The Right Honourable
The Earl of Westmorland
Member of the Great Britain Parliament
for Lyme Regis
In office
1753–1762
Serving with
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Personal details
BornMarch 1701
Died(1771-11-25)25 November 1771
SpouseElizabeth Swymmer
Children
Parent

Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland (March 1701 – 25 November 1771) was an English politician and peer. He was an ancestor of the writer George Orwell.

Biography

Wormsley Park, Buckinghamshire
Brympton D,Evercy House, Somerset

Thomas Fane was the second son of Henry Fane of Brympton d'Evercy in Somerset and Anne Scrope, sister and coheir of John Scrope. Anne and John were the grandchildren of Colonel Adrian Scrope, a regicide of Charles I. Thomas Fane inherited John Scrope's fortune and mansion in Bristol, and Colonel Adrian Scrope's property in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, which included Wormsley Park.

In 1757 he succeeded his unmarried elder brother Francis to their father's Brympton estate and in 1762 inherited the title of Earl of Westmoreland from John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland, his father's childless second-cousin.[1] This brought him the Earls of Westmorland seat at Apethorpe Hall in Northamptonshire.

In 1727 Thomas Fane married Elizabeth Swymmer, the daughter of Bristol sugar merchant William Swymmer. The couple had two sons and two daughters, including:[2]

Mr Fane

In 1761 Joshua Reynolds painted his full-length portrait entitled Mr Fane. Reynolds was paid 80 guineas for the work, which depicted the powder-wigged subject walking through a wooded landscape wearing rose-coloured velvet attire. In May 1903 the portrait was sold to Martin Colnaghi for 2,100 guineas.[7]

Notes

  1. ^ John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland, died without issue, in 1762, when the barony of Le Despencer, being a barony in fee, devolved upon his nephew Sir Francis Dashwood, bart.; but the earldom of Westmorland went to the male heir, Thomas Fane, of Bristol, merchant (and subject of this article), son of Henry Fane, (d. 1726,) attorney at law, grandson of Sir Francis Fane, K.B. and great grandson of Sir Francis Fane of Fulbeck, co. Lincoln, K.B. the third son of Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland.(Debrett 1820, 160)
  2. ^ Debrett 1820, p. 161
  3. ^ British Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1575–1875, Katharine Baetjer, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009, p. 64
  4. ^ An Historical Survey of the County of Cornwall, vol. 2, part 1, C. S. Gilbert, 1820, p. 579
  5. ^ "Collections Online | British Museum".
  6. ^ Peter Stansky, William Abrahams, William Miller Abrahams The Unknown Orwell and Orwell: The Transformation Stanford University Press, 1994 ISBN 0-8047-2342-7
  7. ^ The Times Sale of the Vaile And Other Pictures 25 May 1903

References

Attribution
Parliament of Great Britain Preceded byJohn ScropeRobert Henley Member of Parliament for Lyme Regis 1753–1762 With: Robert Henley 1753–1754Francis Fane 1754–1757Henry Fane 1757–1762 Succeeded byHenry FaneLord Burghersh Peerage of England Preceded byJohn Fane Earl of Westmorland 1762–1771 Succeeded byJohn Fane
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