Family and Education

b. 5 Jan. 1785, 4th s. of Hon. Henry Fane† (d. 1802) of Fulbeck, nr. Grantham, Lincs. and Anne, da. and h. of Edward Buckley Batson, London banker, of Avon Tyrrell and Upwood, Dorset; bro. of Sir Henry Fane*. educ. Eton 1796. m. 2 June 1815, Elizabeth, da. of Charles Chaplin† of Blankney, Lincs., 1s. d.v.p. 4da. (2 d.v.p.). d. 18 Jan. 1863.

Offices Held

Mayor, Lyme Regis 1830-1.

Biography

Fane’s father, the younger son of the 8th earl of Westmorland, bequeathed him £1,000 in East India stock and a sixth share in the proceeds of £1,882 invested in three per cent annuities.1 His mother, whose slender means he slightly augmented, presumably used her family connections to start him on a career in banking. On hearing that he wished to resign his clerkship in Childs’ bank, she wrote to him on 9 Feb. 1814 regretting that his profession ‘has turned out so very unpleasant a one and that offers so distant a prospect of your profiting by it, till you are become so far advanced in life to have any enjoyment in what it may then produce’. Thinking that ‘the precarious tenure of the pursuits you hint at appears to me somewhat objectionable’, she advised him to consult his brother-in-law Charles Arbuthnot*, the Liverpool ministry’s patronage secretary, about a possible place under government, or his own contacts about an opening in a mercantile house. Repeating her fear of the effect a future change of ministry might have on his income, 20 Mar. 1814, she gave the example of her husband, who had been deprived of his treasury clerkship in 1762, and recommended him ‘to make your fortune among the ladies’ as ‘a much better pursuit for you than the one you are looking forwards to’.2 He is not known to have taken office, but did marry into a Lincolnshire family the following year. He remained in banking, being a partner in Praeds and Company of 189 Fleet Street, London, from 1817 until his death.3

Fane became a freeman of Lyme Regis, the pocket borough of his cousin the 10th earl of Westmorland, the lord privy seal, by gift in 1813 and was elected a capital burgess in 1819.4 Having replaced his eldest brother Sir Henry Fane as its Member in 1818, he was again returned unopposed at the general election of 1820.5 He continued to support ministers in silence when present.6 He voted against economies in revenue collection, 4 July 1820, repeal of the additional malt duty, 3 Apr., economy and retrenchment, 27 June 1821, more extensive tax reductions to relieve distress, 11, 21 Feb. 1822, and for the duke of Cumberland’s annuity, 10 June 1825. He divided in defence of ministers’ conduct towards Queen Caroline, 6 Feb. 1821, and against inquiry into Irish tithes, 19 June 1822, repeal of the Foreign Enlistment Act, 16 Apr. 1823, and condemning the trial of the Methodist missionary John Smith in Demerara, 11 June 1824. He voted against parliamentary reform, 9 May 1821, 20 Feb. 1823, and reform of Edinburgh’s representation, 13 Apr. 1826. He divided against Catholic relief, 28 Feb. 1821, 30 Apr. 1822, 1 Mar., 21 Apr., 10 May, and the Irish franchise bill, 26 Apr. 1825. He was given two weeks’ leave on urgent private business, 18 Feb., and was in the majority against the Leith docks bill, 20 May. He visited his constituency to dine with the corporation in the summer of 1825, but retired from the House at the dissolution in 1826 in favour of one of Westmorland’s younger sons. He died in January 1863.

Ref Volumes: 1820-1832

Author: David R. Fisher

Notes

• 1. PROB 11/1376/453.
• 2. Lincs. AO, Fane mss 6/4/1/13, 14.
• 3. O. Barron, Northants. Fams. 119; F.G. Hilton Price, Handbook of London Bankers (1890-1), 132.
• 4. Dorset RO, Lyme Regis borough recs. DC/LR B6/5, 11.
• 5. HP Commons, 1790-1820, iii. 726.
• 6. Black Bk. (1823), 154; Session of Parl. 1825, p. 463.