LENNARD, Henry (1570-1616)

The Dacre barony dated back to the early fourteenth century, but on the death in 1458 of Thomas Dacre^†, 6th Lord Dacre, the succession was disputed between Sir Richard Fiennes^† (nephew of James Fiennes^†, 1st Lord Saye and Sele), who had married the sole surviving daughter of the 6th Lord’s deceased eldest son, and Randolf Dacre^†, the eldest surviving son of the 6th Lord. Fiennes won the right to the existing peerage but a new one was created for Randolf, thereby resulting in two Dacre baronies. Although no-one was summoned to Parliament in respect of the new peerage after 1566, the title continued to be claimed by members of the Dacre family during the early seventeenth century. Consequently, the holder of the old barony continued to be often referred to as Lord Dacre of the South or Lord Dacre of Hurstmonceux, after the Sussex seat of the Fiennes family, Hurstmonceux Castle.14 CP, iv. 1-8, 18-26; APC, 1615-16, p. 505; LJ, iii. 8a.

Gregory Fiennes^†, 10th Lord Dacre, died in 1594 leaving no surviving children, whereupon his sister Margaret claimed the barony. Margaret was married to Sampson Lennard, whose family were living by the 1550s at Chevening, near Sevenoaks in Kent. Sampson pursued his wife’s claim in the hope that, like Sir Richard Fiennes before him, he would be summoned to the Lords in the right of his wife. The report in 1596 that Sampson’s son Henry had claimed the barony himself is almost certainly a confused reference to the hearing given to Sampson at this date. However, though the legitimacy of Margaret’s claim was endorsed by the commissioners for the office of the earl marshal in December 1604, no writ was issued to Sampson. Not until April 1612 did the king formally accept that Sampson’s claim to the title was valid, but by then Sampson’s wife Margaret had died. Consequently it was Margaret’s eldest son Henry who was now acknowledged as the rightful Lord Dacre.15 J. H. Round, Peerage and Ped. i. 89-90; Barrett-Lennard, 4; Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, i. 56; CSP Dom. 1598-1601, p. 125; A. Collins, Procs., Precedents, and Arguments, on Claims and Controversies Concerning Baronies by Writ (1734), 14-31.

In December 1612 the new Lord Dacre took part in the funeral of Prince Henry as a baron of England.16 J. Nichols, Progs. of Jas. I, ii. 497. It is possible that he had shared the hopes of his kinsman, the herald Sampson Lennard, that the prince would lead a Protestant crusade against the papacy. Dacre certainly moved in circles which supported the Protestant cause in Europe: he was friends with Robert Sidney^*, Viscount Lisle (subsequently 1st earl of Leicester), and also William Herbert^*, 3rd earl of Pembroke, naming one of his daughter’s Pembroke in honour of the latter. When the herald Sampson published his translation of a history of the Waldenses, which appeared in 1624 under the alternative titles The Bloudy Rage of That Great Antechrist of Rome and his Superstitious Adherents and Luthers Fore-runners, he dedicated the work to Pembroke, evoking the memory of ‘the love you once bore to my honourable friend and dear cousin Henry, Lord Dacre’.17 Oxford DNB, xxxiii. 348; Letters and Memorials of State ed. A. Collins, ii. 231; HMC De L’Isle and Dudley, v. 408; S. Lennard, The bloudy rage of that Great Antechrist of Rome and his Superstitious Adherents (1624), unpag., dedicatory epistle. Moreover, like his parents, Dacre was a patron of Edward Topsell, a local minister who has been described as being ‘of distinctly puritan stripe’.18 E. Topsell, Reward of Religion (1596), unpag., dedicatory epistle; N. Tyacke, ‘Puritan Politicians and King James VI and I, 1587-1604’, Pols., Religion and Popularity in Early Stuart Britain ed. T. Cogswell, R. Cust and P. Lake, 24.

Dacre took his place in the Lords in the Addled Parliament of 1614, when his father sat in the Commons as a knight of the shire for Sussex. He is recorded as having attended 22 of the 29 sittings, and was named to three of the House’s 11 committees. One of his appointments concerned a bill to prevent lawsuits over bequests of land, while another sought to promote observance of the Sabbath. Dacre and the other members of the latter committee were subsequently instructed to confer with the Commons about the measure. On 4 June Dacre was excused absence ‘by reason of sickness’, but he returned to the chamber for the next sitting two days later. He made no recorded speeches.19 LJ, ii. 691a, 694a, 708b, 713b, 714b. In the aftermath of the Parliament he contributed £100 to the benevolence levied by James I to compensate for the failure of the Commons to vote taxation.20 E351/1950.

Dacre’s father Sampson died the following year, leaving Dacre with ‘many debts’ and ‘not free from suits and troubles’, as he told one of his friends.21 Add. 72282, f. 3. On paper at least he was wealthy, for on the death of Anne, widow of the 10th Lord Dacre in 1595, Sampson had acquired Hurstmonceux Castle and 18 manors in six counties, which properties produced an estimated total rental income of nearly £3,000 in 1607. However, Hurstmonceux Castle had needed considerable repairs, and Sampson’s finances had been further strained by his pursuit of his claim to the Dacre barony, as well as by legal disputes with Anne’s executors. Moreover, Sampson was extravagant in his hospitality and, consequently, was forced to sell lands during the last years of his life.22 VCH Suss. ix. 133-4, 266; Barrett-Lennard, 104, 222-30; HMC Hatfield, v. 206; Hasted, Kent, iii. 91. Dacre began to make further sales himself to recover the family’s finances, but these were cut short by his own death at Chevening on 8 Aug. 1616 of ‘a new ague or sickness’. He was buried the following day in the local parish church. Letters of administration were granted on 21 Nov. to his son Richard, who succeeded him as the 13th Lord Dacre.23 Essex RO, D/DL/C45/57; Hasted, ii. 92; C142/359/140; Chamberlain Letters, ii. 20; Chevening par. reg. (Soc. Gen. transcript); PROB 6/9, f. 92v.