FANE, Sir George (1581-1640), of Dover and Burston, Hunton, Kent.

The Fane family had settled in Kent by the fifteenth century, and acquired the manor and castle of Mereworth, seven miles from Maidstone, through marriage into the family of the barons Bergavenny in the late sixteenth century. Their wealth was such that Fane’s elder brother, Sir Francis†, who was made earl of Westmorland in 1624, was reckoned one of the richest men in the county. Although a younger son, Fane himself was designated as heir to his uncle Sir Thomas Fane†, and it was the latter’s role as lieutenant of Dover Castle and deputy lord warden of the Cinque Ports which secured his election at Sandwich in 1604.36CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 25; Cent. Kent Stud. PRC32/41/59-61; Add. 29623, f. 12. Although recommended for re-election by the lord warden in 1614, Fane was rejected on the grounds of being ‘so much disliked of the most part of our assembly’, but nevertheless secured a place at Dover, the port which he had represented in 1601.37Cent. Kent. Stud. Sa/AC7/31-32; Add. 28036, f. 117v. Although he again sat for the county in 1621, in 1624 he succeeded his brother as MP for Maidstone, and having been overlooked in 1625, regained the seat in 1626 and retained it until his death. Although far from prominent in the Commons during this long parliamentary career, Fane nevertheless participated in the proceedings against George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, in 1626.38Surr. Hist. Centre, Loseley MSS, Fane to More, 25 July 1625; CJ i. 844a, 860a, 866a.

Fane remained an active member of the county community in Kent during the 1630s, as an elder statesman on the most important local commissions.39CSP Dom. 1631-3, p. 191. From the mid-1630s, however, he probably resided in Westminster, and indeed was questioned in star chamber in 1635 for failing to leave London in accordance with the royal proclamation.40Rushworth, Hist. Collns. ii. 290. During the second half of the decade he had a house in St Martin’s Lane, and his family became prominent members of the congregation at St Martin-in-the-Fields. That they were concerned to defend their privileged position within the parish is evident from the case brought before the chancellor of the diocese of London, Dr Arthur Ducke*, in early 1640. Fane and his wife launched a complaint, through their kinsman, Henry Lucas*, regarding the infringement of their pew-rights by one Mrs Evans, who was the wife of the serjeant of the king’s carriages. Fane’s deposition revealed his concern that the pew ought to be retained for those of ‘good quality’, and his allegation that Mrs Evans was not only ‘a woman of a condition much inferior to them’, but also a ‘turbulent spirit’.41Cent. Kent. Stud. U282/F2. Whether or not Fane’s comment had political as well as social connotations is unclear, although his correspondence with his friend Sir Roger Twysden* in late 1638, in which he noted that ‘things go ill again in Scotland’, may indicate his opposition to the Covenanters and – by extension – to puritan critics of the crown in England.42Add. 34176, f. 66.

It is likely, therefore, that Fane was elected to the Short Parliament as a supporter of the crown, but his advanced age ensured that he played no recorded part in its proceedings.43Bodl. Rawl. D.141, p. 4. Having already prepared his will, in December 1639, he added a codicil on the day that Parliament was dissolved (5 May) and died on 26 June. Although he asked to be buried at either Mereworth or Westminster Abbey, where a tomb was ‘already erected’, Fane was in fact interred at Hunston. In a further a sign of his wealth, he was able to leave portions of £2,000 for each of his three surviving daughters.44PROB11/183/568; Thorpe, Registrum Roffense, 874. A tenant-in-chief of the crown, Fane nominated Henry Lucas as guardian of his underage heir, Spencer Fane, whose wardship was purchased in 1641, and during the ensuing decade, Lucas and Fane’s widow were left with the unenviable task of recovering debts owed to her husband.45CSP Dom. 1640-1, pp. 217, 434; Cent. Kent. Stud. U282/C1, unfol.; Add. 61681, f. 50. After the Restoration, Fane’s younger son, Thomas†, represented Maidstone in 1679 and 1681.46HP Commons 1660-1690.