FANE, Thomas (1683-1736)

Fane succeeded to the earldom of Westmorland unexpectedly and while still a minor following the death of his elder brother, Vere Fane, 5th earl of Westmorland, who had contracted a fever and died just short of his majority while abroad at The Hague. While his brother had been early on marked out for service at court and had attracted the favourable attention of the king, his successor had been intended for the Navy, a calling that he found thoroughly appealing, having served for the past few years as a volunteer on board the ship Resolution. It was thus with a sense of keen disappointment that the new earl of Westmorland was compelled to abandon his naval career and take his brother’s place at the Academy at The Hague. Add. 34223, ff. 8-10. Westmorland names his ship the Revolution. It was more likely the Resolution (CSP Dom. 1699-1700, p. 245). Not only did he find himself saddled with a role for which he considered himself unsuited, Westmorland also succeeded to an estate encumbered with debts, some of which he was still paying off almost 30 years later. Northants. RO, W(A) box 7. xvii. 2, W(A) box 7. xviii. His youngest brother was said to have had ‘nothing to keep him from starving but £150 a year’ out of the subpoena office in chancery. Add. 61363, ff. 63-4. Their mother, Rachel, dowager countess of Westmorland, was convinced that a position at court was the solution to the family’s problems and took the peculiar step of withholding funds from the young earl in the hopes that the king would make up the shortfall. It was a policy that Westmorland discovered rapidly did not work. Although he was granted an annual pension of £300 and was offered assistance by the English ambassador at The Hague, Sir Joseph Williamson^‡, Westmorland soon found himself in such financial straits that he was forced to leave his lodgings at The Hague and find cheaper accommodation. Following the death of William III, Westmorland appealed to John Churchill, earl (later duke) of Marlborough, for money. Marlborough obliged with £200, but while Westmorland believed this to have been the result of Marlborough’s generosity, in reality the loan was made on orders from Queen Anne and Marlborough made quite sure that his money was reimbursed. Marlborough-Godolphin Corresp. 82-83; Add. 34223, ff. 10-11.

Westmorland returned to England in the summer of 1702. On Marlborough’s recommendation he was presented to the queen by Sidney Godolphin, Baron (later earl of) Godolphin. HMC 10th Rep. iv. 30; Marlborough-Godolphin Corresp. i. 82-83. His pension of £300 p.a. was renewed from the autumn of 1702, while in October he also received £150 out of secret service money. CTB 1702, p. 85; 1703, p. 215. The extent of the family’s financial plight was made apparent when Westmorland’s mother brought a case in chancery against her own children in an effort to recoup money she had expended in defraying her late husband’s debts. Between October and December 1702 proceedings were initiated against Westmorland, his brothers John Fane^†, later 7th earl of Westmorland, and Mildmay Fane^‡, and his sisters Susan and Rachel, all of whom were underage. The court appointed Joseph Watts to stand guardian to Westmorland and his brothers and their elder sister Mary Fane to act in the same capacity for Susan and Rachel Fane. Lady Westmorland claimed that following her husband’s death she had been compelled to pay almost £4,000 from her own money, as the estates set aside by the former earl to satisfy his debts had proved woefully inadequate. The parties eventually reached agreement in May 1703, by which the countess dowager was recognized as a creditor of the former earl’s estate. TNA, C33/299, ff. 5, 39, 130, 239, 258.

Only too aware of the extent of the financial crisis that faced him, Westmorland seems to have been resolute in seeking ways to supplement his income. In late January 1703 he made the first of a series of petitions for the renewal of the office of master forester and warden of Cliff bailiwick in Rockingham forest, which had long been held by his family. CTB 1703, p 122; 1704-5, p. 509. In April 1704 he was appointed a gentleman of the bedchamber to Prince George, duke of Cumberland. Luttrell, Brief Relation, v. 419. The position came with a salary of £600 p.a. and he believed (probably mistakenly) that his advancement was owing to Marlborough’s patronage. CTB 1708, p. 297; Add. 61363, f. 82. Westmorland came to view the prince with the greatest of affection and loyalty, professing that although Prince George was ‘a foreigner born [he] was become so hearty an Englishman that it was visible to all who were about him always pleased with their successes and speaking always in a manner natural for people of a country to do in behalf of their own.’ Add. 34223, ff. 12-14.

