Blogetty Blog 13: Lucas Family Origins.

Do my Lucas family origins stretch all the way back to pre-Roman Italy? There is a theory that the surname Lucas originates from Lucania, a Greek colony occupying land between the heel and toes of southern Italy from about 500-001BC, before it was beaten up by the Romans and suffered a diaspora across the Mediterranean? The occurrence of Lucas – in differing forms in many European tongues – suggests it might be so.

When I began researching my ancestry I knew almost nothing apart from my mother’s tales about her childhood in India. My father sometimes spoke of his WW1 experiences but remarked little about our life of privilege at Warnham Court, my grandfather’s luxurious estate in Sussex, because it seemed to exist to him – and therefore to me – as a long-established pattern of how things should be, as if we had lived this way for centuries. In fact that was far from the case and my family came from humble, hardworking origins. I will explore that history in future posts as it unfolds.

My friend Len Friedel, an expert in genealogy, traced my Lucas line back to John Lucas (c1630-1690) who married Elizabeth Parkes in Leatherhead, Surrey, in 1655. Owing to the custom of repeating first names the family genealogy quickly becomes confusing. Rather than bewilder readers before the story starts, it will suffice to list my direct bloodline. So we have John → John (2) → James → John (3) → James (2) → James Delight → James Jonathan Hughes Delight → Charles Thomas → Geoffrey Morton Earnest → Me.

We cannot truly know what life was like in the past and I would never be so presumptuous to claim I can do so. All I can offer is snatches of surviving detail about my forebears to illustrate the lives they led. My early ancestors followed the tradition normal at the time in which one generation taught the next the practice of the same trade in the district where they lived their shortish lives until they died. They were skilled tradesmen, carpenters, joiners and sawyers and they lived as a tribe of relations in and around the town of Leatherhead.

Leatherhead’s origins are Anglo-Saxon and its church is mentioned in the Domesday Book. The Roman Stane Street ran nearby. A meeting place serving the local agricultural economy developed at a crossroads and in 1248 Henry III granted Leatherhead a Royal charter to host a weekly market and annual fair – a critical step in its development. In common with similar medieval towns it had a market house and set of stocks.

The town barely survived an extensive fire in 1392 but was quickly rebuilt. Located in the middle of Surrey, Leatherhead benefitted from an increase in travel after the early mediaeval construction of a bridge over the river Mole and later the Swan Hotel provided coach services for 300 years throughout the district and to London 25 miles distant, as well as south to Chichester and the important naval harbor of Portsmouth.  Imagine that! In our ephemeral ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ culture it’s hard to conceive of a business lasting 300 years.

There are few records from this era beyond parish birth, marriage and death dates many of which are incomplete or inaccurate, so little is known about John and his descendents until we come to a cousin, yet another James Lucas (1714-1797), for for clarity’s sake let’s call him Businessman James or “BJ” for short, who either did not marry or married late in life leaving no children.

BJ employed several young Lucas relatives, including my direct ancestor James (2) and two of his nephews, in his successful wheelwright business. In the increasing complexity of the industrial revolution the role of businessman as opposed to lone tradesman was emerging. Without the expense of wife and family, or the need to support his siblings all four of whom died tragically as babies or teenagers, James was able to diversify and he invested in property and shares in the South Sea Company.

Founded in 1711 by Robert Harley, the Lord Treasurer, during the European War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714) the South Sea Company was granted a monopoly to trade with Spain’s colonies in South America and the West Indies. Offering huge potential profits from the fabled gold and silver riches of the Americas, this public-private business opportunity was intended to fund the British Government’s war debt. Promising riches it instead resulted in a financial disaster known as the ‘South Sea Bubble’.

The name ‘South Sea Bubble’ appealed hugely to my childhood imagination when I first heard its mention. What in the world could the exotic name mean? Some colossal volcanic event perhaps? A vent of boiling water bubbling up to the surface of the Pacific ocean? I had no concept of its financial implications or of the enormous risks involved in such get-rich-quick wagers.

Speculation ran wild from top to bottom of British Society and in 1720 stock valued at £120 rose to more than £1000 before the ‘bubble’ burst in the wake of disappointing earnings. These were huge sums in contemporary value. After a collapse which ruined many investors – on losing £20,000, the equivalent of £2 million pounds today, Sir Isaac Newton is said to have remarked, “I can calculate the movement of the stars but not the madness of men” – the Government stepped in to reorganize the Company on a basis of fixed guaranteed interest stabilized at 5%.

I’m glad to say that Businessman James wisely bought stock in the South Sea Company once it offered a guaranteed annuity and his will of 1796 shows he died a prosperous man. He left bequests of £400 each in South Sea stock to his five cousins and to his servant Ann Wills, plus £200 to Sarah Wood a widow. My direct ancestor James (2) was particularly favored with the additional bequest of BJ’s house and workshop which made James (2) a man of property.

After providing for all his surviving relations, BJ proved himself an early philanthropist leaving cash sums to Leatherhead charities. £400 was directed to establish a free school; £100 to establish a midwife fund to assist the poorest parish women in labor; and £100 to James Ede a baker to deliver loaves to the poorest and oldest parish men. The sums may appear tiny, but they were very significant at the time.

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