FAUCONBERGE (FALCONBRIDGE) Thomas (d. 1655), of St Anne’s Street., Westminster

The Fauconberge or Falconbridge family of South Otterington were of minor gentry status, possessing only one moiety of the manor of Otterington. They conveyed this land to the Talbot family in 1616, but appear to have retained some connection with the area. During the 1640s Thomas Fauconberge mortgaged land in Ottrington worth £200 from the Talbots, and at the end of the decade he purchased other lands in Yorkshire.25VCH Yorks. N. Riding ii. 51; CCAM, 1031, 1033; Bodl. Rawl. B.239, p. 18. Fauconberge had presumably become resident in Westminster by the time of his first marriage in 1624.26Vis Yorks. ed. Foster, 516. Although he apparently had no formal education, Fauconberge may have been involved in the lower reaches of the royal administration before he was appointed as deputy-chamberlain in the exchequer in 1633.27Sainty, Officers of the Exchequer, 176. In this role he seems to have impressed his superiors. Sir Simonds D’Ewes* later described him as a man ‘who had been formerly Sir Robert Pye’s* clerk’ (in the receipt of exchequer), and ascribed his promotion within the parliamentary financial administration to the favour of Pye and the recorder of London, John Glynne*.28Harl. 165, f. 196v. In the early 1640s, Fauconberge’s rise was certainly swift. He was appointed as deputy to Pye as Scriptor Talliarum in 1641, and auditor of the customs and excise receipts. But his most important appointment came in September 1643 when he was made receiver-general of royal revenue under the newly-established Committee for the Revenue.29Supra, ‘Committee for the Revenue’; Sainty, Officers of the Exchequer, 176; E403/2814, f. 9v; E403/2458, f. 123; A. and O.; CJ iii. 230a. With the introduction of this new executive body, the cumbersome machinery of the exchequer was scrapped and all royal revenues formerly payable to the receipt were henceforth to be paid to Fauconberge, who would be answerable to the committee.30LJ vi. 227b-229a. Fauconberge’s acquittances would supersede all other forms of receipt, and the tallies (accounts) traditionally struck by the tellers of the exchequer would be replaced by ‘private account books...kept by the said Thomas Fauconberge and such as were to be employed by him’.31Harl. 165, f. 197; CUL, Ee.iii.10, ff. 1-43; J. Adamson, ‘The Peerage in Politics 1645-9’ (Cambridge Univ. PhD thesis, 1986), 40. Fauconberge’s diligence over the following years can be seen in the hundreds of surviving warrants from this committee, all of which passed through his hands.32E404/235-8; SP28/269; Add. 32476. The position of receiver-general also furnished Fauconberge with a handsome income, derived from a commission of 3d. in every pound received, which grew from £565 in 1644 to £1,443 at the end of the decade.33SC6/ChasI/1661, m. 9d; SC6/ChasI/1666, m. 19d.

Further appointments followed. In January 1644 Fauconberge was made auditor of the accounts for the excise on meat and victuals.34A. and O.; CJ iii. 356b. An ordinance to make Fauconberge comptroller of the excise in London was first read on 17 July 1645.35Add. 31116, p. 446. On 2 September Glynne reported amendments, including the provision that Fauconberge would receive the same salary (£500) that he had enjoyed as auditor.36Harl. 166, f. 260v; Add. 31116, p. 622. The ordinance was duly passed on 11 September.37A. and O.; LJ vii. 570a, 576a, 577a-b. Through his various financial posts, Fauconberge became intimate with key members of the Committee for the Revenue, notably its chairman Sir Henry Vane I*, and was in a position to facilitate payments of arrears and other sums due to such luminaries as Algernon Percy†, 4th earl of Northumberland and Sir Henry Mildmay*.38Supra, ‘Committee for the Revenue’; CSP Dom. 1645-7, p. 125; LJ x. 451a; CJ iii. 657a. In September 1648 he was appointed receiver of money raised to fund the commissioners to treat with the king at Newport, and served in this role at least until the end of October.39CJ vi. 25b, 51a, 60a. Fauconberge’s contribution to parliamentary administration was not confined to matters of high finance. In July 1645 he presented the Commons with a petition for the settlement of preachers on behalf of Westminster residents; in June 1647, as ‘Captain Fauconberge’, he was instructed to bring the Westminster militia to form a guard for the Houses of Parliament; and in the winter of 1649-50 he was involved, as a magistrate, in the examination of suspects.40Harl. 166, f. 233v; CJ v. 209b; Rushworth, Hist. Collns. vi. 561; CSP Dom. 1649-50, pp. 451, 466.

