LUCY, Fulk (1631-77), of Goyt Hall, Henbury, Prestbury, Cheshire.

Fulk Lucy was the youngest son of Sir Thomas Lucy*, and as he was aged only nine when his father died, received no special legacies in his will. He came of age in 1652, and thus played no part at all in the civil war, which divided his eldest brother Spencer Lucy and Richard Lucy*, the third son of Sir Thomas. As Spencer died in 1649, aged 33, he is unlikely to have been influential in helping to secure Fulk Lucy’s marriage to the heiress of a substantial Cheshire family, the Davenports.13M.E. Lucy, Biography of the Lucy Fam. (1862), 32. Given the somewhat secluded existence of Robert Lucy, the heir of Charlecote after Spencer’s death, it is likely that Richard Lucy was the most significant family influence on Fulk Lucy’s adolescence and early manhood: it was he who paid out £160 of his mother’s legacy to Fulk in 1650.14Warws. RO, L6/1684, f. 98. Richard Lucy was certainly the best-connected of the family, through central government office-holding in the capital, and it is thus probable that by these means Fulk Lucy was able to make a marriage alliance with the heiress of William Davenport of Henbury, who had stipulated in his will of 1640 that his daughter should marry her cousin.15PROB11/183, f. 446v. It is tempting to speculate that it was the unusual content of this will that became known to Richard Lucy in his work as a judge of probate, and thus opened a route by which his youngest brother could secure an estate. Be that as it may, it was certainly the case that by 1657, when his name first appears in Cheshire assessment commissions, Fulk Lucy had married Isabel Davenport and domiciled at Coyt Hall, Henbury.16Warws. RO, L6/1684, f. 65.

The Davenports of Prestbury, although a cadet branch of the Bramhall family, were nevertheless very well entrenched at Henbury. Eleven generations of them could be traced there, so Fulk Lucy was able to sever links with Charlecote and Warwickshire knowing that his new estate, through his wife, was secure. As he had no electoral interest of his own in Warwickshire, his seat in the 1659 Parliament must have owed everything to his brother Richard. There is, however, no record of the circumstances of Fulk’s election in the archives of the borough, and having arrived at Westminster he seems not to have made any impression at all on either the official record of the assembly, or the attentive diarist, Thomas Burton*. With an unblemished political record, Fulk Lucy found it even less difficult than his brother to adapt to the restored monarchy, and he was in the commission of the peace for his adopted county on the eve of the king’s return. It was then only a matter of time, during which he built up his standing through local office, not neglecting the humble one of churchwarden, before he could launch a second, more significant career as Member for Cheshire. Lucy died in London on 26 August 1677, and was buried at St Margaret, Westminster five days later, on the 31st.17St Margaret, Westminster par. reg.