Family and Education

b. 13 Feb. 1645, 3rd s. of Mildmay Fane^†, 2nd Earl of Westmorland, being 1st surv. s. by 2nd w. Mary, da. and coh. of Horace, 1st Baron Vere of Tilbury, wid. of Sir Roger Townshend^†, 1st Bt., of Raynham Hall, Norf.; half-bro. of Charles Fane, Lord le Despenser, and Sir Horatio Townshend 3rd. Bt.. m. 13 July 1671, (with £6,600), Rachel, da. and h. of John Bence of Bevis Marks, London, 5s. (1 d.v.p.) 3da. KB 23 Apr. 1661; suc. half-bro. as 4th Earl of Westmorland 18 Sept. 1691.1

Offices Held

Dep. lt. Kent 1668-82, 1689-92, j.p. 1669-78, 1679-82, Aug. 1688-d.; asst. Rochester bridge 1672, warden 1673, 1680, 1687; commr. for assessment, Kent 1673-80, 1689-90, jt. ld. lt. 1692-d.2

Biography

Fane stood for Peterborough in 1666 for the seat vacated by his half-brother Charles, but was unsuccessful. However, the other seat became vacant in 1671, and he represented the city in the last nine sessions of the Cavalier Parliament. An inactive Member, he served on only six committees, but was marked ‘doubly worthy’ on Shaftesbury’s list. He probably composed the letter to the lord lieutenant protesting against government support for Sir John Banks at Winchelsea in 1677, acted as teller against his election on 7 Mar. 1678, and was removed from the commission of the peace by order of the King in the same month. In the Exclusion Parliaments he sat for Kent, where his family had originated in the 15th century. ‘He was a very good-natured man’, according to his son, the 6th Earl, ‘but affected popularity too much, living in Kent, where he was greatly beloved, far beyond the compass his estate would allow of.’ Shaftesbury marked him ‘worthy’, and he voted for the first exclusion bill. His only committee was on the bill to encourage the export of leather in the second Exclusion Parliament.3

Fane objected to the address from the Kentish militia in the spring of 1682, promising loyalty to the King and his heirs ‘in the right line’, because, he maintained, the Duke of York would be excluded by the next Parliament, and he was again removed from local office. Nothing more is heard of him till the Revolution, in which, according to his son, he was ‘very forward and active’. He was again returned for Kent in 1689, though he was defeated at Maidstone by Banks’s son. In the Convention he helped to conduct Henry Powle to the Speaker’s chair. He was appointed only to the committee of elections and privileges, but was listed as supporting the disabling clause in the bill to restore corporations. He was re-elected in 1690, but succeeded to the peerage in the following year. In the Upper House he was reckoned a government supporter, but in his expectation of reward as manager of the excise with Thomas Mun ‘he found himself greatly deceived in the short time he had to live’. He died of diabetes on 29 Dec. 1693, and was buried at Mereworth. Two of his younger sons sat for Kent in succession from 1715 to 1722.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Basil Duke Henning

Notes

• 1. C10/300/22.
• 2. HMC Finch, i. 509; Kent AO, Q/JC 12-21; CSP Dom. 1682, p. 223; information from Mr P. F. Cooper, Bridge Clerk, Rochester Bridge Trust.
• 3. CJ, ix. 451; Kent AO, Sa/ZB3/1; HMC Finch, ii. 44.
• 4. Eg. 2895, f. 244; N. and Q. (ser. 3), vi. 121; HMC 10th Rep. IV, 48; Cal. Treas. Pprs. i. 41, 70, 210.