Sir Thomas Dacres (19 October 1587 – December 1668) was an English 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. ...

variously between 1626 and 1660. He supported the

Parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...

cause in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. Dacres was the son of Sir Thomas Dacres of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire and his wife Dorothy Piggott, daughter of Thomas Pigott of Dodershall, Buckinghamshire.History of Parliament Online - Dacres, Sir Thomas
/ref> He matriculated from

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

at Easter 1603. He succeeded his father in 1615 and was appointed

High Sheriff of Hertfordshire The High Sheriff of Hertfordshire was an ancient Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the foundation of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years. On 1 April 1974, under the provisio ...

for Aug–Nov 1615 to complete his father's year of shrievalty and knighted on 22 February 1617.Knights of England
/ref> In 1626, Dacres was elected

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

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. He was re-elected MP for Hertfordshire in 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. In 1641 he was re-elected MP for Hertfordshire in the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

and sat until 1648 when he was excluded under

Pride's Purge Pride's Purge is the name commonly given to an event that took place on 6 December 1648, when soldiers prevented members of Parliament considered hostile to the New Model Army from entering the House of Commons of England. Despite defeat in the ...

. During the civil war he served on various parliamentary commissions. In 1660, Dacres was elected

for

Higham Ferrers Higham Ferrers is a market town and civil parish in the Nene Valley in North Northamptonshire, England, close to the Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire borders. It forms a single built-up area with Rushden to the south and has an estimated populati ...

in the Convention Parliament. His main interest in parliament was to recover a loan of £250 made in 1642 for suppression of the Irish rebellion. He never received the money and suffered losses in the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

. Dacres died at the age of 81 and was buried at Cheshunt on 26 December 1668. Dacres married Martha Elmes, daughter of Thomas Elmes of Lilford Northamptonshire. His son

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

was also an MP.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dacres, Thomas 1587 births 1668 deaths Roundheads Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Place of birth missing English MPs 1626 English MPs 1628–1629 English MPs 1640–1648 High Sheriffs of Hertfordshire Members of the Parliament of England for Hertfordshire