The de Lacy Hedges©
Hedges of Cornwall -
de Lacy of Ballingarry Castle in Co. Limerick, Ireland?
de Lacy was a Norman Catholic family much reduced in circumstances by forfeiture toCromwell's taking all of Ireland in 1649. There are records in MacFirbis's IrishGenealogies, Manuscript Volumes of the Library of Trinitii College, Dublin. Volume F4.18 Confistications.
They remained faithful to Catholicism and and to the Crown and were rewarded following the Restoration, when Charles II elevated two of this family to Knighthood. Irish Ancestry VolI, #2, 1969. The Family of ODell. & Vol III, #1, 1970, Brian de Breffney Picturesque Narrow Tower & Later Buildings - Survey by West, Proceedings of the Royal IrishAcademy, by T.J. Westropp.
In Ireland the grant to Hugh de Lacy of Dublin Castle (1172)
Li riche rei ad dunc baille
-Dyvelin er garde la cite
E la chastel e le dongun
A Hugh de Laci le Barun
Churchill, Duke of Marlboro, demanded that their son-in-law, Sutherland, replace SirCharles Hedges (Jan 1649-1714) as Secretary of State in 1706 - Queen Anne bitterlyresented Marlboro's intrusions. Sutherland was dismissed 1710, after loosing favor in1709. Sir Hedges was already gone though.
The names of Robert and John were not unknown in this family, and several lines are untraced. Lawyers from England were searching for heirs, starting from Bourbon Co.Kentucky, during the 1880's. No bequest from the English Hedges Estate were given to any American Hedges.
HEDGES, SIR CHARLES (1649 - 1714), lawyer and politician, great-grandson of John Lacy of Wiltshire, was son of Henry Hedges of Wanborough in that County' who married Margaret, daughter of R Pleydell of Childers, Berkshire; Sir William Hedges [q. v.3 was his second cousin. He was educated at Oxford, taking the degrees of B.A. 29 Nov. 1670, when he was at Magdalen Hap; M.A. (of Magdalen College) on 31 May 1673, and D.C.L. on 26 June 1675. On 25 Oct. in the last year he was admitted to the Society of Advocates; he was created chancellor and vicar-general of the diocese of Rochester by patent for life in 1686, and master of the faculties and judge of the admiralty court, in place of Sir Richard Raines,on 1 June 1689, when he was also knighted. He was returned as M.P. for Oxford n Suffolk in1698, but counter-petitions for and against the return were presented. Hedges and his colleagues were unseated by an election committee (1 Feb. 1700), and the house confirmedthe decision by a majority of one vote (10 Feb.) In the short-lived parliament of 1701 he sat for Dover, and at the election in November 1701 he was returned for Calne and Malmesbury. His opponents endeavoured to eject him from both places, and the election forCalne was declared void, but the petition against his return for Malmesbury failed. At the next election (August 1703) he was again returned for both Calne and Malmesbury, and in this instance elected to serve for the former borough. He contested the constituency ofCalne again in 1705 and 1708, but was not successful. He nevertheless retained a seat in parliament, as he was thrice (1705, 1708, 1710) returned for West Looe, and once (1713) for East Looe. His political opinions were those of the Tories, but he usually voted as his own individual interest prompted. Mainly through the influence of the Earl ofRochester he was sworn as secretary of state and a privy councillor on 5 Nov. 1700, when, according to Luttrell, he was allowed by special permission of the king to remain judge of the admiralty court, and he continued to be judge until 29 Dec. 1701. The Duchess of Marlborough said of him: He has no capacity, no quality nor interest, nor ever could have been in that post [i.e. the secretaryship] but that everybody knows my Lord Rochester cares for nothing, so much as a man that he thinks will depend upon him' (Account ofConduct of Duchess of Marlborough, pp. 204 -11). He attended the queen to Bath in August1702, and for a short time (April to May 1704) he was declared the sole secretary, both home and foreign, until a successor was appointed to the Earl of Nottingham. During 1706 the Whigs constantly endeavored to eject him from office to make room for the Earl of Sunderland, and the queen at last submitted. The change was announced on 8 Dec. 1706, butit was stipulated that Hedges should be appointed to the judgeship of the prerogative court of Canterbury on its vacation by Sir Richard Raines, and in January 1711 he succeeded to that post. In November of the same year he was mentioned as the third plenipotentiary to negotiate the treaty of Utrecht, but it never passed beyond rumor. For some time his chief residence was at Richmond Green, in a house which afterwards passed toSir Matthew Decker, but in 1700 he bought the estate of Compton Camberwell, in Compton Bassett, near Calne, and the family arms are still preserved around the parapet of the house. He owned much property in Wiltshire. Among the privately printed works of SirThomas Phillipps was one called 'Land-holders of Wanborough; from a Map of Wanborough, the estate of the Right Hon. Sir Charles Hedges. Taken and drawn in 1709 by P. Assenton.'Hedges died on 10 June 1714, and was buried at Wanborough on 15 June. His widow, Eleanor, daughter of George Smith, a proctor in London, died in 1733, and was also buried at Wanborough. They had issue one daughter and three sons, Henry, William, and Charles. William married as his first wife Elizabeth, sole heiress of the family of Gore, at Alderton in Wiltshire (cf. Gent. Mag. 1836, pt. i p. 376, and Aubrey, Collections, ed. theRev. J E. Jackson, p. 46).
