FANSHAWE, Thomas (1607-52), of Jenkins, Barking, Essex.

Fanshawe’s grandfather, Thomas Fanshawe†, was the scion of a minor family that had settled at Fanshaw Gate, in the Derbyshire parish of Dronfield, by the early fifteenth century.20Fanshawe, Fanshawe Fam. 16; Clutterbuck, Herts. iii. 294. He entered royal service in the mid-sixteenth century as a clerk to his uncle Henry Fanshawe†, who was to attain the important place of queen’s remembrancer in the exchequer – an office to which Thomas succeeded in reversion in 1568. Before his death, Henry conveyed to Thomas the manor of Jenkins, near Barking, in Essex, which in the 1620s became this branch of the family’s principal residence.21VCH Essex, v. 200. Thomas represented Rye, Arundel and Much Wenlock in seven Parliaments between 1571 and 1597.22HP Commons 1558-1603; ‘Thomas Fanshawe’, Oxford DNB. His second son, Fanshawe’s father, inherited Jenkins in reversion and himself enjoyed a lucrative career as clerk of the crown in king’s bench and surveyor-general (among many other offices). He was elected for Bedford in 1601 and then for Lancaster in every Parliament between 1604 and 1628 except that of 1610. On his death in 1631, his several estates in Essex, as well as his office of clerk of the crown (with a salary of £200 a year), passed to Fanshawe, his only son.23SP23/205, p. 589; VCH Essex, v. 192, 200; HP Commons 1604-29.

Although Fanshawe was required to pay £1,000 to the lord treasurer as an entry fine for the clerkship, his profits from this office probably enabled him to cover the expense in under three years.24Harl. 991, f. 7; Clarendon SP i. 159. In addition, he possessed a landed estate worth more than £1,000 a year. His income was such that he was able to join his friend the future royalist grandee Sir Christopher Hatton* in various money-lending ventures during the 1630s.25C9/14/15; Northants. RO, FH945, 949, 1823, 3381; HP Commons 1604-29.

Fanshawe had been elected recorder of Lancaster in 1630, and in June 1640 he succeeded to his father’s and uncle’s old office as auditor of the duchy of Lancaster’s lands in the northern parts.26DL10/420/9, 10; Roper, Hist. of Lancaster, 371; Duchy of Lancaster Office-Holders ed. R. Somerville, 67. It was on the basis of these two offices and the support of the duchy that he secured election for Lancaster to the Long Parliament in the autumn of 1640.27Supra, ‘Lancaster’. Not long after Parliament had assembled, the inhabitants of Barking petitioned the Commons, complaining of Fanshawe’s ‘corrupt dealings and undue practices’ as lord of the manor and requesting relief against his oppressions and that the manor be returned to crown ownership.28E192/1/2; SP46/80, ff. 279a, 279b. That he was entirely inactive in the House, receiving no committee appointments and making no recorded contribution to debate, raises the suspicion that he had sought election merely to frustrate his creditors.

On 12 November 1642, the Commons ordered that Fanshawe be brought to Westminster under custody to answer for his absenteeism, and on 4 February 1643 it voted to send for him ‘as a delinquent for his contempt and neglect to the House’ in not appearing when summoned.29CJ ii. 845b, 955a. Although described as a ‘strong royalist’, there is no evidence that he contributed anything to the king’s cause before 28 September 1643, when the Commons again ordered him to attend the House upon pain of sequestration.30Keeler, Long Parl. 173; CJ iii. 256b. However, this order stipulated that if he could satisfy the committee for sequestering the estates of absent Members as to his reason for neglecting the House’s service, he could be allowed to resume his seat. But he again failed to heed this summons, and on 25 November he was duly disabled from sitting as an MP.31CJ iii. 319b.

Fanshawe attended the Oxford Parliament early in 1644 and signed its letter to the earl of Essex on 27 January, requesting that he arrange a peace treaty.32Rushworth, Hist. Collns. v. 573. He followed his kinsman Richard Fanshawe, the secretary to the prince of Wales’s council, into the west country in 1645. But the memorialist Anne Fanshawe was apparently mistaken in claiming that he departed Cornwall for France early in 1646 in the company of another of his royalist kinsmen, Sir Thomas Fanshawe* of Ware.33Infra, ‘Sir Thomas Fanshawe’; Fanshawe Mems. (1907), 39. When Fanshawe petitioned to compound, in February 1647, he claimed benefit of the articles of surrender for Barnstaple, Devon, which had fallen to the New Model army in April 1646. He valued his estate in Essex at £1,362 a year, his office as clerk of the crown (which Parliament had sequestered in 1643) at £200 a year and claimed debts of £23,700. His fine was set at a tenth of his estate, which was calculated at £1,300 – a sum that would be reduced to £800 if he settled a stipend of £80 a year on the minister of West Ham.34SP23/205, pp. 589-90, 592, 595-6; CCC 1661.

Fanshawe died early in 1652.35PROB11/223, f. 97; Misc. Her. et Gen. n.s. ii. 10. His place of burial is not known – but it was probably Barking. In his will, he referred to a pre-existing settlement for the provision of his wife and younger children.36PROB11/223, f. 97. His eldest son Thomas† sat for Essex as a tory in the 1685 Parliament.37HP Commons 1660-90.