 1690.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Som. 1677-80, capt. of militia by 1679-?87, sheriff 1691-2, j.p. 1693-d.2

Biography

Lacy came from a minor gentry family which had resided at Hartrow since the first decade of Elizabeth’s reign. His father was nominated to the assessment commission of 1657 and was serving as sheriff at the Restoration; he was proposed for the order of the Royal Oak, with an estimated income of £1,000 p.a. Lacy was the only member of his family to enter Parliament, and doubtless owed his seat to his brother-in-law and colleague, John Hunt. Before the first Exclusion Parliament met, Shaftesbury marked him ‘doubtful’, but he voted for the bill. He served on no committees and made no speeches, but his vote lost him Hunt’s support, and he never sat again. Lacy’s father described himself in 1687 as ‘very decrepit’, and it was probably Lacy who held a captain’s commission in the militia under Ralph Stawell, and signed the letter describing how the regiment had gone over en masse to Monmouth in 1685. His father agreed to assist and contribute to the election of such Members as should be for taking off the Penal Laws and Tests, and was retained on the lieutenancy and the commission of the peace, while Lacy himself was proposed as court candidate for Milborne Port in 1688. Nevertheless he does not seem to have hesitated to accept local office on his father’s death after the Revolution. He died in 1695, leaving most of his estate to his daughter.

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Irene Cassidy

Notes

  • 1. H. C. Maxwell Lyte, Some Som. Manors, 174-7.
  • 2. CSP Dom. 1679-80, p. 62; HMC Sackville, i. 1-2.