Lacey, Elias Doctor

Elias Lacey was known for his expertise as a physician. Dr. Lacey handled a case in 1824 in which he successfully diagnosed an extra-uterine pregnancy, or a pregnancy where the fertilized egg is outside the uterus, of an enslaved woman. The case was later recorded in the New England Journal of Medicine, among other medical books and magazines. Accounts of his other medical exploits were also published.  In 1859, the Alexandria Gazette praised his professional skill, but nonetheless reported that he could not save a local six-year-old girl who wandered off and ingested too many persimmons.

The Mason family used Lacey’s services in attending to Stevens Thomson Mason, Jr. in 1815. According to the Mason family account book, they even ordered Dr. Lacey a gig, or a light two-wheeled carriage drawn by a horse, to transport the doctor and his splints, instruments and medicine.

Lacey was involved in a slavery case in 1810. A Mr. Kelly had sold an enslaved man named Sam to him for one hundred pounds, but Sam successfully sued Lacey for his freedom in 1810. Kelly supplied Lacey with another slave, Joe, to aid in the corn-planting season with the understanding Joe would be returned once the season was over. In 1818, Lacey sued Kelly hoping to get compensation for the slave who had gained freedom. By 1821, the court granted an injunction to Kelly and then dismissed the case.

Lacey’s wife, Mary Bayley Lacey, died of a sudden illness in early 1845. Described in her obituary as a most amiable consort, she likely covered up for Elias’s obtuse behavior and held the family together as he often drank to excess. A chancery case brought by her brother William Bayley in 1817 asserted that Mary needed to abandon her residence because Elias treated her badly. Apparently the two settled their differences, as Mary sent a letter one year later asking that the court dismiss the case.

Dr. Lacey owned several hundred acres of land, the majority of which was in Aldie, Virginia, located between what is now Chantilly and Middleburg. Upon his death in 1847, his children Benjamin, Mesheck Henry, Alexander Israel, and Mary Jane all received a portion of his estate. The household items, books, surveying instruments, medical equipment, farm animals, tools, and husbandry items were included in a list of personal property sold, indicating his business interests outside of medicine.

By Melissa Cannarozzi