A Fraternal Trio

The extraordinary success achieved by Daniel Lascelles' sons in West India commerce owed as much to his family's own mercantile connections as it did to assistance from their new kinsmen. While the Stoke Newington Lascelles provided their Northallerton counterparts with useful connections, comparatively few cooperative ventures were pursued by the two families. Within only a few years, Daniel's sons were following a different business trajectory to that of their predecessors and reaping rewards on a scale few other merchants of the age could rival.

Daniel Lascelles was son and heir of the Northallerton MP and dissenter Francis Lascelles Sr of Stank Hall. During the English Civil War, Francis served as Colonel in the Parliamentary army; he also numbered among the commissioners who tried Charles I for high treason. Significantly, the Northallerton Lascelles can be linked with the Thomson-Vassall circle of provincial, nonconformist merchants involved in colonial projects. In 1651, Lucy Lascelles (one of Francis' daughters) married the Virginia merchant Cuthbert Witham, son of William Witham of Garforth in Yorkshire. The Withams were staunch Presbyterians, while George Witham (another of William's sons) was a business associate of both Maurice Thomson and Samuel Vassall. Moreover, Francis Lascelles' eldest son and namesake was a nonconformist London merchant, also connected in trade with the Withams.