George Dacre, 5th Baron Dacre

Born about 1561, Dacre was the only surviving son of Thomas Dacre, 4th Baron Dacre (c. 1527 – 1566), by his marriage to Elizabeth Leyburne (1536–1567), the eldest daughter of Sir James Leyburne of Westmorland. This was his father's second marriage.[1] He had a brother, Francis, who died in infancy, and three sisters: Anne (21 March 1557 – 19 April 1630), Mary (4 July 1563 – 7 April 1578), and Elizabeth (born 12 December 1564)

Dacre succeeded his father as Baron Dacre on 1 July 1566, at the age of five.[2] Soon after this, his widowed mother married Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, but she died in childbirth on 4 September 1567, so that Dacre and his three sisters were left as members of the household of their widowed step-father, Norfolk.[1]

The boy peer, aged no more than five, was summoned to parliament on 30 September 1566.[3] He died on 17 May 1569, when the barony of Dacre, although claimed by his uncle Leonard, was found to have fallen into abeyance, leaving Dacre's three sisters as co-heiresses. By the age of fourteen, each of the three had been married to one of their step-brothers, the sons of the Duke of Norfolk.[1]