Family and Education

b. c. 1662, 1st s. of William Fenwick (d.v.p. s. of Edward Fenwick of Stanton, Northumb.) of Irthington, Cumb. by Elizabeth, da. of Robert Ellison† of Hebburn, co. Dur.  educ. St. Edmund Hall, Oxf. matric. 25 June 1678, aged 16; G. Inn 1678, called 1686.  m. 10 July 1692, Elizabeth, da. and h. of George Fenwick† of Brinkburn, Northumb., 4s. (1 d.v.p. ) 2da.  suc. fa. 24 May 1675, gdfa. 14 Aug. 1689.1

Offices Held

Biography

Re-elected in 1690 for Morpeth, Fenwick was listed as a Tory and Court supporter in Lord Carmarthen’s (Sir Thomas Osborne†) analysis of the new House. Though his recorded speeches are few, Fenwick acted frequently as a teller and was often involved in proceedings relating to various bills. In the 1690 session, for example, he assisted in the management of three estate bills, one of which concerned the lands of his kinsman Sir Robert Fenwick, and told on a number of occasions. On 10 Apr. he told against granting leave for a bill for ‘the naturalizing of all Protestants’, and Fenwick again demonstrated Tory sympathies seven days later when he told against allowing the sheriffs of London to present a petition to the Commons. During the following month Fenwick told on four further occasions: against referring to a select committee the bill for the improvement of woollen manufactures (7th); in favour of reading the engrossed bill concerning the £500 forfeitures (14th); in favour of exempting from the £500 forfeitures bill those who had taken office between 8 Oct. 1688 and 13 Feb. 1689 (15th); and in favour of the resolution that the franchise at Aldborough extended beyond the burgage-holders (17th). Early in the following session Fenwick was listed by Carmarthen as a likely supporter in the event of a Commons’ attack upon him, and his Toryism was clearly demonstrated on 2 Dec. when he told in favour of receiving a Tory petition detailing alleged Whig abuses in the corporation of London. Fenwick was less active in this session, his legislative work being limited to assisting in the management of a bill to settle a charity upon London’s Haberdashers’ Company, and in April 1691 was classed as a Country supporter in an analysis that survives among the papers of Robert Harley*. During the 1691–2 session Fenwick told on 11 Dec. 1691 in favour of accepting, as it had been subsequently altered by the Commons, a Lords’ amendment to the treason trials bill, and on 14 Dec. against summoning persons with information relating to illicit trading with France. In the new year he reported and carried to the Lords a bill for the relief of creditors (16, 21 Jan.). Fenwick’s only recorded speech came in the 1692–3 session when, on 21 Dec. 1692, he moved for leave to introduce a bill to allow special bail to be taken in the country for cases depending in the Westminster courts. He subsequently managed this measure through the House. Fenwick also took a keen interest in the bill to prevent the decay of trade in towns and cities. Having reported this measure on 2 Feb., he told on the same date against a clause allowing ‘any person’ who settled in a town, and who paid church and poor rates, to trade there. On 15 Feb. he was a teller in favour of passing the bill and was appointed to carry the measure to the Lords. Eight days later Fenwick presented a petition concerning arrears still owed for the quartering of the army in 1677, and he told on two further occasions in this session: against an amendment to the bill prohibiting the import of hair buttons (22 Feb.), and against what Narcissus Luttrell* described as an attempt by ‘the Whig party’ to adjourn consideration of the London orphans bill (1 Mar.). Fenwick remained an active Member in the 1693–4 session. On 11 Jan. 1694 he told against the House reading the Act prohibiting the export of woollen manufactures, and in the following weeks assisted in managing Roger Whitley’s* estate bill through the Commons. He told on the Tory side in a division upon the Clitheroe election case (2 Feb.) and against committing two clergymen into custody for a breach of privilege against Sir Francis Masham, 3rd Bt. (6 Mar.). Fenwick also carried to the Lords a bill to prevent delays at quarter sessions (15 Mar.), reported from committee the bill to prevent vexatious lawsuits (17 Mar.), and on 23 Mar. was granted an indefinite leave of absence. His parliamentary activity noticeably declined in the following session, though he was appointed to the committee to examine the laws on highway robbery and was subsequently named to prepare a bill on this matter (31 Jan., 12 Feb. 1695). During this session he was included upon Henry Guy’s* list of ‘friends’, probably in connexion with the projected Commons attack on Guy. Fenwick did not stand for Morpeth in 1695, his Toryism perhaps leading to his exclusion by the borough’s dominant patron, the Whig 3rd Earl of Carlisle (Charles Howard*), and little more is known of him. He remained a commissioner of assessment for Northumberland until 1698 and his death can be dated no more certainly than before 2 Oct. 1701. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, John.2

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. Hodgson, Northumb. ii (2), 113–14; Arch. Ael. ser. 4, xxiv. 102.
• 2. G. S. De Krey, Fractured Soc. 69–70; Luttrell Diary, 333, 443, 457; Hodgson, 114.