Charles de Salis (bishop)

Charles Fane de Salis (1860–1942), MA, DD (theol), was Bishop of Taunton from 1911 to 1930.

Rt. Rev. Charles Fane de Salis (1860–1942), as a young man, circa 1890.

Biography

His wife: Lady Mary Alice Parker (28.6.1863 - 11.1.1930), daughter of the 6th Earl of Macclesfield.

Memorial in Wells Cathedral

Born in Fringford, Oxfordshire on 18th or 9 March 1860 into an occasionally clerical family,^[1] he was educated at Eton ^[2] and Exeter College, Oxford. His paternal grandfather (a pre-Tractarian) was Jerome, 4th Count de Salis-Soglio.^[3] William Fane de Salis was an uncle, Lord Bishop Foster a great-grandfather, and John Francis Charles, 7th Count de Salis-Soglio was a first cousin once removed. His names Charles and Fane were derived from his ancestor Charles, 1st Viscount Fane.

Ordained in 1883 he was Curate at St. Michael's, Coventry, Vicar of Milverton, then East Brent ^[4] and Prebendary of Coombe before a 19-year stint, commencing in 1911, as Archdeacon of Taunton and Suffragan Bishop of Taunton.^[5]

He died on 24 January 1942 and is commemorated in a memorial on the west wall of Wells Cathedral.^[6]

Family

He was the fourth and youngest son of Rev. Count Henry Jerome Augustine Fane de Salis, (born Pisa 16.2.1828, died Virginia Water 18.2.1915), of Portnall Park.^[7] A JP (for Surrey), and sometime chairman of Egham's Holloway Sanatorium, and of the Old Windsor Board of Guardians. Henry was Rector of Fringford, Bicester, Oxfordshire from 1852 until 1872 when he inherited Portnall Park, Virginia Water, Staines, Surrey from his brother-in-law, Colonel Thomas-Chaloner Bisse-Challoner (1788-1872). He had married, on 29.3.1853, (Minnie) Grace Elizabeth Henley, (born 8.7.1823, died Virginia Water 28.8.1898), daughter of the Rt. Hon. Joseph Warner Henley, MP, of Waterperry House, Oxfordshire, by his wife Georgina (d.1864) (married 9 Dec. 1817), fourth daughter of John Fane (d.1824) of Wormsley, MP, by his wife Lady Elizabeth Parker (d.1829), daughter of Thomas, 3rd Earl of Macclesfield.

Three brothers and a sister

• Rodolph, (born Fringford, 10.12.1854, died 26.11.1931 (buried Virginia Water).
• Sir Cecil, (born Fringford, 31.5.1857, died Wargrave 9.3.1948) (buried Harlington), of Dawley Court, Uxbridge, county Middlesex. His second but eldest surviving son Edmund lived his last 33 years at Bourne House, East Woodhay.
• Sir William, (born Fringford 21.7.1858, died Roche Court, north Fareham 23.1.1939). Admiral; KBE (1922), JP (Hants., 1914); MVO; Prussian Order of the Red Eagle (1904, ii classe); Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword (1916).
• Georgiana (born Fringford 18.9.1861, died 14.4.1910 (buried Virginia Water)). She married, on 19.1.1888, Rev. Robert (Ro) Abercromby Hamilton, (died 1937); curate of Sunningdale, Berks.; vicar of Stoke Lyne, co. Oxon.; vicar of Cranbourne St. Peter, co. Berks., 1891-1910. MA (Oxon, St. John’s coll.). Later his address was Fairfield Lodge, Countess Wear, Devon. No issue.

Wife

Bishop Charles married his second cousin, on 21.7.1896, Lady Mary Alice (28.6.1863 - 11.1.1930) daughter of Thomas Augustus Wolstenholme Parker, 6th Earl of Macclesfield, by Lady Mary Frances, daughter of Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster. They had two daughters and a son who died in 1991.

Notes

_{Sir William Fane de Salis, RN, wearing one medal, as a Captain, circa 1900.}^[8]