LENNARD, Richard (1596-1630)

Dacre was within eight months of attaining his majority when his father died in August 1616. He consequently became a ward of the crown. His wardship, costing £1,800, was nominally bought by his great uncle, Sir Samuel Lennard^‡, but in reality Dacre purchased it himself. He inherited not only estates situated principally in Kent and Sussex, including a house at Chevening and Hurstmonceux Castle, but also substantial debts. In March 1617 he complained to William Trumbull^‡ that he was in ‘a labyrinth of troubles’ from which he could see no way out and that he was having difficulties with his day to day expenses, never mind the repaying of creditors who ‘do daily importune me’.12 WARD 9/162, f. 230v; HMC Downshire, vi. 41, 74, 149-50; Add. 72282, f. 15.

Dacre was obliged to continue land sales initiated by his father. However, in July 1617 he married one of the beautiful daughters of Sir Arthur Throckmorton^‡, who brought with her a portion of £4,000. Although the final instalment of £1,000 was not payable until after the birth of their first child, which finally took place in 1619, Dacre’s finances immediately began to improve. Indeed, in 1618 he was able to reclaim a manor his father had conveyed to trustees for disposal. He could also afford to rebuild Chevening in accordance with designs so advanced that they have been attributed to Inigo Jones^‡. However, the favourable alteration in his fortunes should not be exaggerated. In December 1624, following the death of his wife, Dacre was described by the newsletter-writer John Chamberlain as having ‘no great fortune nor preferment’ with which to lure a prospective second spouse.13 Kent Hist. and Lib. Cent. U1590/T23/15; Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton ed. L. Pearsall Smith, ii. 12; Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, ii. 249, 593; Barrett-Lennard, 253-4.

Dacre was little involved at court, although at one stage he had been thought a prospective bridegroom for the daughter of the disgraced Lord Chief Justice, Sir Edward Coke^‡, who subsequently married John Villiers^*, Viscount Purbeck.14 Chamberlain Letters, ii. 56. However, he participated in the funeral of Anne of Denmark in 1619, and the following year reportedly hunted with the king at Halstead, not far from Chevening.15 Harl. 5176, f. 235v; ‘Camden Diary’ (1691), 59. Later that year he refused to contribute to the benevolence levied by James for the defence of the Palatinate, but he was not indifferent to the Protestant cause, having apparently already contributed to the collection raised by Frederick V’s ambassador, Baron Dohna.16 SP14/118/60; APC, 1619-21, p. 335.

Dacre took his seat in the Lords in the 1621 Parliament, although there is no record of his formal introduction. Initially he attended regularly, as he was recorded as present at 32 of the 44 sittings before the Easter recess. He may actually have attended even more often, as he received committee appointments when he was not marked as present and on the day he took the oath of allegiance (5 Feb.) he was entirely omitted from the attendance record. Nevertheless, on some occasions he was certainly absent. On 17 Feb. he was excused ‘for want of health’ having already been absent the previous day. He returned to the chamber on 20 February.17 LJ, iii. 10b, 17a, 21a, 34a.

Dacre was appointed to nine of the 74 committees named by the upper House before the long recess, seven were before Easter. His legislative appointments included measures concerning the export of artillery, arming the militia and enforcing the Sabbath. He was also among those instructed to confer with the Commons about the proposed petition against recusants and apprehending the disgraced monopolist (Sir) Giles Mompesson^‡. He made one recorded speech, on 8 Feb., when he excused the absence of Theophilus Clinton^*, 4th earl of Lincoln, to whom he was distantly related.18 Ibid. 12b, 13a, 17a, 18b, 26b, 34a, 39b. In February Dacre subscribed to a petition drawn up by members of the nobility against the practice of giving precedence on commissions to Englishmen who held Irish or Scottish viscountcies over English barons like himself.19 A. Wilson, Hist. of Great Britain (1653), 187.

Dacre only attended the Lords nine times between Easter and the summer recess. The last occasion on which he was recorded as being present was 30 Apr., when he was appointed to consider the Welsh cloth bill. On 5 May the assistant clerk entered a reminder in his minutes to issue ‘a proxy for the Lord Dacres’: this was almost certainly a reference to the proxy Dacre gave to Henry De Vere, 18th earl of Oxford.20 LJ, iii. 101b; PA, HO/PO/JO/5/1/1, p. 101. Dacre returned to the House when the session resumed in November, attended 15 times before the Parliament was dissolved but was named to only one of the 11 committees appointed by the House, that being to consider the bill to make the estates of attainted persons liable for their debts. He left no further traces on the parliamentary records.21 LJ, ii. 182b.

In February 1622 Dacre was appointed to the bench in both Kent and Sussex. However, his first wife died the same month, probably in child-birth, and in March he received a licence to travel abroad for three years, whereupon he was promptly removed from the bench in both counties.22 SO3/7, unfol. (11 Mar. 1622); Barrett-Lennard, 255. According to his neighbour, Richard Sackville^*, 3rd earl of Dorset, Dacre’s travels were ‘like a summer’s progress, never above two or three nights in a place’; they included Italy, and possibly also the Ottoman empire. Although his return was expected ‘daily’ in October 1623, Dacre was still abroad when the 1624 Parliament began, and consequently he was excused, at the call of the House on 23 February.23 SP97/9, f. 200; 97/10, f. 83; LJ, iii. 214b. (He is recorded in the Journal as being present on 19 Feb. and 9 Apr., but not in the clerk’s manuscript minutes). He did, however, return in time for the end of the session, as the minutes record his presence on the morning of 28 May, when he was appointed to the committee for the bill on erecting inns. In addition, he attended both morning and afternoon on 29 May, the last day of the session.24 Add. 40088, f. 138. The committee list in the Journal omits the barons.

