Henry Fane of Wormsley

Portrait of Henry Fane by Thomas Gainsborough, c. 1750

Henry Fane (16 October 1703 – 31 May 1777) of Wormsley nr. Watlington, Oxfordshire, was one of the chief clerks of the Board of Treasury, one of the chief clerks to the Privy Council, and a Member of Parliament.^[1][2]

Biography

Henry Fane was the grandson of Francis Fane, a Restoration dramatist, and son of Henry Fane (1669–1726) of Brympton and Anne, sister and coheir of John Scrope of Wormsley.^[1]

Henry Fane, was one of the chief clerks of the Board of Treasury from 1742 until July 1764, and one of the chief clerks to the Privy Council from 1756 until 1764, and a commissioner for the duties on salt.^[1]

In 1757, on the death of his brother Francis, Henry was elected for Lyme Regis; was re-elected 1774, and died 31 May 1777.^[1]

Family

On 17 July 1735,^[3] Henry Fane married Charlotte Rowe, only daughter of Nicholas Rowe, Esq. the Poet Laureate. She died in 1739, at twenty-three, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. They had a daughter, Charlotte, who married Sir William St. Quintin of Harpham in Yorkshire, 15 May 1758. She died on 17 April 1762, and is buried at Harpham.^[1]

Fane married for the second time on 20 May 1742. He married Anne Wynne, daughter of Dr. John Wynne, late bishop of Bath and Wells, with whom he had one daughter, Mary, who on 27 November 1765, married Sir Thomas Stapleton, of Grey's-court in Oxfordshire, Bart, (see Stapleton baronets), and was mother of Lord le Despencer (see Baron le Despencer).^[1][4]

Fane married his third wife, Charlotte Luther, in September 1748. She was the daughter of Richard Luther, of Miles (Myles's) near Ongar in Essex, Esq. who died 18 April 1758, and sister of John Luther (MP). She was buried at Lewknor. They had a daughter who died an infant and four sons:^[1]

• Henry, died 4 January 1759, aged eight years, and is buried at Lewknor;
• John (1751–1824), a member of parliament for Oxfordshire;
• Francis (1752–1813), a member of parliament for Dorchester;
• Richard, died 28 March 1759, buried at Lewknor.

Brother

Thomas Fane (1700–71), of Bristol,^[5] was an attorney, and clerk to the Society of Merchant Venturers of Bristol, and then MP for Lyme Regis, 19 January 1753 - 26 August 1762.^[6] He married on 8 August 1727, Elizabeth, daughter of William Swymmer, Bristol merchant, widow of Samuel Kentish, clerk of the court of Chancery,^[7] and succeeded his brother Francis of Brympton (c.1698-1757) in his Somerset estates in 1757; and a distant cousin as 8th Earl of Westmorland on 26 August 1762.

Notes

1. Collins & Brydges 1812, p. 303
2. Bindoff 1982, p. 412
3. commemorated, for example, by a magnificent George Wickes soup tureen, 1737, 16.5 inches (42 cm) long, and 142 ounces in weight. With Fane bull crest as handles and the arms of Fane impaling Rowe. (The Collection of the late John Fane, Dreweatt's, Donnington Priory, Newbury, 26 November 2009: sold for £24,000 against an estimate of £30-50,000: 'An important George II silver oval tureen and cover by George Wickes, London 1737, on four lion-mask and claw and ball capped feet, the handles cast as the crest of Fane (a bull's head), the body applied with cast amorials of Fane and Rowe within rococo cartouches, the stepped and domed lid with cast and applied the crests of Fane in rococo cartouches and classical heads within rococo shell and foliate decoration on textured backgrounds, the cast scroll handle with highly stylised lion mask, paw and leaf decoration, fully hallmarked on the lid and body, scratch weight 151 oz 3d, 42cm (18.5in) long, 4035g (129.7oz). The Garrard Ledgers in The Victoria & Albert Museum Archives Library show the following entry in George Wickes' accounts: 'Henry Fane August 4th 1737 'Turreen & cover' (sic) 131ozs .10; cost £55.0s.0d.'. The accounts state that Henry Fane paid for the tureen August 20th 1737, in cash the sum of £57. 15s., which included other work carried out. The castings of the handles on this tureen had been used by Wickes on an earlier tureen for Lord North in 1735. Another tureen, made for Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1743, employed the same cast handle and lion masks and paw feet. Similar handle and feet castings were later used by Paul de Lamerie on a tureen of 1751. Literature: Barr, E. 'George Wickes', Studio Vista/Christie's, 1980, p 123, 151 and 154 for illustrations of the tureens made by Wickes for Lord North and Frederick, Prince Of Wales').'
4. The Gentleman's magazine, Volume 150, p. 465
5. Mary M. Drummond in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964.
6. He was educated Middle Temple 1729, and called 1759.
7. two sons and two daughters

References

• Bindoff, Stanley T.; et al. (1982). The House of Commons: 1509 - 1558 ; 3, Members N - Z. Volume 4. Boydell & Brewer, 1982. ISBN 0-436-30420-1.
• Collins, Arthur; Brydges, Egerton (1812). Collins's Peerage of England; Genealogical, Biographical, and Historical. 3. F. C. and J. Rivington, Otridge and son.

Attribution

• This article incorporates text from a work in the public domain: "Collins's Peerage of England; Genealogical, Biographical, and Historical" by Arthur Collins

Further reading

Anonymous (1825). "Fane, John". The Annual biography and obituary. 9. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown. pp. 414,415.