John Lucas, 1st Baron Lucas of Shenfield

English Royalist soldier, industrialist and landowner

Sir John Lucas, 1st Baron Shenfield
Gatehouse of St John's, the Lucas family home

High Sheriff of Essex
In office 1636–1637

Personal details
Born	23 October 1606
Died	2 July 1671(1671-07-02) (aged 64) St John's, Essex, England
Spouse	Anne Nevill (1628-1660)
Children	Mary (died 1700)
Military service
Allegiance	Royalist
Years of service	1642-1645
Rank	Colonel
Battles/wars	First English Civil War Naseby

John Lucas, 1st Baron Lucas of Shenfield^[1] (23 October 1606 – 2 July 1671) was an English Royalist soldier, industrialist and landowner.

Lucas was the son of Sir Thomas Lucas and Elizabeth Leighton. He was one of eight children which included other notable people such as Sir Thomas Lucas, Sir Charles Lucas (d.1648), both Royalist officers, and the philosopher Margaret Cavendish.

Lucas was an early public supporter of the Royalist cause and in 1638 he was appointed to the household of the eight year old Prince of Wales.^[2] His house in Colchester, St John's, was attacked by a crowd during the Stour Valley Riots of 1642 and he was imprisoned by Parliamentarian forces early in the First English Civil War, but escaped and fought for the king at the Battle of Naseby. On 3 January 1645 he was created Baron Lucas of Shenfield, of Shenfield in the Peerage of England. He was again imprisoned by Parliament in 1655, before being released prior to the Stuart Restoration in 1660. He was elected an Original Fellow of the Royal Society in 1663; he was possibly expelled in 1666.^[3]

He married Anne Nevill in 1628. Lucas had one surviving daughter, Mary Grey, Countess of Kent, who was created suo jure Baroness Lucas of Crudwell at her father's request.^[3] Lucas was buried at St Giles's church, Colchester.^[3] He died without surviving male issue and by a special remainder in his patent, the heir to his title was Charles Lucas, 2nd Baron Lucas (1631–1688), son of his elder brother Sir Thomas Lucas.

References

^ The new peerage; or, present state of the nobility of England, Scotland, and Ireland: containing an account of the peers, their descent and collateral branches, their births, marriages and issue, also their paternal coats of arms, crests, supporters and mottoes. Vol. 2. 1769. p. 289.
^ Radcliffe 1739, p. 168.
^ ^a ^b ^c "DServe Archive Persons Show". Library collection. The Royal Society. Retrieved 1 September 2012.

Sources

Radcliffe, Sir George, ed. (1739). The Earl of Strafforde's Letters and Dispatches, with an Essay Towards His Life, Volume 2. William Knowler.
Walter, John (2004). "Lucas, John, first Baron Lucas of Shenfield (1606-1671)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/51215. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
The Peerage: John Lucas, 1st Baron Lucas of Shenfield