[2] A native of Buckingham Township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Lacey was a member of local militia unit which was incorporated into the Pennsylvania Line of the Continental Army.
He served as a captain under Colonel Anthony Wayne on the Canadian frontier in 1776, but he and Wayne got along poorly and Lacey resigned his commission and went home.
In 1777, he served as a lieutenant colonel in a Bucks County Regiment of militia, during which he fought at Germantown, and Matson's Ford.
[2] He commanded the American forces in the Battle of Crooked Billet.
[5] The Gen. John Lacey Homestead was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.