James Horace Lacy was born in New Bern (Craven County), North Carolina, on August 25, 1835. Lacy was the son of Drury Lacy, who served as the reverend of the Presbyterian Church in Raleigh. He died in Chapel Hill, while a student at the University of North Carolina, on September 22, 1852. His gravesite monument was erected by the university's Dialectic Society. He seems to have been awarded his degree posthumously in 1853.