Author: Lacy, Willoughby
Biography:
LACY, Willoughby otherwise Morris (1748-1831: Biographical Dictionary of Actors)
He was born Willoughby Morris, son of his mother’s first husband (poss. William Morris, d 1751). His mother, Ann (poss. b “Willoughby”), is designated “Ann Morris, widow” in the record of her Jan. 1760 marriage to James Lacy (1696-1774), whom she predeceased. In James Lacy’s will and in a 1775 Declaration of Trust, he is described as “Willoughby Lacy otherwise Morris.” He began adulthood with significant wealth: an estate, Eynsham Hall; a freehold, Turk’s Place, Isleworth; several other valuable properties; and half the patent (“moiety”) of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, valued at £32,000. By 1795 he was “reduc’d to great Distress.” In 1776, he attempted to sell his moiety to Edward Thompson (q.v.) and Robert Langford, but Richard Brinsley Sheridan and David Garrick (qq.v.) forced him to withdraw the bill of sale. In 1778, Sheridan purchased Lacy’s share of Drury Lane for a £500 annuity and 30,500 guineas (£20,000 of which went to Garrick to repay a loan). To compensate Langford, he signed over Eynsham Hall. In 1774, he married a minor, Maria Ann Orpen (1757-1788), the daughter of “an eminent hatter.” They lived extravagantly at Turk’s Place and in London where they entertained George Colman (q.v.), Sheridan, and other notables. Lacy performed in provincial theatres, badly enough “to demonstrate his lack of talent” (Biog. Dict. of Actors). He debuted at Drury Lane in Oct. 1774. Following the death of his second wife, actress Elizabeth Jackson (married 1789), in Nov. 1794 he married the widow of James Griffiths, Sarah Keysall (1764-1815). One of his several daughters, Mary Ann (1803-1877), actress and playwright, married the dramatist and novelist George William Lovell (1804-1878). In Dec. 1809, the Drury Lane Fund (he was a trustee) granted him a guinea a week. In 1813, he published “an account of his financial difficulties, with an appeal for help.” He died on 17 Sep. 1831 in Mornington Place, Camden. (ODNB under James Lacy 28 June 2023; PRO 11/789, 11/995; Kentish Gazette, 29 Jan. 1774; Public Advertiser, 17 Oct 1776; Bath Chronicle, 27 Aug. 1789; Morning Herald, 7 June 1815; Public Ledger, 26 Nov. 1817; Sun, 18 Nov 1819; Lady’s Monthly Museum [Feb. 1823], 61-62; D. Garrick, Private Correspondence of David Garrick [1831], 2:612; Biographical Dictionary of Actors [1984], 9:91-111) JC