Westmorland took his seat in the House on 6 Nov. 1704, after which he was present on 67 per cent of sitting days in the session. On 27 Feb. 1705 he was named to the committee to consider the heads to be presented in conference concerning the Aylesbury men. In late March he was appointed deputy governor of Dover Castle and deputy warden of the Cinque Ports under Prince George in place of Charles Finch, 4th earl of Winchilsea. Westmorland’s promotion at this time was part of a general restructuring of local government in favour of the Whigs and may also have provided a mild sop to someone who had intended to make his career at sea. Luttrell, Brief Relation, v. 535. Westmorland complained that throughout his tenure of the office he was subjected to ‘unkind usage’ from Godolphin, who refused consistently to allow him the usual expenses and that his Whig political principles attracted the opprobrium of the other members of Prince George’s ‘family’, in particular George Churchill^‡, Marlborough’s brother. Add. 34223, ff. 15-16. Westmorland’s new responsibilities brought him interest in a number of coastal boroughs. Within days of being appointed he was approached by Sir Basil Dixwell^‡, bt. the former lieutenant-governor of Dover Castle, who complained that he had been ‘unjustly put out’ by Winchilsea ‘for no other reason than not being of the Tory party’, and sought Westmorland’s patronage to restore him to favour in the town. Northants. RO, W(A) box 6. iv. Sir Basil Dixwell to Westmorland, 12 Apr. 1705. During the summer of 1705 Westmorland was active in the elections throughout the Cinque Ports, and though he claimed great success and the replacement of Tories with men sympathetic to his ‘principles’, in reality the returns were far more mixed, and his interest in the return of members rather more limited than he cared to believe. Add. 34223, f. 15; HP Commons, 1690-1715, ii. 764.

On 12 Nov. 1705 Westmorland took his seat in the new Parliament, after which he was present for approximately 72 per cent of the session. On 6 Dec. he voted, unsurprisingly, against the Tory-led resolution that the Church was in danger under the current administration and five days later he was placed on the committee of twelve peers assigned to draft an address to the queen reporting the House’s resolution. WSHC, 3790/1/1, p. 60; PH, xxxii. 261. He was an active member of the committee which met on 12 Jan. 1706 to consider a bill for the naturalization of more than 100 foreigners. Nicolson, London Diaries, 351. On 26 Feb. and then again on 5 Mar. he dined with Charles Bennet, 2nd Baron Ossulston (later earl of Tankerville), and several other members of both Houses. TNA, C104/116 pt. 1, Ossulston’s Diary. He was named on 9 Mar. one of the managers for a conference regarding the printed letter of Sir Rowland Gwynn^‡ to Thomas Grey, 2nd earl of Stamford.

Westmorland’s standing at court was perhaps emphasized by his selection by Henry Grey, marquess (later duke) of Kent, as godfather to Kent’s daughter in 1706. The queen and duchess of Marlborough stood godmothers to the child. LPL, ms 1770, f. 11. During the summer of that year, Westmorland’s attention was again taken up with his duties in the Cinque Ports. His attempt to co-ordinate a joint address from all the port towns to the queen on Marlborough’s recent successes was ill conceived and, he was informed, too late to be organized, each town having already submitted their own addresses. Northants. RO, W(A) box 6. iv. J. Hollingbery to Westmorland, 11 June 1706. There were continuing difficulties over raising money for the renovation of Dover harbour and in July matters reached such a pass that Westmorland sought Godolphin’s leave to resign. Westmorland acknowledged that quitting his place would lose him the favour of Prince George, though he appears to have been on very poor terms with the prince at that point. In the event he chose not to give up his office but he continued to find cause to complain about being sidelined. In a letter to Charles Spencer, 3rd earl of Sunderland, probably written at the beginning of 1707 or 1708, he protested that since taking up his post he had not been permitted to appoint a single officer thereby making it impossible for him to execute his office effectively. Those under him, he protested, ‘perceiving the small interest he has, take not the least notice of him.’ HEHL, Hastings mss, HM 774; Northants. RO, box 6. iv. Dixwell to Westmorland, 10 Nov. 1706; Add. 61589, f. 110.

