(From "Ancestors and Descendants of Hiram G. LACEY and Sophia SELL" Newsletter # 12, August 31, 1994.)

For those of you who purchased a copy of Gerard Lacey's book, The Legacy of the deLacy/Lacy/Lacey Family - 1066 -1994, there should be more knowledge about our Medieval European Ancestors of 40 generations ago. To say that they were big, important people would be an understatement. Two deLacy brothers helped William the Conqueror conquer England and their descendants helped conquer Ireland and Scotland for the Crown. They owned large expanses of land and were part of the nobility of England. They had blood line to the throne of England and one of them, Baron William deLacy, was Chairman of the Committee of Barons that forced the King of England to sign the Magna Charta. This document gave Englishman legal rights and would later be the basis of the Bill of Rights (first ten amendments) to the constitution of the United States.

      But, that is what they were. How did successive generations fall? Why were later generations stripped of land, driven out or found guilty  of crimes and shipped to the colonies as indentured servants for "making war on the  King". Baron deLacy's part in forcing the King to sign the Magna Charta may have caused some of it. Rebellion against injustices, persecution for religious beliefs and a corrupt and greedy monarchy were probably other contributors. Was this, then, the entire cause for the fall of the House of Lacy? This history does not record.