Sir Hugh Acland, 5th Baronet

Sir Hugh Acland, 5th Baronet (ca. 1639 – 9 March 1714) was an English Member of Parliament, from a family of Devonshire gentry. He obtained a confirmation of the family baronetcy in 1678, and served as a Member of Parliament for two boroughs in Devon in 1679 and from 1685 to 1687. Never very active in national politics, he was one of the many Tories estranged by James II's pro-Catholicism, but remained a Tory after the Glorious Revolution. He continued to hold local office in Devon off and on until his death in 1714, when he was succeeded by his grandson.

He was a younger son of Sir John Acland, 1st Baronet and his wife Elizabeth. He matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford on 27 November 1652 and received his B.A. on 22 June 1655.

He was appointed a justice of the peace for Devon in 1670, and in 1672, he succeeded his nephew Arthur as baronet and inherited an estate worth £2,000 per year. In 1673, he was appointed a commissioner for assessment in Devon, and unsuccessfully contested a by-election at Tiverton following the death of Sir Thomas Carew, 1st Baronet. He was appointed to the commission on recusants in 1675 and made a freeman of Exeter; in 1676, he was appointed a deputy lieutenant of the county.

The family baronetcy was of somewhat uncertain status; the letters patent to his father were either lost during the confusion of the English Civil War or never passed the seals. Sir Hugh's predecessors in the baronetcy had generally died in their minorities and had not pursued the claim. Hugh obtained new letters patent dated 21 January 1678 which confirmed the original grant and granted precedence to the baronetcy of the original date of issue, 24 June 1644.

Acland again stood for Parliament for Barnstaple in the spring 1679 election and was successfully returned. He was not an active member and, though thought to be a Court supporter, was absent from the division on the exclusion bill. He did not stand again in the fall 1679 election. In 1680, he left the Devon committee for assessment; he was already a colonel of militia foot by this time.

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