FANE (VANE), Hon. George (c.1616-63), of Basildon, Berks. and Hatton Garden, London.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Nov. 1640 - 16 Jan. 1643
1661 - Apr. 1663

Family and Education

b. c. 1616, 5th but 4th surv. s. of Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland, by Mary, da. and h. of Sir Anthony Mildmay of Apethorpe, Northants.; bro. of Mildmay Fane and Sir Francis Fane. educ. Eton 1627-32; Emmanuel, Camb. 1632; travelled abroad (Italy) 1635-8. m. by 1650, Dorothy, da. and h. of James Horsey of Honington, Warws., wid. of Thomas Marsh of Cambridge, and Hackney, Mdx., 1s. 1da.1

Offices Held

Capt. of ft. [I] 1642, lt.-col. (royalist) by 1643, col. 1644-9.2

J.p. Berks. July 1660-d., dep. lt. c. Aug. 1660-d.; commr. for assessment, Warws. Aug. 1660-1, Berks. 1661-d., corporations, Berks. 1661-3, loyal and indigent officers 1662.3

Biography

Fane was disabled for royalism early in the Civil War when he was serving in Ireland. He fought as a colonel at Marston Moor, and was granted the reversion of a clerkship in the court of wards, worth £7,000 p.a. He seems to have returned to Ireland, but compounded on his own discovery in 1649. He possessed nothing but clothing, equipment and a horse, worth in all £60, and escaped with a fine of £3. This was doubtless a preliminary to his marriage to an heiress, whose property would otherwise have become liable to sequestration. He was imprisoned for a few weeks in 1651 on suspicion, but took no part in royalist plots during the Interregnum. As a precaution, however, he purchased his estate at Basildon in 1656 in the names of his sister, Lady Bath (who may have advanced him some of the money) and his nephew, Lord le Despenser (Charles Fane).4

Fane stood for Wallingford, ten miles upstream, in 1661. A few days before the poll, assisted by three other deputy lieutenants, he ‘ejected the mayor ... and established another in his room, upon pretence of an authority from his Majesty’. Secretary Nicholas was instructed on 28 Mar. to prepare a letter for the King’s signature, expressing his great dislike of these proceedings, and ordering them to reinstate the mayor; but Fane was duly returned four days later. He was one of the most active Members in the opening sessions of the Cavalier Parliament, serving on 84 committees, including those for the security, corporations and uniformity bills, and the bill of pains and penalties. On 28 May he acted as teller against a Lords amendment. He took a prominent part in private bills, carrying four to the Upper House, probably introducing two others, and reporting on another, that of Anthony Ettrick. His name stands first in the committees for bills to establish a registry of pawnbrokers, to provide allowances for curates and to reduce the rate of interest on loyalists’ debts. He helped to manage conferences on the corporations bill and the bill of pains and penalties. He was one of the Members appointed to attend the lord treasurer about the Forest of Dean on 25 July, and to perfect the bill for the regulation of printing on the next day. After the autumn recess he was named to the committee on the bill for the execution of those under attainder. On 16 Apr. 1662 he was voted £10,000 compensation for the abolition of the court of wards, but his applications for an immediate payment of half this sum out of the Post Office revenue and for a post on the Irish establishment bore no fruit. He was among the Members instructed on 19 May to present an address on draining Lindsey level. Clearly he was in close touch with the Court, his brother the 2nd Earl of Westmorland using him as an intermediary with Lord Chancellor Clarendon. He was the first Member appointed to consider a petition from Cholsey, a village adjoining his constituency, on 20 Mar. 1663. A fortnight later he was one of the Members ordered to thank the King for his message about priests and Jesuits. But he died in the same month, and was buried on 25 Apr. at St. Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Leonard Naylor

Notes

  • 1. VCH Northants. Fams. 97, 112.
  • 2. P. Young, Marston Moor, 96-97; HMC Ormonde, i. 128, 159, 210.
  • 3. Berks. RO, Wallingford stat. bk. ff. 25-26.
  • 4. Keeler, Long Parl. 172; Cal. Comm. Comp. 2099; VCH Berks. iii. 460-1; CSP Dom. 1651, pp. 113, 209.
  • 5. PC2/55, ff. 180-1; SP29/33/51; CJ, viii. 311, 314, 326; CSP Dom. 1661-2, p. 221; CSP Ire. 1663-5, p. 512; Cal. Cl. SP, v. 240.