In late November Dacre concluded a series of indentures to settle his estate; he also drew up his will.25 Essex RO, D/DL/F65, pp. 1-9; PROB 11/158, f. 49r-v. His intention was evidently to prepare the way for his second marriage, as the following month it was reported that he was about to wed the daughter of Dudley North^*, 3rd Lord North, to whom he had earlier lent £100.26 Essex RO, D/DL/C43/1/22. The wedding took place early in the New Year, and the following May Dacre and his new wife attended the king on the latter’s journey to Dover to meet Henrietta Maria.27 Finetti Philoxenis (1656), 152. A month later, on 18 June, Dacre attended the start of the first Caroline Parliament. However, this was probably his sole appearance in the chamber. His absence was excused on the 23rd ‘for want of health’, and although the Journal records his presence on 4 July this information is omitted in the manuscript minutes.28 Procs. 1625, p. 45.

Dacre was absent from the coronation of Charles I on 2 Feb. 1626.29 Manner of the Coronation of King Charles the First ed. C. Wordsworth (Henry Bradshaw Soc. ii), p. l. Shortly after, the second Caroline Parliament met. Although Dacre attended the upper House more regularly than in previous parliaments, he was recorded as present for only 25 out of 81 sittings. However, he was excused only once, on 3 Mar. (returning to the chamber on the 16th of that month). Dacre missed the last sitting before Easter on 5 Apr. and failed to return after the recess, having received, on 12 Apr. (the day before the session reconvened), a dispensation from the crown to be absent. He appointed his father-in-law, Lord North, as his proxy.30 Procs. 1626, i. 99; iv. 11; SO3/8, unfol. (12 Apr. 1626).

Dacre was named to five of the 26 committees appointed by the Lords in February and March, but none subsequently. On 15 Feb. he was named to both the committee and subcommittee for privileges in place of the absentee Henry West^*, 4th Lord De La Warr. His other appointments included a private bill which dealt with the estate of another Kentish peer, Henry Neville^*, 9th (or 2nd) Lord Abergavenny, and a measure to regulate apparel.31 Procs. 1626, i. 48, 50, 79, 84, 231.

Dacre’s absence from the latter part of the 1626 Parliament may have been associated with a patent issued on 8 Apr. giving him and two associates a monopoly for 14 years on an allegedly new way of producing steel. This invention had been developed by one Thomas Letsome with Dacre’s funding, probably at Hurstmonceux Castle, Dacre’s Sussex residence. There was apparently a steel forge there in the 1640s, and Dacre’s son was baptized at Hurstmonceux on 7 May, indicating that the family, and probably Dacre himself, were then resident there.32 CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 563; Rymer, viii. pt. 2, p. 164; Barrett-Lennard, 256; Essex RO, D/DL/Z24, f. 175. In the latter part of the Parliament a committee of the House of Commons sent for Dacre’s patent, presumably suspecting it to be a grievance. However, no report was made to the lower House before the dissolution, and on 23 June, following Dacre’s complaint, the clerk of the Commons was ordered to return it.33 APC, 1626, p. 20. Dacre’s monopoly probably did not last very long, as by 1629 Letsome was in Ireland working for Richard Boyle, 1st earl of Cork.34 W. Rees, Industry before the Industrial Revolution, 221. It may have turned out to be unprofitable, for in 1636 the Exchequer certified that Dacre and his associates had accumulated a debt of £126 13s. 4d. on their annual rent of £13 6s. 8d.35 E389/202.

Dacre evidently did not believe that the crown’s power to grant economic privileges also enabled it to raise money without parliamentary consent. He refused to pay the Forced Loan and, as a result, was purged from the bench in Kent and Sussex (to which he had been readmitted in 1625) in June 1627. However, unlike many non-noble refusers, he was not imprisoned.

Dacre attended the upper House more regularly in the third Caroline Parliament, being present at 57 of the 94 sittings of the 1628 session. He was, nevertheless, absent between 31 Mar. and 7 Apr. inclusive, and was excused on 28 Apr., having stayed away almost without interruption since the 24th. He was again absent between 6 and 10 May inclusive and from 28 May, resuming his seat only on 9 June. He then attended the House until 13 June, but was subsequently present only on the 16th and 18th, just before the session ended. Despite his improved attendance, he was named to only ten of the House’s 52 committees that session. These included the committee and subcommittee for privileges (to both of which he was reappointed) and a committee on the bill to make the Medway navigable, which may have interested him as a Kentish landowner.36 Lords Procs. 1628, pp. 73, 79, 264.

Dacre only attended 12 of the 23 sittings of the 1629 session, during which time he was named to four of the House’s 19 committees. He took his seat when Parliament resumed on 20 Jan., when he was reappointed to the committee and subcommittee for privileges, but did not attend again until 29 January. He was again instructed to consider a bill concerning apparel on 3 Feb. and, 20 days later, was among those named to consider a proposal, first put forward by George Villiers^*, 1st duke of Buckingham, to establish an academy to educate the children of the nobility. He left no further trace on the parliamentary records.37 LJ, iv. 6a-b, 29a, 39b. The following December Dacre was restored to the bench in Kent but not in Sussex. He was nevertheless staying at Hurstmonceux Castle, in the latter county, in the summer of 1630 when he suddenly fell ill. He died on 20 Aug., having made a nuncupative codicil to his will the previous day, and was buried at Hurstmonceux on the 21st.38 PROB 11/158, f. 49v; Essex RO, D/DL/Z24, f. 175. His eldest son Francis succeeded as 14th Lord Dacre but, being only 11 years old, his wardship had to be purchased for £2,666 13s. 4d.39 WARD 9/163, f. 21v.