1. Thomas LACY(1)
was born about 1650. Thomas Lacy I of New Kent and Hanover Counties,
Virginia
Thomas Lacy, immigrant, reputed to have come from Wales to Virginia between 1680
and 1685 and to have settled in that part of New Kent County which years later
was cut off into Hanover County, an area which was then on the very frontier
of the
early and somewhat scattered settlements.
It is this Thomas who is credited with being the progenitor of a long and prolific
line of Lacys who resided in various parts of Virginia, principally the counties
of Hanover, Louisa, Goochland, Albemarle, Powhatan, Chesterfield, Henrico,
Buckingham, Bedford, and Halifax, spreading to the Carolinas and Georgia. With
Virginia as the focal point, descendants spread fanlike to all points south,
west and northwest. Today descendants of this line live in almost every state
in the Union.
This branch is by far the largest of any of the pioneer Lacy families of Virginia.
Due to the loss of the old New Kent and Hanover County records--lost in the tragic
burning of Richmond toward the very end of the Civil War where, ironically, they
had been taken for safe-keeping and also the loss of the Registers of the parishes
in which the Lacys lived, very little is known of Thomas and his family. His
year of birth is estimated to be about 1660 and his place of residence before
coming to America to have been Wales, according to an old document in the family
and
according to tradition. Thomas Lacy (1800-1879) of St. Clair Co., Ill., a son
of Lionel Lacey and a grandson of Elliott Lacy, a descendant, told his niece
in 1863 -- Miss Pamelia Lacey -- that the Lacys came from Wales. What Thomas
knew came to
him from his father and his account of the family, as given to Miss Pamelia,
has been corroborated in every instance where official records have been found.
By tradition, subject Thomas was of French Huguenot stock, perhaps a son of a
Huguenot who had fled France and settled in Wales. This tradition of French Huguenot
ancestry exists among widely separated branches of the family, some of whom have
been out of contact with one another for generations. It has come down through
the author's own line, the sire who left Virginia shortly after the ending of
the Revolutionary War. Rev. William Henry Foote in his "Sketches of Virginia",
published
in 1850, in writing of Rev. Drury Lacey (1758-1815), states:
"His father, William Lacy, a grandson of the immigrant. . . of English descent
and Norman-French extraction. His mother, Elizabeth Rice, was a cousin to Benjamin
Rice of Bedford, the father of Rev. Doctors John H. and Benjamin H. Rice."
Prof. Austin W. Smith (b. 1885), then of Cookesville, Tenn., author of the "George-Lacey
Genealogy" and himself a Lacy descendant, in his letter of Dec. 8, 1936
wrote:
"Dear Mr. Lacey:
I was delighted to hear from you. I have been engaged in the task for some time
in collecting material for a book of the Lacy family. My great-grandmother, Susannah
Lacy, daughter of Matthew Lacy of Goochland County, Va., son of Stephen Lacy
of
same county, married Robert George and came to Warren County, Tenn., after spending
a number of years in KY. She lived to be 92 years of age. My father who died
in 1929 at the age of 90 knew her well as did my mother who is still living at
the age
of 90. She was always proud of the fact that she was French, of the Huguenots
who came to America. Her name was Susannah de Lacy, French, you will readily
see, though she accepted the English 'Lacy' . Her grandson, who is now living
in Texas, knew
her as she lived with them the last few years of her life. His name is Law Lacy,
or de Lacy. He says that there is no question that they were French. She certainly
ought to have known as it was her great-grandfather who was the French Huguenot.
There are Lacys in Virginia who are not French Huguenots.
I am sure that this bunch of Huguenots were in England for a time but that they
were French in origin."
Persecution of the Huguenots in France preceded the edict of Jan. 29, 1535, ordering
the "extermination of the heretics", but reached tragic and awful proportions
from that date. A great many French Protestants fled the country to save their
lives, rather than give up their freedom of conscience and their religious beliefs.
Many of these settled in England and Holland. This migration continued until
the middle of the 18th century. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685
merely
accentuated this mass migration, and France lost, to her detriment, over 400,000
of her best artisans and citizens. The family of Thomas de Lacy was already in
England by 1680. Many of them settled in Wales and Ireland where they became
very
prominent.
We find in English Heraldry a seeming variation of the Lacy-Normandy coat-of-arms,
which may signify a family of Norman extraction. In "Lacy of Walsham in
the Willows, Counties of Norfolk and Suffolk" their coat-of-arms is:
"Quarterly, argent and sable, on a bend gules three martlets or, over all
a label of five points the last, each charged with an ermine spot. Crest: Out
of a ducal coronet gules a demi-eagle wings espanded or, in the beak an arrow
of the first
headed and feathered argent."
