LUCAS, Thomas (d.1784), of Lee, Kent

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1780 - 1784

Family and Education

m. (1) Anne (d. 1756); (2) Eliza, da. of Rev. Joseph Payne of Buckland Newton, Dorset.

Offices Held

Director, South Sea Co. 1763, Union Fire Office 1767; president, Guy’s Hospital.

Biography

Lucas was established as a London merchant at least as early as 1757, and continued trading there till 1780. In August 1780 he was recommended by Rockingham to Edward Eliot as a suitable candidate for one of his boroughs, and was returned for Grampound at a cost of £3,000. In Parliament he voted consistently with Opposition till the fall of North, but for Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783. He did not vote on Fox’s East India bill, 27 Nov. 1783, but was classed by Robinson, January 1784, and by Stockdale, 19 Mar. as an opponent of Pitt. And when at the general election of 1784 he was left without a seat, Fox’s Martyrs mentions him among those celebrated ‘for nothing but being knocked on the head’. There is no record of his having spoken in the House.

He died 29 Sept. 1784.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Mary M. Drummond

Notes