Having taken his seat in the new session on 3 Dec. 1706, Westmorland was present for 55 per cent of sitting days. As a placeman, Westmorland found himself in an awkward position on the question of the Union. He supported warmly the proposal that the Scottish Privy Council should be abolished, believing that, ‘the more we were brought to be one people and form of government the better and safer for our public liberties,’ but his views were not echoed by the lord treasurer, Godolphin. According to Westmorland, Godolphin wished to see the council survive as a means of maintaining control on elections in Scotland. When the question of abolition came to be debated in the House, Westmorland was summoned to Kensington for an interview with Prince George. In the event the summons arrived after the crucial vote had taken place and the resolution to abolish had already been carried with Westmorland’s support. Westmorland believed that he had been ordered to Kensington at Godolphin’s instance to put pressure on him to revise his intentions. Not for the first time, he found Prince George sympathetic to his views. Add. 34223, ff. 17-19. On 4 Mar., at the third reading of the Union bill, he acted as one of the tellers for the division on the motion for a second reading of the rider stating that nothing in the bill should be construed as an approbation of the Presbyterian Scottish Church and its claims of being the true Protestant religion. HMC Lords, n.s. vii. 20.

On 8 Feb. 1707 Westmorland introduced a paper into the House to be referred to the committee appointed that day to consider a recently-published ‘libel’. Ibid. 50. On 18 Feb. 1707 he chaired the committee considering the bill for naturalizing Philip van den Emden and later the same day he reported the bill as fit to pass without amendment. PA, HL/PO/CO/1/7, p. 208. It was perhaps because of his role on this committee that in March he was approached to employ his interest on behalf of a convert from Judaism, who was also seeking support for his bill of naturalization. Northants. RO, W(A) box 6. vii. 44. Westmorland took his seat in the final session of the English Parliament on 14 Apr., of which he attended seven of its nine days. During the summer he married Katherine Beaumont, ‘a most excellent woman’ of ‘an ancient family’ and reputed to be in possession of ‘a considerable fortune.’ Add. 34223, ff. 31-2; Luttrell, Brief Relation, vi. 189. The fact that her former husband had been named Beaumont and that Westmorland’s commander aboard the Resolution had been the ill-fated Basil Beaumont appears to have been a coincidence.

Westmorland took his seat in the first Parliament of Great Britain on 17 Nov. 1707 after which he was present for 58 per cent of all sitting days in the session. He reported on 4 Mar. from a committee of the whole House on the East Riding register bill. On 30 Mar. he reported the findings of a committee of the whole House concerning the act to empower the treasury to compound with Richard Parke for a debt to the queen. On the last day of that month he was named one of the eleven managers of a conference concerning the bill for the encouragement of trade with America. He was again named a manager on 1 Apr., this time for a conference on the waggoners’ bill. Westmorland was marked a Whig on a printed list of the Parliament of Great Britain in May. In spite of his former difficulties in making his interest felt in Dover, at the general election on 4 May he employed his interest successfully at nearby Hythe on behalf of his brother John Fane. The election of his brother-in-law, Sir Francis Dashwood^‡, at Winchelsea probably also owed something to his influence in the area. HP Commons, 1690-1715, ii. 779; iii. 843, 1016.

The summer of 1708 found Westmorland’s attention taken up by his involvement in a legal action that had been initiated by his wife three years previously. In spite of being in possession of ‘a considerable fortune’ Lady Westmorland had been compelled to go to law to secure her legacy from her former husband’s estate. TNA, C6/359/69. The surviving members of the Beaumont family contested Lady Westmorland’s bill strenuously, denying all knowledge of any settlement made in Lady Westmorland’s favour. It was not until December 1714 that a final resolution was arrived at, confirming to Lady Westmorland her legacy of £6,000 with the addition of £1,831 18s. on account of lost interest and fees spent in bringing the case. TNA, C33/321, ff. 25, 218; C33/323, f. 61.

