Family and Education

b. c.1658, 1st s. of Sir Ralph Hare, 1st Bt., by 1st w. educ. Caius, Camb. 1672. m. 20 Apr. 1680, Elizabeth, da. of George Dashwood, merchant, of Hackney, Mdx., 4s. 5da. suc. fa. 28 Feb. 1672.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Norf. 1677-80, 1689, j.p. 1680-Feb. 1688; freeman, King’s Lynn 1682; dep. lt. Norf. 1683-Feb. 1688.2

Biography

Although Lord Townshend (Sir Horatio Townshend) had been his guardian, Hare became a pupil of Dr Robert Brady at Cambridge and a high-flier for the prerogative. In February 1679 he personally attended the county election at the head of his tenants, and when it was declared void he again brought some 400 voters to the poll at the by-election. When Sir Christopher Calthorpe asked to be excused from standing again, the court electoral agent wrote: ‘Sir Thomas Hare, I am afraid, is too young, [but] otherwise as honest a gentleman as can be chosen’. He was nominated by the Earl of Yarmouth (Robert Paston) as one of the court candidates in 1681, but defeated. He signed the loyal address from Norfolk in 1682 expressing abhorrence of the ‘Association’. He was elected on the recommendation of his fellow deputy lieutenants in 1685, but left no trace on the records of James II’s Parliament. To the lord lieutenant’s questions in 1688:

He thinks the Penal Laws may be reviewed, and some amendments made, but cannot consent to repeal them, nor the Tests. He will endeavour to choose those of the same mind. He is willing to live friendly and peaceably with all persuasions, whilst they continue loyal to the King and Government.

He was removed from the lieutenancy and the commission of the peace, and followed the example of Sir John Holland in refusing to resume office in October ‘in conjunction with persons unqualified and incapacitated by the laws of the realm’. He was apparently a non-juror after the Revolution. He died on 1 Jan. 1693, aged 35, and was buried at Stow Bardolph. A younger son was returned for Truro as a Tory to the last Parliament of Queen Anne.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. H. Ellis, Hist. Shoreditch, 73.
• 2. Lynn Freemen, 192; Norf. Ltcy. Jnl. (Norf. Rec. Soc. xxx), 45.
• 3. PCC 143 Eure; Works of Sir Thomas Browne ed. Wilkin, i. 241; Add. 27447, f. 399; 27448, f. 5; 36988, ff. 144, 180; Norf. Arch. Soc. xxvii. 373-4; Norf. Ltcy. Jnl. 66, 89, 109; HMC Lothian, 133.