Background
He was the son of Richard I Acland (d1703), of Fremington, a merchant of Barnstaple, who purchased the Manor of Fremington in 1683 and was nominated Mayor of Barnstaple in 1688, but did not serve.
The Acland family of Barnstaple appears to have been a junior branch of the Acland Baronets of Killerton House in Devon and Holnicote in Somerset, which originated in the 12th century at the estate of Acland, Landkey in North Devon, two miles east of Barnstaple, and which by the 19th century was one of the largest landowners in the Southwest of England. The exact relationship of the Aclands of Barnstaple to the Acland Baronets is unclear as the Barnstaple "mercantile family" of Acland is not mentioned in the Heraldic Visitations pedigree of the Acland "gentry family". The coat of arms of the two branches is identical, (Chequy argent and sable, a fesse gules) but the crests differ.