The death of Prince George in October 1708 was a considerable blow for Westmorland. He resigned his offices rather than agree to serve under the new lord warden, Lionel Sackville, 7th earl (later duke) of Dorset. Add. 34223, f. 19. Freed from his responsibilities in the Cinque Ports, he took his seat in the new session of 16 Nov. after which he was present on 59 per cent of sitting days. Throughout January 1709 Westmorland attempted to make use of his interest with Marlborough to procure his brother John a commission in the guards, unaware that Marlborough had already confessed to Godolphin that he liked John Fane ‘much better than his brother.’ Add. 61366, f. 143; Marlborough-Godolphin Corresp. 1128. On 21 Jan. Westmorland voted with the Whigs and the Squadrone against allowing Scots peers with British titles from voting in the election of the Scottish representative peers. On 7 Mar. he dined with William Nicolson, bishop of Carlisle, and Wriothesley Russell, 2nd duke of Bedford, at Lambeth. Nicolson, London Diaries, 483. Following a burglary at one of his homes during the year, Westmorland petitioned in October for one of the culprits to be pardoned in return for providing information concerning the ringleaders. The guilty man, Baines, had his sentence commuted to transportation in January 1710. Add. 61618, f. 199; Add. 61617, ff. 8, 10.

Westmorland returned to the House for the new session on 12 Jan. 1710, of which he attended only approximately 39 per cent of sitting days. In spite of his lower attendance record, he was active throughout the trial of Henry Sacheverell. As a regular dining companion of Ossulston and William Ferdinand Carey, 8th Baron Hunsdon, he was also presumably able to keep abreast of affairs in the House. On the first day of the trial (27 Feb.) he dined with Ossulston at the George and the following day they dined together again, this time at the Duke of Bedford’s Head. Between 3 and 16 Mar. Westmorland, Ossulston and Hunsdon dined together on five occasions either at the House itself or at the George. TNA, C 104/116 pt. 1. On 20 Mar. all three united in finding Sacheverell guilty.

Westmorland suffered both personal and financial loss in the latter part of 1710. During the summer, the incompetent intervention of the royal physician, Sir David Hamilton, who had been recommended by the dowager countess, contributed to the loss of his heir. The delivery was so badly bungled that Lady Westmorland was left permanently weakened and barren. Add. 34223, ff. 31-4; Hamilton Diary, xxviii; VCH Northants. fams. 102. In August, his eldest sister, Lady Mary Dashwood, also died. Luttrell, Brief Relation, vi. 621. Shortly after, he appears to have received the final payment of his pension during the reign as gentleman of the bedchamber to the prince, despite an undertaking from the queen that former officers of her late husband would continue to be paid. Nominally he received £600 in 1711 and 1712 and £300 in 1713, but payment appears to have been woefully in arrears. The pension was most likely withheld through the influence of Robert Harley, later earl of Oxford, who in October 1710 marked Westmorland down as a court Whig and a ‘doubtful’ supporter of his newly-formed ministry. Jones, Party and Management, 166; Brit. Pols. 387-8. Westmorland later complained that Oxford also brought an ‘unreasonable prosecution’ against him over his rights as master forester of Cliff bailiwick in the forest of Rockingham. Northants. RO, W(A) box 7. xvii. 42.

Westmorland took his seat in the new Parliament on 18 Dec. 1710. Perhaps distracted by his personal travails, his attendance continued to tail off. He was in the House on a mere 18 per cent of sitting days. On 29 Jan. 1711 he was again in company with Ossulston and Hunsdon at the Red Lion and the following day he dined at Ossulston’s residence. TNA, C104/116 pt. 1. On 3 Feb. Westmorland entered his protest at the resolution to agree with the committee that the two regiments on the Spanish establishment at the time of the battle of Almanza had not been properly supplied. He subscribed a further protest at the resolution to agree with the committee that the failure of ministers to supply the deficiencies of men voted by Parliament for the war in Spain amounted to a neglect of the service. Bodl. Clarendon 90, ff. 158-9. Westmorland sat for two more days before absenting himself from 8 Feb. for two months. The evening before his last sitting he dined with Charles Montagu, Baron (later earl of) Halifax, Charles Montagu 4th earl (later duke) of Manchester*, with the diarist Ossulston making one of the party. TNA, C104/116 pt. 1, Ossulston diary.. Westmorland resumed his seat on 5 Apr. but he sat on just one more day in the session, 12 Apr., and the following day registered his proxy in favour of John Holles, duke of Newcastle.

