The life and significance of Charles Lucas (1713–1771)

Abstract

Charles Lucas (1713–1771) was one of the most controversial popular politicians to stride the Irish political stage in the eighteenth century. Though the descendant of a beneficiary of the Cromwellian plantation, Lucas’s personal inheritance was small, and he was apprenticed in his teens to an apothecary in Dublin. Lucas prospered in that capacity, both as an advocate of higher standards within the profession, and as a representative on the lower house (the common council) of Dublin Corporation. Predisposed to challenge what he perceived as abuses by vested and established interests, Lucas made a name for himself as an outspoken critic of the oligarchical pretensions of the lord mayor and aldermen, which comprised the upper chamber of the Corporation. His successes were few, but he was possessed of a fluent pen, and a precocious awareness that he could best communicate with his natural audience through the use of print. As a result, he became the darling of an emerging popular political interest, which shared his vision of a reformed Protestant constitution. Encouraged by this positive response, Lucas offered himself to the electorate of Dublin in 1749, but though he campaigned vigorously, and polled well, he was not elected. More consequently for Lucas personally, his extension of his critical gaze from the municipality to the larger canvas of national and Anglo-Irish politics elicited the hostile notice of the most powerful figures in the land, which prompted him to flee the country to avoid imprisonment. Lucas was not inactive during his eleven-year ‘exile’, but these were comparatively quiet years by comparison with his final decade when, following his return to Ireland in 1761, he acquired a national profile as MP for Dublin City, a vigorous advocate, and a tireless proponent of Patriot policies.