Hedges is said to have been the anonymous author of ' Reasons for Setling (sic)Admiralty Jurisdiction and giving encouragement to Merchants, Owners, Masters of Ships,Material Men, and Marines,' 1690, the main object of which was to improve the methods of pressing seamen. Henry Maundrell was his nephew, and the famous 'Journey from Aleppo, toJerusalem at Easter 1697 'is dedicated to him. Hearne records in his diary that Hedges gave this book to the university, but that the officials were guilty of some discourtesy that displeased the donor. At the sale of the library of the College of Advocates at Doctors' Commons there were purchased for the British Museum the Addit. MSS. 24102-07, all relating to Hedges. They contain notes of cases heard by him, accounts of his fees, with cases and precedents that he had collected. The most interesting is his letter-book (No.24107), comprising copies of his letters, official and private, including many to Maundrell. Many other letters to and from him are at the British Museum and in the collections described in the Historical Manuscripts Commission. His grand-daughter was mother of Colonel Montagu, the ornithologist, after whose death upwards of three hundred letters written to Hedges by the first Duke of Marlborough, and three notes addressed to him by Queen Anne, were sold at auction in 1816 for 670 guineas. Some letters fromMarlborough to him are printed in Murray's ' Letters and Dispatches of the Duke.' ElkanahSettle issued in 1714 a funeral poem to the memory of Hedges.
Secretary Hedges
Next in authority to the chancellor and the treasurer were the secretaries of state.That office had evolved from the personal secretary of the king into a great office during the reign of Henry VIII, but the secretaries were still regarded as peculiarly the queen'spersonal servants. Queen Anne for example asked Sir Charles Hedges to "send me some good pens, for those I have are soe bad I can hardly make them writt."
The secretaries were expected to wait on the Queen daily, or if absent from London to attend to her in rotation while traveling. They would have to move their staff and duties with them as they traveled. The duties as secretary also involved domestic and foreign administration.
The kingdom was divided into the northern and southern departments, and the diplomatic relations with foreign countries also divided, including the control of diplomatic corps.Domestic administration was handled through the lords lieutenants of the various counties, generally great landowners from each neighborhood.
The Queen acted as the final court of appeal, and wrote to Sir Charles Hedges about one condemned convict " having a wife and six children, makes me think it is a case of compassion; however I desire you would inform yourself about it as soon as you can possible, and if you find it soe, take care his life may be spared.
Earl of Nottingham Daniel Finch refused to become secretary of state unless the Tory loyalist, Sir Charles Hedges, was to replace secretary James Vernon. Vernon described himself as " too obnoxious to the Tory party to continue" and took his ample pension.
I beleeve Mr. Secretary Hedges to be too honest a man to say any man was a good man if he did not know him to be soe. I know ye people ye beleeve have not this opinion of him soe that I feare my Character of him will not be credited . . .
The above testimonial of Secretary Hedges resulted from a argument about the influence that the Tories might have had upon Queen Anne, the opposition of which was endeavoring to replace all Tories with the Whigs in all government positions.
The Junto, (Whigs) being flush with newly acquired power, demanded the replacement ofMr. Secretary Harley, to make way for their own, young Earl of Sunderland, who was also the husband of the Queen's namesake goddaughter, Lady Anne Churchill. This group soon found Sir Charles Hedges a much less formidable target, as he was described as " has noe capasity, noe quality, no interest, nor never could have been in that post, but that .. . Lord Rochester cares for nothing so much as a man that hee thinks will depend uponhim.
Queen Anne opposed Sunderland, and intended to make the government a cooperative group rather than in the control of extremist from either side, Whig or Tory.
Godolphin assured the Queen that the change would not work a hardship upon Sir CharlesHedges, who had expressed an interest to retire. Queen Anne was emotionally opposed to the appointment of Sunderland as secretary, but after many months of "hurly burly"was wearing down, and shifting friends away from those who sought to encourage her.
