Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland

English politician
The basics

Quick Facts

IntroEnglish politician
A.K.A.Thomas Fane
A.K.A.Thomas Fane
PlacesUnited Kingdom Great Britain England
wasPolitician
Work fieldPolitics
Gender
Male
Birth1 March 1701
Death25 November 1771 (aged 70 years)
Family
Father:Henry Fane of Brympton
Children:John Fane 9th Earl of Westmorland Henry Fane
The details

Biography

Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland (March 1701 – 25 November 1771), MP for Lyme Regis and a lord commissioner of trade. Thomas Fane was the second son of Henry Fane of Brympton d'Evercy in Somerset and Anne sister and coheir of John Scrope, children of Thomas Scrope, a Bristol merchant. Anne was a granddaughter of Colonel Adrian Scrope the regicide. Thomas Fane inherited John Scrope's fortune and mansion in Bristol, and from him Colonel Adrian Scrope's property in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Thomas Fane married Elizabeth Swymmer, the daughter of a Bristol merchant and member of the slave trade, William Swymmer. In 1762 he inherited the title of Earl of Westmoreland from John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland, his father's second-cousin, who had died without issue. The couple had two sons and two daughters:

  • John Fane, 9th Earl of Westmorland (1728–1774)
  • Henry Fane (1739–1802)

His daughter Mary married Charles Blair, a wealthy owner of plantations in Jamaica, at St James Westminster in 1762. Charles Blair was the great-great grandfather of Eric Arthur Blair, who wrote under the pen name George Orwell.

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.

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