Family and Education

b. c.1632, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of John Hacket, bp. of Lichfield 1661-70 by 1st w. Elizabeth, da. of William Stebbins of Earl Soham, Suff. educ. Westminster; Trinity Coll. Camb. 1645, BA 1649, MA 1652; G. Inn 1653. m. (1) by 1662, Mary, da. of Joseph Henslow, bp. of Peterborough 1663-79, 1da.; (2) by 1665, Mary (d. 11 Dec. 1716), da. and coh. of John Lisle of Moxhull, 3s. 3da. suc. fa. 1670; kntd. 16 Jan. 1671.1

Offices Held

Recorder, Tamworth 1670-May 1688; j.p. Warws. 1677-d., commr. for assessment 1677-80, 1689, dep. lt. 1686-7, 1689-?d., sheriff 1684-5.2

Master in Chancery 1670-80.3

Biography

Hacket was the grandson of a Scottish household official in the service of Prince Henry. His father, chaplain to Bishop Williams, was so moderate an Anglican that he was invited to the Westminster assembly and retained his living at Cheam throughout the Interregnum. At the Restoration he became bishop of Lichfield and launched a successful appeal for £20,000 to rebuild the cathedral, which had been ruined in the Civil War. One-quarter of the sum came from his own pocket, and the building was reconsecrated at Christmas 1669.4

Hacket’s second marriage brought him possession of Moxhull, ten miles from Tamworth, where he became recorder in 1670. As a master in Chancery, he was well placed to supervise a private bill to enable him to provide for his daughter by his first marriage, which was steered through the Commons by Thomas Crouch in 1671. He first considered standing on the dissolution of the Cavalier Parliament, and on 26 July 1679 Thomas Thynne I described him as ‘a weak man, but honest’, adding that ‘the town being inclined to him, I have agreed he shall be my partner’. He was returned to the second Exclusion Parliament for Tamworth as a court supporter, but took no known part in its proceedings, and in 1681 desisted before the election for lack of support among the commonalty.5

As sheriff in 1685 he claimed to have been guaranteed a nomination at Tamworth which he offered to one of the candidates for the county in order to avoid a contest; but he does not appear to have been able to make good his promise. He had ceased to play an active part in the borough before the Revolution; but he accepted the new regime, and continued to hold county office. In his will he thanked God for two happy marriages and dutiful children, adding:

I have lived and do die a member of the true, ancient, reformed Church of England by law established, and my tender regards for the same make me to pray that it may long continue quiet under that establishment against all miscreants that dissent from it and make it their business to subvert apostolical government of the Church and the other monarchical government of the state.

He died on 19 Mar. 1709, the only member of his family to sit in the Commons, and was buried at Wishaw.6

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: A. M. Mimardière

Notes

• 1. Vis. Warws. (Harl. Soc. lxii), 140; Dugdale, Warws. 936-7.
• 2. C. F. Palmer, Hist. Tamworth, p. xxiv.
• 3. T. D. Hardy, Principal Officers of Chancery, 95.
• 4. DNB; A. G. Matthews, Walker Revised, 49; CSP Dom. 1672, p. 279.
• 5. CJ, ix. 226; Staffs. Parl. Hist. (Wm. Salt Arch. Soc), ii. 147; VCH Warws. iv. 260; Spencer mss, Thynne to Halifax, 26 July 1679; Shaw, Staffs. i. 276.
• 6. Bath mss, Thynne pprs. 21, f. 148, 21 Feb. 1685; PCC 118 Lane.