DACRE, Giles

Nothing has been discovered about Dacre’s family background. He figured on the lists of burgesses of Wilton compiled in the late 1460s, and acquired property and land at Dinton in Wiltshire late in his career, but whether or not he was a Wiltshire man by birth cannot be verified.3 Wilton gen. entry bk. ff. 581-9, 591-8; Wilts. Feet of Fines (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xli), no. 672. His given status as an ‘esquire’ reflected more on his position as a retainer of members of the nobility rather than his personal standing as a landowner among the county gentry. In his youth, in the winter of 1441-2, he served at Falaise as one of the mounted men-at-arms under the command of John Beaufort, earl of Somerset,4 Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, fr. 25775/1506. but on his return to England he became attached to Beaufort’s kinsman John Stourton II*, Lord Stourton, thereafter staying in the service of that lord and his family for the rest of his life. Dacre received fees and robes as an esquire in Henry VI’s household in the years 1449-51, when Stourton was its treasurer,5 E101/410/3; 410/6, f. 41. and it is entirely feasible that this lord’s influence lay behind his elections to the Parliaments of 1453, 1455 and 1460 as a representative first for the Dorset borough of Shaftesbury and then for the Wiltshire borough of Wilton. External influence in the burgesses’ choice may be suggested by certain irregularities at Wilton in 1455, for Dacre was not chosen at the election conducted by the mayor on 16 June; only when the indenture was drawn up at the shire court four days later did his name appear.6 Wilton gen. entry bk. f. 1; C219/16/3.

Dacre’s patron John, Lord Stourton, was sitting in the Upper House in his first three Parliaments, while Stourton’s son and heir (Sir) William* joined him in the Commons in that of 1460, as a knight of the shire for Dorset. When Lord Stourton presided over sessions of oyer and terminer at Salisbury in May 1462 our MP was in attendance to act as a juror.7 KB9/135/51, 56. At that time Stourton was about to ride north to join Edward IV’s army, and in preparation for his departure had made a will on the previous 20 Mar. In it he named Dacre among his executors, who were headed by Sir William Stourton and included William Twyneho* and his wife Ankaret. All four executors were left personal bequests of £10 each.8 E13/154, m. 11. It is doubtful that Dacre himself joined the army, even though he and Roger Huls† made a loan of £20 to the Crown on 28 Apr. in support of the military enterprise,9 E403/825, m. 2. for he was appointed controller of customs and subsidies at Poole shortly afterwards. Lord Stourton died, perhaps at Durham, in November, and his executor Dacre was called to serve as a juror at the inquisition post mortem conducted at Salisbury on 27 Jan. 1463.10 C140/8/18. On the previous day the mayor and burgesses of Wilton had elected him to the Parliament which had originally been summoned to meet in York on 5 Feb., but was now intended to assemble at Leicester in March. However, when the venue was changed for a third time, and fresh writs were sent out for Parliament to meet at Westminster in April, Dacre was no longer the burgesses’ choice at the election held on 13 Apr.11 Wilton gen. entry bk. f. 6. Whether he had withdrawn his candidacy or was defeated at the hustings is not known.

Yet Dacre’s parliamentary career was not over: he secured election to the Parliament of 1467 as a representative for the Dorset borough of Wareham. While the Parliament was in progress at Westminster, he and Sir William Stourton, now sitting in the Lords as Baron Stourton, joined their fellow executors of the late Lord John in pursuing his debtors in the court of the Exchequer.12 E13/154, Easter rot. 11, Mich. rot. 26. Dacre long retained contact with William Twyneho, who together with his son William† acted on his behalf in 1469 in transactions regarding property at Dinton.13 Wilts. Feet of Fines, no. 672. Thereafter our MP was often to be seen at Salisbury, where he served as a juror in January 1469 at the important trials for treason of (Sir) Thomas Hungerford* and Sir Henry Courtenay, at the later inquisition post mortem of (Sir) Maurice Berkeley*, and occasionally at sessions of the peace.14 KB9/136/9; 320/13; C140/50/41. His final election to the Commons of 1472, for the nearby, scarcely-habited borough of Old Sarum, may like his earlier elections have been influenced by his continuing attachment to the Stourtons. Lord William named him as a feoffee of his estates in January 1478, shortly before he died. Together with his co-feoffees in the following July Dacre obtained a royal pardon for transactions concerning the Stourton manor of Great Easton in Essex which had been undertaken without licence from the Crown,15 C140/63/55; CPR, 1476-85, p. 141. and two months later they settled manors in Gloucestershire and Somerset on the heir, John, Lord Stourton (d.1485) and his wife Katherine.16 CIPM Hen. VII, i. 4, 334, 1123, 1126; CFR, xxii. nos. 518, 519. Not recorded thereafter, Dacre died before 1482, when his name on the list of the burgesses of Wilton was annotated ‘mort’.17 Wilton gen. entry bk. f. 44.