DACRES, Sir Thomas (1587-1668), of Cheshunt, Herts.

Dacres was the great-great-grandson of a Merchant Taylor of Staffordshire origin who served briefly as alderman of London in 1526-7. His great-grandfather, one of Henry VIII’s masters of Requests, was granted two manors in Cheshunt in 1539, followed by the college of Higham Ferrers four years later.Clutterbuck, ii. 100, 102; VCH Northants. iii. 278. Dacres’ father sold some property in Cheshunt for £3,840 to his new neighbour, James I, for the enlargement of Theobalds Park, soliciting payment on 9 Nov. 1611.CSP Dom. 1611-18, pp. 96, 121. He was pricked for sheriff three years later, but died in office, whereupon his son, this Member, served out the rest of his term. In 1618 Dacres undertook to treat with the commoners for their consent to the enclosure of Theobalds, and was ordered with Sir Henry Goodere* to take effective measures against the destruction of the palings.CSP Dom. 1611-18, p. 461; APC, 1617-19, p. 101.

Dacres counted the diplomat Dudley Carleton* among his friends, and occasionally asked him for favours.CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 30; 1629-31, p. 392. With the support of the 2nd earl of Salisbury (William Cecil*), Dacres stood for Hertfordshire at the 1626 general election, and, perhaps expecting a contest, took the precaution of also securing a seat at Higham Ferrers, unnecessarily as it turned out.HMC Hatfield, xxii. 209-10; Procs. 1626, ii. 12. He was named to a conference with the Lords on the international situation (7 Mar.), and to three legislative committees concerned with reducing the number of unskilful attorneys (23 Mar.), preventing the spread of contagious diseases (29 Apr.), and relieving the creditors of a member of his mother’s family, Richard Pigott (14 June).Procs. 1626, ii. 216, 348; iii. 97, 444. Dacres initially resisted the Forced Loan and was ordered ‘to be sent for’ to explain his defiance, which presumably boosted his local popularity, as he was re-elected in 1628.SP16/44/37. His appointments included bill committees concerning unlicensed alehouses (17 Apr.), saltpetre (25 Apr.), and the begging of forfeitures in advance of attainders (14 May). He evidently absented himself from the House without leave at least once, since his attendance was recorded at the Hertford quarter sessions on 21 April.CD 1628, ii. 507; iii. 70, 404; HALS, QSB 2A, f. 87. On 21 May he was added to the committee to search for records and precedents touching the liberty of the subject, and three days later he was named to a select committee to inquire into the proceedings of the recusancy commissions.CD 1628, iii. 511, 593. In the second session he was appointed to five committees. These included bills on forfeitures (23 Jan. 1629), to enlarge the liberty of attending sermons (23 Jan.), to clarify the 1606 Recusancy Act (28 Jan.), and to prevent corruption in university appointments and scholarships (23 February).CJ, i. 921b, 922a, 923b, 932b.

In 1630 Dacres was in trouble for refusing to provide food for the king’s hawks at Theobalds, a flashpoint of longstanding local resentment towards purveyors; and he also refused to contribute towards the cost of the king’s journey north in 1639.CSP Dom. 1629-31, p. 235; Historical Collections ed. J. Rushworth, iii. 914. He may have hoped to be re-elected in 1640, but was not finally returned until August 1641, when he came in at a by-election to the Long Parliament. On the outbreak of war he sided with the Parliament, and later provided evidence in the proceedings against Archbishop Laud, with whom he had fallen into conflict some years earlier concerning orders issued to the churchwardens of Cheshunt.HMC Lords, n.s. xi. 403-4. He remained a Member of Parliament, together with his eldest son, Thomas†, until Pride’s Purge.M.F. Keeler, Long Parl. 150-1. After sitting again in the Convention he retired from politics, and made his will on 14 Nov. 1668; his son Thomas died earlier in the year, and since Dacres’ three surviving sons were already ‘blessed with a comfortable livelihood and subsistence’ he left Cheshunt manor and the remainder of his estate, ‘my losses having been so great by reason of the fire [of London]’, to his godson.PROB 11/329, f. 241v. He was buried at Cheshunt on 26 Dec. following. No further member of the family entered Parliament.Clutterbuck, ii. 101.