(Burke's "General Armory")
The Norman coat-of-arms is: "Quarterly or and gu, a bend sa. over all a
label three points ar."
("A complete Book of Heraldry", London MDCCCXX. Jos. Edminston, Esq.
F.S. A.)
Note the similarity of these coats of armor. However, it is unlikely that the
Lacys of Suffolk and Norfolk are the parent family of subject Thomas Lacy, because
these two counties are located on the far side east coast of England and thus
some
distance from Wales. However, they may have been an off-shoot of the same family.
The names Thomas and Stephen are found in both.
From "Cavaliers & Pioneers", Abstracts of Virginia Land Grants
(1623-1800), Virginia Land Office Patents, by Nell Marion Nugent (1924), Vol.
5, Land Office of Va., we find this item:
"Grant of 500 acres of land on Chowan River in the Isle of Wight was made
to Thomas Mann in 1682 for the transportation of ten persons, among whom were
Thomas Lacy, Richard Carter, Giles Thornberry, Ann Dowds, Elizabeth Croomer,
and John
Middleton."
It cannot be said that this Thomas is the same man as subject Thomas Lacy. but
as the date of arrival corresponds with that of subject the possibility is very
strong and should be given credence.
Statements have appeared in print at various times about the date of arrival
in America of Thomas and some confusion as to Thomas himself. For instance in
the Comp. of American Genealogy (Virkus), V. 1. p. 683, it states "Thomas
Lacy from England
to Va., 1702. Married Ann Burnley." The date of this edition was 1925 and
the article is based on material submitted and not on research by Virkus. Subsequent
research has proven this information incorrect, as it is now the conclusion that
the
Thomas who married Ann Burnley was the son of the immigrant Thomas. This conclusion
has been arrived at principally from an old document written by Rev. William
Sterling Lacy (1791-1881), relating a narrative told him by "old William
Rice" about
the year 1828 or 1829. Rev. Lacy put this narrative in writing probably sometime
before 1850, probably having made some notes at the time of his interview with
Mr. Rice. This treasured document is now in the possession of Mrs. Elizabeth
(Lacy)
Jones of Roanoke, VA., widow of Alfred Power Jones, M. D. This document definitely
states that Thomas Lacy came from Wales, was engaged to Miss Rice in Wales, preceded
the Rice family to Virginia, who followed a few years later, and he married
Miss Rice, daughter of Thomas Rice, after their arrival in Virginia.
In order to assay the credibility of the family data in this article, it would
be well to view the character and veracity of "old William Rice" and
Rev. Lacy.
William Rice was born about 1742 or 1743, based on the statement that he was
85 or 86 years of age in 1828 or 1829. His place of birth would have been in
Hanover County in the locale of the Rice and Lacey homesteads. He was a son of
David Rice and
Miss Searcy, and a brother of the noted Rev. David Rice (1733-1816), Presbyterian
minister of Kentucky, and an uncle to the Elizabeth Rice who married William
Lacy (1713-1775). He was a grandson of the immigrant, Thomas Rice. Surely, living
in the
same neighborhood and being personally in touch with the older members of the
family, he would have known of the proper family relationship. He was, according
to Rev. Wm. Lacy, a man whose "mind was unimpaired, his memory remarkable",
and an
"esteemed and consistent Christian man".
Rev. William Sterling Lacy, son of Rev. Drury Lacy, who was a son of the William
Lacy who married Elizabeth Rice, mentioned previously, was a man of the highest
integrity and retentive memory. He could recite from beginning to end the New
Testament and many of the Psalms and portions of the Old Testament. There can
be no question but that he wrote the narrative exactly as it was narrated to
him.
This document is the only tangible bit of evidence known of the immigrants Thomas
Lacy and Thomas Rice, relation to their old world background and their immigration
to Virginia, and of the marriage of Thomas Lacey to the daughter of Thomas Rice.
All of the old New Kent and Hanover county records were destroyed by fire in
1865, and the Register of St. Paul's Parish is not in existence. The Vestry Book
of this parish gives little data.
We learn from this narrative that Thomas Lacy lived to a very ripe old age and
that he was an exceedingly tall man, which would tend to discount any Welsh ancestry
since the Welsh are of very short stature. It would appear, from the statement
of
William Rice, that Thomas Lacy was living about the year 1750 since he states
that he saw him "when a small boy". Thus Thomas Lacy must have been
85 or more years of age at his death, if born about 1665. His death would have
occurred in Hanover
County, the place of his residence.
The first documented evidence of the residence of subject Thomas is that contained
in the official 1704 Rent Roll Record, which shows the following Lacys owing
land in New Kent County: Thomas Lacy -- 100 acres, William Lacy -- 500 acres,
and
Emmanuel Lacy -- 180 acres.