The price of Sunderlands appointment, which called for the dismissal of Mr Secretary Hedges in the December Parliament of 1706 was support by the Whigs for the ongoing war.Secretary Harley feared for his own job, since he was the original target, and dropped his opposition to Sunderland.
Sir Charles Hedges was promised the first vacancy in the prerogative Court of Canterbury, for which he had to wait until January 1711.
Queen Anne by Edward Gregg, 1980, Routledge & Kegen Paul.
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HEDGES, SIR WILLIAM (1632-1701), governor of Bengal, born on 21 Oct. 1632 at Coole, co.Cork, was the eldest son of Robert Hedges of Youghal in the same county, and Kingsdown, in the parish of Stratton, Wiltshire, by his wife Catharine, daughter of Edward Wakeman of The Mythe, near Tewkesbury. He, as well as his father and grandfather, is formally styled'Lacy alias Hedges; his great-grandfather was John Lacy of Wiltshire; Sir Charles Hedges was his second cousin. He commenced his career as a Turkey merchant, presumably in the service of the Levant Company at Constantinople. In his Diary' he refers to his colloquial knowledge of Arabic and Turkish. He was head of the factory at Constantinople, but finding the press of business too heavy for him and his partner Palmer he invited Dudley North,who was then at Smyrna, to come and take a share. Leaving North to fill his place:, Hedges returned to England about 1671-2. On 18 April 1881 he was elected one of the twenty-four 'committees' (directors) of the East India Company at a general court of the ' adventurers'(proprietors). - On the following 3 Sept. he was chosen agent and governor of the company's affairs in the Bay of Bengal. He was instructed to put a stop to the growing exactions of the native rulers and their subordinates, to check the recently organized efforts of the 'interlopers' to break through the company's monopoly, and to punish the dishonesty of many of the company's own servants. In particular he was to arrest his predecessor, Matthias Vincent.
Hedges sailed from the Downs on 28 Jan 1682, anchored in Balasore Road on 17 July and reached Hoogly on 24 July. His want of tact and prudence brought him into constant collision with his associates in the council at Hoogly, especially with Job Charnock [qv]John Beard, and Francis Ellis, and in the end they proved too strong for him. His detention of Beard's letter to Sir Josiah Child, the contents of which he had contrived to know, subjected him to the ill-will of the latter. On 21 Dec. 1683 the court issued a formal revocation of his commission, which reached him on 17 July 1684, He accordingly left Hoogly, embarked on 30 Dec., visited Persia on his way, and landed in Dover 4 April1687. On 6 Mar. 1688 he was knighted by James II and became a member of the Mercer'sCompany. On 26 May 1690 he, together with Thomas Cook, was put forward by the church party as a candidate for the shrievalty of the city of London, but neither won. In June 1698 hewas chosen sheriff along with Alderman Abney. A month later he was 'elected alderman forPortsoken ward. In 1694 he was chosen one of the twenty-four directors of the 'New Bank'(Bank of England), and four or five years later resumed to a certain extent his connectionwith the East India Company. In 1698 the old company formed a 'grand committee' of twenty-six gentlemen associated with the twenty-six of their court to deal with certain resolutions hostile to their interests which had been passed by the Commons on 24 May.
A similar committee was again formed in Jan. 1699, and of this last Hedges and Sir John Letheuillier were members. The two were deputed on 17 Jan. in that year to open negotiations for coalitions with the new company. In 1700 Hedges was a candidate for the mayoralty, but was not successful. He died in London on 6 Aug. 1701, and was buried, as directed in his will, with his first wife at Stratton on the 16th. He was twice married.His first wife, Susanna, eldest daughter of Nicholas Vanacker of Erith, Kent, died in childbirth at Hoogly on 6 July 1683 leaving two sons, William and Robert, and a daughter Susanna. He married as his second wife, on 21 July 1687, Anne, widow of Colonel John Searle of Finchley, and by her had two sons, John and Charles. In 1698 he bought land to the value of £ 200 in Stratton, and settled it for an augmentation of the vicarage and better maintenance of the vicar and the vicar's widow forever. He also directed that a sermon on charity should be preached annually by the vicar ' the next Sunday to the sixth of July,' the day of his first wife's death. The sermon is suspended, though the endowment continues. Hedges's 'Diary,'commencing on 25 Nov. 1681, and terminating abruptly on 6 March 1688, was purchased by Mr.R. Barlow of a bookseller named Bohn in High Street, Canterbury, on 20 Sept. 1875. The manuscript has been presented by Mr. Barlow to the India Office, whence in all probability it originally came. It was printed by the Hakluyt Society under the editorship of Colonel Sir Henry Yule, in 1887. A second volume of biographical and miscellaneous illustrations of the time in India was issued in 1888.
Last modified: May 2000