Henry Lascelles (1690–1753)

Henry Lascelles
Born	1690
Died	16 October 1753
Cause of death	suicide
Residence	Harewood House
Occupation	Plantation owner, politician
Spouse(s)	Mary Carter
Children	3 sons, including Edwin Lascelles and Daniel Lascelles

Henry Lascelles (1690 – 16 October 1753) was an English-born Barbados plantation owner. He was the son of Daniel Lascelles (1655–1734) and Margaret Metcalfe. He served as Collector of Customs for the British government in Barbados. He was a director of the British East India Company 1737-45, a financier, and Member of Parliament for Northallerton. He lived in his constituency, in Harewood, in Richmond-upon-Thames, and for periods in his twenties, at his family's plantation in Barbados.

The Lascelles family were increasingly prominent and politically involved Yorkshire gentry at the time of Henry's birth, having owned land near Northallerton, in the Vale of Mowbray, lush farming country, since at least the late thirteenth century. They were based at Stank Hall, now a sheep farm, which they had acquired in 1608 from land management profits. Henry's grandfather Francis Lascelles (c.1612-1667) had been a Roundhead colonel in the English Civil War of the mid-1600s, and as MP for the district sat in judgment on King Charles I of England, who was executed in 1649. Francis Lascelles was Cromwellian Commissioner for Yorkshire, during Oliver Cromwell's period as Lord Protector, ruling the country, and also served in both the First Protectorate Parliament and the Second Protectorate Parliament in the 1650s. Henry's father Daniel Lascelles (1655-1734) assisted in driving out the Catholic King James II of England in 1688. He became High Sheriff of Yorkshire, in 1718-19, during the reign of King George I of England, briefly an MP for Northallerton, representing the Whigs (British political party), and a businessman.