LACEY Family of Delaware from 1703 Family Sketches: Parker Lacey (~1740 - ?)

 LACEY Family of Delaware from 1703  

Family Sketches: Parker Lacey (~1740 - ?)

                                            Parker³ (Robert² John¹) Lacey

 

There are few records for Parker³ Lacey in the Sussex County records. The name Parker could be a family name, so speculation is that the maiden name of Parker Lacey’s mother, Bridget, was indeed Parker.  The name could also be a reference to Anderson Parker who married his grandmother, Sarah (Burton) Lacey Prettyman in 1731 and her third husband [1] Anderson Parker was apparently a close acquaintance of Robert² Lacey, as Robert² Lacey stipulates in his will that his son Robert³ Lacey is to learn a trade from Anderson Parker. [2]

 

Parker³ Lacey was probably born about 1740 based on his possible age at the time of the 1753 will of his father, Robert² Lacey, where he inherited the land called “Mount Joy." [3]

However, the will stipulated that if Parker died without a male heir the land would be returned to son his Robert³ Lacey. Evidently, Parker³ Lacey was either married and had no male children or he was not yet married at the time of his father’s death. However, there are no known marriage records or children of Parker³ Lacey.

Parker³ Lacey later sold “Mount Joy. [4] On 2 November 1756, he Parker Lacey sells 160 3/4 acres of land called ‘Mount Joy,’ which he received from his father, Robert² Lacey in his will of 1753, for £30 to Joseph Warrington. Witnesses are Paul and Thomas Waples. There are apparently no other land transactions of Parker³ Lacey in Sussex County.

 

Parker³ Lacey does appear in the Orphan’s Court Liber 3 1751-1760 (11 March 1755) folio 78 on the settlement of accounts of Henry Lingo. [5] Parker³ Lacey appears on the 1782 Tax List for Indian River & Angola Hundred and is assessed £3 and on the Indian River Hundred, Sussex County, Tax List of 1785. [6] He does not appear in the 1790 census or in any other records after 1785 in Delaware. There are no probate records, so possibly he left the Sussex County area.

 

A Parker Lacey appears in the 1790 census in Pitt County, North Carolina with 3 white males and 1 white female. A Parker Lacey also appears in the 1800 census for Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina with 11 persons, but the age of the oldest male (26-44) does not correspond to the likely age of Parker Lacey of Sussex County.

 

References

[1] Hatcher, Patricia, Law. Were the Daughters of Robert Burton of Sussex County, Delaware, Really the Daughters of Comfort (Bagwell) Leatherbury? TAG, October 2000, pp250-266.

[2] Sussex County, Delaware Register of Wills, Will of Robert Lacey, Liber B, folios 59-61. “…and also I devise that he may be Bound Out to Anderson Parker to Learn his Trade…”

[3] Sussex County, Delaware Register of Wills, Will of Robert Lacey, Liber B, folios 59-61. “….I give an bequeath to my Son Parker Lacey a Certain parcell of Land Called Mount Joy Divided from the above said John Laceys Land by the before cited Old Indian River road to him his Heirs….if he Should Dye without Male Heir, the Land to return to my Son Rob^t Lacey…”.

[4]  Sussex County, Delaware Deed records, 1693-1886, browsable images, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/296734 : accessed 1 August 2021) Parker Lacey to Joseph Warrington, 2 November 1756, Deed Book I, #9, pp. 137.

[5] Skinner, V.L. Abstracts of the Proceedings of the Orphans' Court of Sussex County, Delaware, Libers 1,2,3,4,A; 1708-1709; 1728-1777, Willow Bend Books, Westminster, MD, 2000., p.81.; Orig Liber 3, folio 78, 1755.

[6] Ralph D. Nelson, Jr., et al., eds. Delaware - 1782 Tax Assessment and Census List, 2nd ed., Delaware Genealogical Society, 2002.; Sussex Co., Indian River & Angola Hundred; assessed £3; J. Thomas Scharf, “History of Delaware, 1609-1888, (Philadelphia, L.J. Richards and Co: 1888), Volume 2, Tax List of 1785, Indian River Hundred, Sussex County, p. 1271.