Fauconberge continued to serve as receiver-general of the revenues and comptroller of the excise after the regicide, but his position was less secure after the dissolution of the Rump Parliament in April 1653.41Add. 32476, ff. 23-39; E404/238, unfol.; CSP Dom. 1649-50, p. 394; 1650, pp. 259, 366, 413, 431; 1651, p. 309. In June the council of state ordered that Fauconberge was not to pay out any more money from the Committee for the Revenue, and accounts of the treasure that remained in his hands and the what warrants were as yet unpaid, were referred to a committee.42CSP Dom. 1652-3, pp. 421, 454; 1653-4, p. 47. His post as comptroller of the excise was also challenged in October, when a report to the Nominated Assembly suggested costs might be reduced by replacing him and his deputies with other men, but this scheme was never implemented.43CJ vii. 327a-b. He was rehabilitated under the protectorate, however, and went on to be appointed as a commissioner of the high court of justice in June 1654, and co-auditor of the receipt, with Sir William Roberts*, in August of the same year.44A. and O.; Sainty, Officers of the Exchequer, 207.

Fauconberge probably owed his return for Westminster in the 1654 election to his high profile in the area, rather than his role in the administration. He had been a JP for Westminster since May 1642, an assessment commissioner since 1645, and militia commissioner from 1648.45C231/5, p. 521; A. and O. Between 1645 and 1648 he acted as receiver-general of the rents of Westminster School, and by 1654 he was a commissioner of oyer and terminer for Middlesex.46C181/6, pp. 1, 64. He played only a modest role in the first protectoral Parliament, perhaps because of his duties elsewhere. On 22 September he was named to a committee to consider abuses in printing, and on 25 September he was appointed to committees on the bill for ‘recognition’ of the protectorate and to consider the ordinance for removing scandalous ministers.47CJ vii. 369b, 370a. He was named to only one more committee, on 18 January 1655, at the very end of the session, to consider debts due on the excise and what money was needed for the disbandment of the army.48CJ vii. 419a. After the closure of the Parliament, Fauconberge resumed his administrative activities, providing a certificate concerning a pension, and enrolling a warrant of the treasury commissioners in February 1655.49CSP Dom. 1655, p. 152; Abbott, Writings and Speeches iii. 629. At the beginning of April Roberts and Fauconberge were ordered to pay out money for the contingencies of the protectoral council. Fauconberge’s brother, Edward, who had served as solicitor to the Committee for the Revenue, was made chamberlain of the exchequer in the same period.50SP28/269, f. 119; Aylmer, State’s Servants, 128.

In the midst of this renewed activity, Fauconberge fell ill and died. He was buried in the chancel of St Ann’s chapel, Westminster.51Rix, The Fauconbergee Memorial, 16. His will, drawn up on 2 May – shortly before his death – made ample provision for his wife and family. His four younger sons were given annuities or cash sums, his three younger daughters were assigned portions of £750 on marriage or attaining the age of 21, and his eldest daughter was promised £1,500 if the marriage arranged with the son of Francis Shallcrosse took place. His son and heir, Thomas, inherited lands in Middlesex and Yorkshire. Among others remembered in his will were his old patron, John Glynne, whom he named as overseer, and his ‘very good friend’ and exchequer colleague, Richard Sherwyn*.52PROB11/246/69.