Charles Fane, 2nd Viscount Fane

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Charles Fane, second Viscount Fane (c. 1708 – c. 24 January 1766), was a landowner in Ireland and England, a Whig Member of Parliament and the British Resident in Florence.

He was the eldest son of Charles, first Viscount Fane by his wife Mary (1686-1762) daughter of the envoy hon. Alexander Stanhope, FRS and sister of the soldier-statesman James, 1st Earl Stanhope (1673-1721).

Fane was educated at Eton c1718-25, and in Geneva which was part of his 1726-1729 European tour.

Fane is in two of the monumental hunting scenes by John Wootton in the Hall at Althorp. They were commissioned by Charles Spencer, third Duke of Marlborough and fifth Earl of Sunderland in 1733/34. When Lord Sunderland's youngest brother hon. Jack Spencer died in 1746, their old school friend Fane became guardian of the son, the future 1st Earl Spencer.

Fane was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary (British Resident) to the Tuscan court in March 1734, with an annual salary of 1,300 pounds. He was in Florence in person between 3 October 1734 and spring 1738, when (Sir) Horace Mann, his deputy, replaced him.

A friend and follower of John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford (1710-1771) he was an Opposition Whig Member of Parliament (MP) for Tavistock from 1734 to 1747, and a Member for Reading from 1754 to 1761. At the 18 April 1754 poll, after a remarkably expensive contest, Fane only seemed to beat the third placed contestant, the court Whig, John Dodd, by one vote, 296 to 295. Dodd petitioned against Fane's return. Bedford and Pitt organised Fane's defence.

He joined White's Young Club (a sub-set of the original) in it foundation year 1743. He succeeded his father in 1744 to estates in near Tandragee in county Armagh; near Lough Gur in county Limerick; in Lower Basildon in Berkshire; and near Tiverton in Devon.

On 7 June 1749 Fane married at St Benet Paul's Wharf, Susanna, Lady Juxon (1706-10 April 1792, at Curzon street). She was the youngest daughter of John Marriott, Registrar of the Court of Chancery, of Stuston Hall, near Diss in Suffolk, and of Sonning in Berkshire. In 1726 she had married Sir William Juxon, 2nd Bt (dsp1739/40) of Little Compton in Gloucestershire, the heir and great nephew of Archbishop Juxon. As a widow she lived at Little Compton and at Fane's house in Curzon street. Fane's still extant lease-hold dwelling-house on the north side of Curzon street was bought from Elizabeth Shepherd in 1753. He negotiated with the ground landlord (Nathaniel Curzon) for a wider site and added the two-bow fronted wings. The house was given up on the death of his widow in 1792. In 1984 the Saudi Arabian government bought it, by then known as Crewe House, for its embassy, paying 37million pounds.

Sometimes referred to as Charles Lord Viscount Fane and before that as Hon. Charles Fane, he died without issue and was buried at Lower Basildon, Berkshire, 31 January 1766. His estates, after considering his widow, were divided between his surviving sisters, Mary, wife to Jerome de Salis, and Dorothy wife of John, fourth Earl of Sandwich. The mansion house and estate at Basildon was sold to a Nabob and the great house was replaced by a bijoux Palladian villa, Basildon Park. His mother's renowned grotto down the hill at the Thames-side New House soon disappeared, though the house still stands. The lands in Armagh and Limerick were retained. They were finally partitioned in 1806.

[edit] References

• R. de Salis, Quadrennial di Fano Saliceorum, volume one, London, 2003
• Sir Lewis Namier & John Brooke (eds), The House of Commons 1754 - 1790, H.M.S.O. for H.P.T., 1964.
• Romney Sedgwick (ed), The House of Commons 1715-1754, HMSO for HPT, 1970 (article by A. N. Newman, vol. II, p.24).
• other printed ('GEC, VCH), manuscript & family knowledge.

Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by Charles Fane	Viscount Fane 1744–1766	Succeeded by (extinct)