Thomas must have purchased his land as no land grant record has been found. If
he had paid his own way to America he would have received a headright of 50 acres
and that would have been recorded in "Virginia Land Grants". Some information
has been
secured from the Vestry Book of St. Paul's Parish, which was located in that
part of New Kent County cut off in 1720/1 into Hanover. In the Vestry Book covering
the period from 1706 to 1766 the following references are found:
"Returns made to the Vestry of St. Paul's Parish, March 4, 1708/9, from
the surveyor of the 39 Precincts that the said Parish was divided into for the
Processioning of Lands by an order of the said Parish Vestry held Sept. 24, 1708/9,
are here
according to Law and an order of the said Vestry made on the said 14th of March,
Registered Verbatim."
"No. 18. The lands of Haughton House, Thomas Lacy, Jeremiah Dumas , Robert
Depriest, William England, Rice Hughes, William Stephens, John Hickman, John
McCoy, lying adjacent to each other, being made one precinct, of which the said
William England
Haughton House were appointed overseers, who made this return on the Back of
the Order (viz;) this order is executed, only one line with Rice Hughes did not
appear.
Subscribed: William England
Haughton House"
"No. 20. Thomas Lacy and Thomas Graham were appointed overseers in the Processioning
of lands in St. Paul's Parish, Sept. 17, 1711. Among these lands was that of
Emmanuel Richardson."
These two records would certainly apply to Thomas Lacy I, but subsequent ones
may refer to the second generation and in the one instance -- that of Thomas
Lacy, Jr. -- to the third generation.
"No. 22. Ordered into one Precinct for Processioning ye lands of Jeremiah
Dumas, Thomas Prosser, James Wood, Col. Curtis, Mr. Brooks, James Rice, William
Crossley, Thomas Lacy, Thomas Lacy, Jr., James Whitlock, Col. Thompson, Olivers,
Nathaniel
Hodgeskeson, James Hunt, ye Hughs, James Allen, George Straughan, David Tyree,
James Anthony, and ye Carr's Lands, James Whitlock and James Allen to see the
said processioning performed, who made the following return, viz: In Obedience
to the
within order, we the Subscribers has seen all the lands within mentioned procession'd
except the land of George Straughan and Ellis, which nobody appeared for.
March ye 28th, 1732 James Allen
James Whitlock."
"No. 38. The Lands of Thomas Lacy, James Whitlock and Thomas Graham lying
adjacent to each other, being made on Precinct, of which the said Thomas Lacy
and James Whitlock were appointed overseers, who made this return on the Back
of the order,
viz: the within order complied with ... us.
Subscribed: Thomas Lacy James Whitlock"
Of a later date -- 1743 -- an entry shows for the first time the name of Stephen
Lacy.
"At a Vestry held in St. Paul's Parish, Oct 18, 1743. No. 7. Ordered into
one precinct for processioning the Lands of Thomas Johnson, Benjamin Johnson,
Thomas Grant, John Price, John Williamson, Thomas Harlow, Charles Anderson, and
that John
Williamson and William Allen see the said processioning performed, who made the
following report, -- we whose names are mentioned in ye within Order have met
accordingly and none agreed & sent.
Thomas Grant, Stephen Lacy, Benjamin Johnson, Charles Anderson,
Thomas Harlow, Richard Allen John Williamson, William Allen"
[N.B. "Processioning" of lands was necessary in order to re-establish
boundary lines between adjoining owners due to the destruction or removal of
land marks which consisted in many cases of scrub oak or other trees, stones
and creeks -- the
latter often changing courses. Disputes would develop between property owners
and the authority to adjudicate these matters was granted by the Council to the
various parish vestrys of the Established Church.]
There is no evidence that subject Thomas Lacy lived anywhere except New Kent
County, in that part which became Hanover County. He was already in Virginia
when Oliver de la Muce arrived in 1700 with three ships of Huguenots. There is
also no
evidence that his son, Thomas, who married Ann Burnley, lived any place other
than Hanover County. We know that Thomas Lacy's grandsons moved to Manikintowne
and lived among the French Huguenots in Goochland County and the name of Lacy
is included
among the settlers of Manikintowne. This list appears to be about 1750. The parish
serving Manikintowne was old King William and later St. James Northam.
We have record of one son, Thomas Lacy II, born to Thomas Lacy I and his wife,
Miss Rice (Rhuys in Welsh) whose name may have been Phebe. There were most likely
other children but we have no knowledge of them. There is a record of a Julian
Lacy in
Hanover County towards the latter part of the 18th Century who may derive from
an unknown branch of the family.
Thomas LACY and Phebe RHUYS had the following children:
+2 i.
Thomas II LACY.