Absent at the opening of the new session, on 1 Dec. 1711 Westmorland registered his proxy in favour of Sunderland for the 1711-12 session, which was vacated by his resumption of his seat nine days later. He thus was absent from the divisions on the first two days of the session, 7 and 8 Dec., on the Whig motion for the ‘no peace without Spain’ clause, even though Oxford (as Harley had since become) included him on a list of peers to be canvassed before the vote, and on another list of those who had voted against the ministry. He was present at the time of the proceedings on the claim of James Hamilton, 4th duke of Hamilton [S], to sit in the House by virtue of his British dukedom of Brandon, which Oxford predicted Westmorland would oppose. On 20 Dec. 1711 Westmorland voted as expected against permitting Scots peers from taking their seats by virtue of British peerages created since the Union. He registered his proxy with William Cavendish, 2nd duke of Devonshire, two days later, on 22 December. The proxy was vacated by his return to the House on 14 Jan. 1712. He then sat for just two more days before registering his proxy in favour of Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, on 19 Jan. which was in turn vacated by the prorogation of the session.

Westmorland took his seat in the House after an absence of more than a year on 9 Apr. 1713. His level of attendance remained low and he sat for just 10 days of the session (approximately 15 per cent of the whole). In spite of their poor relations, in April he approached Oxford to obtain a colonelcy for his brother John who had been unseated at Hythe two years earlier. Add. 70225, Westmorland to Oxford, 9 Apr. 1713. Oxford was unlikely to look upon him with favour, as he forecast that Westmorland would be one of those who would vote against confirming the eighth and ninth articles of the French commercial treaty if it ever came before the House that session. It was presumably to this that Westmorland referred in a letter of 27 June to one Mr Browning, in which he congratulated him on, ‘the glimmering of rescuing liberty from the amazing stupidity of slavery we were hurrying into, but I forget the old maxim which when a boy I thought a jest but never was more truer than now, audi, vidi, tace, si vis vivere in pace’ (hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil). Kent HLC (CKS), U282/C2, Westmorland to Mr Browning, 27 June 1713. His abandonment of Oxford on the subject of the peace notwithstanding, at the beginning of July Westmorland once more sought the lord treasurer’s interest to ‘rid me from the plague of law’ relating to woods to which he claimed ownership. Add. 70225, Westmorland to Oxford, 1 July 1713.

Westmorland returned to the House on 16 Feb. 1714 for the new Parliament. His record of attendance improved markedly with him present on almost 42 per cent of all sitting days but he made little impact on the session. On 19 Apr. he registered his proxy in favour of his Northamptonshire neighbour, Lewis Watson, 3rd Baron (later earl of) Rockingham, which was vacated by Westmorland’s resumption of his seat on 28 April. The following month Daniel Finch, 2nd earl of Nottingham, estimated that Westmorland would be opposed to the schism bill. On 13 May he again retired from the House, registering his proxy in favour of Rockingham once more, which was vacated at the close of the session.

Following the queen’s death on 1 Aug. 1714, Westmorland took his seat on 12 Aug. and attended just five days of the brief 15-day session. His stance as a supporter of the Hanoverian succession was in no doubt and he received his summons to the coronation on 20 Oct., a fortnight before the event at which he officiated as an assistant cupbearer. Northants. RO, W(A) box 7. xvii. 3. Active again in the elections in Kent, in February 1715 he was successful in persuading one of the sitting members for the county to stand down in favour of his youngest brother, Mildmay Fane^‡, who was returned at the top of the poll. HP Commons, 1715-54, i. 265; Kent HLC (CKS), U282/O3. On 26 July he returned to the House but four days later registered his proxy in favour of his distant cousin, George Nevill, 13th Baron Abergavenny, which was vacated on 21 September. His absence may have been connected with the sudden death of his brother Mildmay on 11 Sept. but the family’s interest in the county was confirmed with the return of John Fane for the vacant seat later the same month. HP Commons, 1715-54, ii. 25-6.

The new reign proved far more profitable to Westmorland. His arrears of pay totalling £1,800 were at last attended to as early as November 1714 and he was granted a further annual pension of £1,000 in 1717. CTB 1714-15, p. 185; 1717, p. 466. Improved fortunes were perhaps reflected in a marked improvement in his attendance record in the House. Named to a number of significant local offices by George I, Westmorland was finally able to realize some of his mother’s ambitions for the family. The later part of his career will be dealt with in detail in the second phase of this work. Westmorland died on 4 July 1736 at Mereworth, having outlived all but one of his siblings. He was buried in the family vault at Apethorpe and succeeded in the title by his remaining brother, John Fane, Baron Catherlough [I], as 7th earl of Westmorland. VCH Northants. fams. 102.