Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland


Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland, of Mereworth in Kent and of Apethorpe Hall in Northamptonshire was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1601 and 1624 and then was raised to the Peerage as Earl of Westmorland.

Origins

He was the eldest surviving son and heir of Sir Thomas Fane of Badsell in the parish of Tudeley in Kent, by his second wife Mary Neville, suo jure Baroness le Despenser, heiress of Mereworth in Kent, sole daughter and heiress of Henry Nevill, 6th Baron Bergavenny by his wife Lady Frances Manners, 3rd daughter of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland.
The earliest proven recorded ancestor of the Fane family of Kent is "Henry a Vane" of Tonbridge, Kent, thrice-great-grandfather of Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland. According to GEC Complete Peerage "the long line of Welsh descent, as given in the Heraldic Visitation of Kent 1574, is spurious". His younger brother was George Fane of Burston.

Career

Fane was educated at Maidstone Grammar School in Kent and in about 1595 matriculated at Queens' College, Cambridge. He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn on 19 November 1597, for training as a lawyer.
In 1601, with the support of his near neighbour Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham, lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, Fane was returned as a Member of Parliament for Kent. He was created a Knight of the Bath at the Coronation of King James I on 25 July 1603. After Cobham's disgrace Fane was elected as a Member of Parliament for Maidstone in 1604. He was re-elected MP for Maidstone in 1614 and in 1621. In 1624 he was elected MP for Peterborough, Northamptonshire, near his wife's home at Apethorpe. On 29 December 1624, he was created Baron Burghersh "in the County of Sussex", and Earl of Westmorland. On his mother's death on 28 June 1626 he succeeded her as 4th Baron le Despenser, and as de jure 8th and 6th Baron Bergavenny.

Marriage and children

On 15 February 1598/99 Fane married Mary Mildmay, daughter and eventual sole heiress of Sir Anthony Mildmay, of Apethorpe Hall near the City of Peterborough in Northamptonshire, British Ambassador to France, by his wife Grace Sherington a daughter and co-heiress of Sir Henry Sherington of Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire. By Mary Mildmay he had seven sons and six daughters:

Sons

  1. Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland, a poet and Member of Parliament.
  2. Thomas Fane, died in infancy
  3. Sir Francis Fane of Fulbeck, third but second surviving son. He was a Royalist governor of Doncaster, and afterwards of Lincoln Castle. He was the great-grandfather of Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland.
  4. Anthony Fane, a colonel in the Parliamentary army, who suffered a shot wound to the cheek at the siege of Farnham Castle on 9 December 1642 and died at his home in Kingston upon Thames early the following year. He married Amabel Benn who after his death married Henry Grey, 10th Earl of Kent.
  5. Col. George Fane, fifth but fourth surviving son. A Royalist officer and later Member of Parliament.
  6. William Fane
  7. Robert Fane

    Daughters

Westmorland was buried at Apethorpe on 17 April 1629. A monumental inscription survives in Mereworth Church near Badsell. He was survived by his wife Mary Mildmay, who died at Stevenage and was buried at Apethorpe, and many children.

Literature