A research paper by H A HANLEY called “A Buckinghamshire Tory: Thomas Hackett of North Crawley (1627-1689) describes the county election of 1685 with protagonists Thomas Wharton of Nether Winchendon , future Earl Wharton and Whig manager extraordinary and Arch Tory , George Jeffreys, Lord Chief Justice and later Lord Chancellor to James 11, who personally took a hand on behalf of the Tory candidate Thomas Hackett with a strategy of a last minute adjournment of the Poll from Aylesbury to Newport Pagnell which Hackett eventually lost.
Hanley had access to some of Thomas Hackett’s correspondence from 1659 to 1688 from which he describes him as a family man , a landowner and a public servant.
Thomas was the grandson of Roger Hackett DD who was appointed Rector in 1590, and born to his father also a Roger who was reputed to have Royalist sympathies in the Civil War and his mother Frances Preston of St Albans in 1627 and so would have witnessed the Civil War first hand.
Unfortunately his mother died when he was 5 years old and his father Roger remarried and Thomas acquired 3 half brothers the eldest of which was named Roger and was 9 years younger than Thomas.
In 1650 his father Roger settled his Estate on Thomas on his marriage to Elizabeth Nicholls an heiress from Leicestershire.
Thomas was a well respected Justice of the Peace and with a wide ranging family of cousins all over the country he was executor of a number of Wills including that of “a kinsman” Dr William Clark, Dean of Winchester and Rector of North Crawley from 1650 to 1679. In the course of executing the Will he had a dispute with Sir Anthony Chester of Chicheley .
His father did not leave all his property in North Crawley to him, his half brother Roger was left some, he did however have property in Leicestershire by by reason of his marriage and also some property purchased in Northamptonshire.
His other half brother Nicholas was left an estate in Hanslope.
Thomas in 1678 purchased the Manor of Ecton in Northants for £600.
As a property owner Thomas was involved in a number of legal disputes but correspondence supports the view that he enjoyed a good relationship with his tenants and in 1659 he settled with Lord Exeter’s Court regarding his fathers landgrab of Mill Hill Field in 1638 to extend his Home Close.
As a JP he was to deal with the Settlement Act of 1662 which imposed drastic restrictions on the movement of the poor by enabling parish officers to obtain the removal of newcomers thought likely to become a charge on the rates. A family named Brittin in North Crawley was one case dealt with but although Thomas advised that they could legally be sent away he asked the officers if they could obtain security that was satisfactory instead.
As a JP he was also called to certify with the Churchwardens an Indenture of Apprenticeship between Richard Mabley and the Husbandman Richard Whitbread of North Crawley.
As a JP Thomas had a hand in the administrative business of Quarter Sessions relating to County affairs generally, in one case concerning the mastership of the house of correction at Newport Pagnell.
Assessor of Taxes was another public duty which Thomas undertook. Correspondence indicates him being involved with a disputed assessment at Lathbury and also reporting on the measures taken for the Collection of Taxes in the Newport Hundreds.
Correspondence confirming his resignation from Public Life is dated 1688 just one year before his death.
His Will of 1689 leaves his main Estate to his son Nicholls.
Thomas had seen the Civil War, the execution of Charles 1, The Interegnum of the Cromwells, death of Charles 11 in 1685 , the accession of James 11 in that year only to be quickly deposed in 1688 by William and Mary. As a responsible member of society it was a life well lived.