Sir Richard Lane (c.1667–1756), of

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

was a British merchant,

sugar-baker A sugar-baker was the owner of a sugar house, a factory for the refining of raw sugar from Barbados. Sugar refining would normally be combined with sugar trading, which was a lucrative business. The architectural historian Kerry Downes gives an ex ...

and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

between 1721 and 1734. He became a prominent figure in the salt trade

Biography

Lane was the eldest son of Richard Lane of St. Augustine's, Bristol, sugar-baker, merchant and mayor of Bristol and his wife Susanna. He married by licence dated 3 January 1692, Sarah Davie of Salford, Lancashire. He moved to Worcester, where he was established as a merchant and sugar-baker by 1699. In 1705 he succeeded his father. He was

Mayor of Worcester The Mayor of Worcester is the civic head of Worcester City Council. Every May one of the city Councillors is elected to serve as Mayor for a year. Another is elected as Deputy Mayor. The Mayor chairs meetings of the Full Council, represents the c ...

for the year 1709 to 1710. In July 1710, while mayor, he put a stop to the ‘insolent progress of Dr. Sacheverel and his deluded followers’. He was

High Sheriff of Worcestershire This is a list of sheriffs and since 1998 high sheriffs of Worcestershire. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of t ...

for the year 1714 to 1715, the first year of King George the First, and raised 'the posse comitatus and (thro’ God’s blessing) defeated great numbers of' Jacobites 'who came in tumults there with arms'. He was knighted on 21 October 1714. Lane was returned as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and in proximity of the Exmoor National P ...

, at a by-election on 18 December 1721. However he had taken the writ from messenger who was supposed to take it to the returning officer, and kept it in his pocket until the election.day. The messenger was taken into custody of the serjeant-at-arms but Lane escaped punishment. He was later unseated on petition on 9 January 1722. In 1725, some people involved in the Cheshire salt works discovered that the strongest brine lay below the depth of the pits in Droitwich. Lane gave the order to sink through the talc at the bottom of the pits, and the strong brine burst out with such violent abundance, that two men who working in the pit were thrown to the surface and killed. Soon after everyone sunk his pit through the talc and obtained so much strong brine that much of it was wasted, From then on the old pits, which had been worth near £5,000 a year, became valueless. Lane was returned for

after a contest at the

1727 British general election The 1727 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 7th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. The election was trigg ...

. He supported the Administration consistently and was rewarded with the appointment of his eldest son as receiver general of the land tax for Worcestershire, while his second son was appointed a commissioner for licensing hawkers and pedlars. In March 1732 Lane spoke in favour of the free export of wool and yarn from Ireland. He was a salt exporter and at this time he was involved in a protracted lawsuit with the salt commissioners on a claim for nearly £23,000 for allowances on shipments of salt to Ireland over a period of six months. He protested against the export of rock salt to Ireland because, as there was no restriction on refining it there, it would undercut his own salt. He did not stand in 1734. Lane died, aged 89, on 29 March 1756 and was buried in the North ambulatory of Westminster Abbey.Westminster Abbey – Sir Richard Lane
/ref> He left four sons and five daughters of whom three were Ann, Sarah and Mary.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Richard 1660s births 1756 deaths Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1715–1722 British MPs 1727–1734 Mayors of places in Worcestershire High Sheriffs of Worcestershire