Frederick Lucas was elected as M.P. for Meath in 1852 and also founded ‘The Tablet’. A journalist and politician Lucas was born into a Quaker family at Westminster in 1812. Lucas converted to Catholicism in 1838 and in 1840 founded ‘The Tablet’, the first Catholic weekly newspaper in England. It is now the second oldest surviving weekly journal in Britain. He took a strong view on his religion and strongly attacked the Church of England and its bishops. In 1844 Lucas supported the introduction of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul into Britain. In the early 1840s he became a supporter of repeal for Ireland and later of the Young Irelanders while opposing the 1848 rising. Lucas condemned the British policy in relation to the Famine. In 1849 Lucas moved the offices of ‘The Tablet’ to Dublin and was a co-founder of the Tenant League with Charles Gavan Duffy.
In 1852 Lucas was elected MP for Co. Meath with the support of the bishop of Meath, John Cantwell. Lucas spoke eighty six times in parliament covering topics from tenat rights to the state of Roman Catholics in India. As an MP Lucas became one of the main spokesmen for the Tenant League. In 1853 Lucas condemned Archbishop Cullen who was urging priests not to partake in political matters. Lucas made a case to Rome to change the position and spent a considerable amount of time in preparing a statement for the Pope. However he died before he could present the statement and in any case the Pope rejected it. Lucas returned to England where he died in 1855 and is buried in Brompton cemetery.