William Andrew Salius Fane de Salis

William Fane de Salis

William Andreas Salius Fane de Salis (27 October 1812 – 3 August 1896) was a businessman, colonialist, and barrister.

William aged 49 by Camille Silvy, 1861.

Tea in the conservatory at Teffont, Wiltshire, showing the back of the head of W. F. de Salis.

William's was the commissioner of Victoria's stand at the Paris 1867 exhibition.

De Salis was the third son of Jerome, 4th Count de Salis-Soglio (d. 1836), by his third wife, Henrietta Foster (d. 1856).^[1] Peter John Fane, Count de Salis was an elder half-brother. William Foster Stawell was a first cousin, and the poet Lord De Tabley was a nephew. Colonel Bisse-Challoner was a brother-in-law. General Rodolph de Salis was an elder brother and the Rev. Henry Jerome de Salis was his youngest brother and Rodolph, Cecil and Charles were nephews.^[2]

Born in St. Marylebone, Westminster, brought up in County Louth he was educated at Eton (1824–27); Heidelberg University (1828–29); and Oriel College, Oxford (1830–1834, Classics, 4th class). He was called to the Bar, 30 January 1836; and was at 3 Brick Court, Inner Temple, by 1840. He was appointed a revising barrister for Northamptonshire (1839), Nottingham and East Retford.

Professional life

Fane de Salis visited Australia in 1842, 1844 and 1848 to pursue business opportunities in the Australian wool and other industries, then rapidly expanding. His younger brother Leopold Fabius Fane de Salis had migrated there in 1840. William became, with John Thacker, a partner in Thacker & Co, Jardine Matheson’s affiliated house in Sydney, but resigned from 1 July 1847. By 1848 he owned with Robert Towns a 345-ton barque, the Statesman.^[3] This they sold, March 1854, for $16,500, she having had an accident 'on her passage up to China from Sydney' trading sandalwood, tea pines...

On his return to England de Salis joined the Grand Junction Canal Co in 1850 and held the following appointments:

Directorship of the Union Bank of Australia;
Director of the Australian Agricultural Co (AAco) and its offshoot the Peel River Land and Mineral Co Ltd;
Director of The Marine and General Mutual Life Assurance Society;
Director and later chairman of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company. He was a director between 1851–1895 and was elected chairman in 1878-1881;
Deputy-chairman then chairman of the London Chartered Bank of Australia from 1852 to 1874/80.

Personal life

Detail of a drawing entitled Evenings at Home, depicting De Salis and his wife, c. 1870.

Emily Mayne de Salis.

Part of portrait by Ouless presented by the shareholders of the London Chartered Bank of Australia in 1880.

William Fane de Salis in a Bath chair by the pond at Dawley Court, Goulds Green, 1893.

In the early 1850s Fane de Salis lived between the Jerusalem Coffee House; Dawley Lodge (near Hillingdon); 1 Upper Belgrave Street; 24 Wilton Street, and 107 Eaton Square. From the late 1850s he lived at Dawley Court, near Hillingdon, and Harlington, Uxbridge, Middlesex and Teffont Manor, Teffont Evias, Wiltshire, home of his wife Emily Harriet (d 24 July 1896), eldest daughter of John Thomas Mayne, whom he married on 12 March 1859.

Fane de Salis was a Fellow of the Geological Society and of the Royal Geographical Society, JP for Middlesex, (1868), with his wife he was Lord of the Manor and Patron of the Living of Teffont, and JP for Wiltshire.

With J. D. Allcroft he co-founded the Harlington, Harmondsworth and Cranford Cottage Hospital in 1884. He left Dawley Court to his youngest brother's second son, Sir Cecil Fane De Salis, KCB, one of whose younger brothers was Charles Fane de Salis. At his death Fane de Salis left effects valued at £147,382 6s 7d. His nephew Rodolph was executor. His wife Emily had died only ten days earlier, leaving £1,930.^[4] Admiral Sir William Fane de Salis, KBE, was another nephew.

Works

Victoria Island of Hong Kong, lithograph by William Fane De Salis.

Reminiscences of Travel in China and India in 1848 (1892; private circulation);
Introductory Remarks to a Residence in Australia, And To Travels in China And India (a short pamphlet);
Original Poems with Translations from the German of Schiller (private circulation).

Pencil sketch of William.

Miscellany

De Salis' father took a 21-year lease on Rokeby Hall, near Dunleer, from 29 April 1822, (@550 pounds per annum).
William Fane de Salis leaning out of a window at Dawley Court.
Carte de visite of his youngest brother, Rev. Henry Jerome Fane de Salis (1828-1915), from 1859, of Portnall Park, Virginia Water.
A great-niece: Violet Evelyn Sophia Filgate (1871-1912), elder daughter of William de Salis Filgate (1834-1916), MFH, of Lisrenny, Ardee.
One of De Salis' brothers-in-law, William Filgate of Lissrenny (1781-1875).^[5]^[6]
Carte de visite of Mrs. Bisse-Challoner, aka Henrietta Emma Helena De Salis (died 16 August 1863).
Photo c1865/1870 of Teffont Manor, Teffont Evias.
Full heraldic achievement (arms) of the Counts de Salis-Soglio.^[7]
An Australian nephew: Leopold William Jerome Fane de Salis (1845-1930).
The conservatory at Dawley Court.
East front of Dawley Court, Hillingdon, Middlesex, c1890.
Postcard of Cecil Fane De Salis, who inherited Dawley, and his wife and 13 children at Dawley, 1912.
Dawley Court, as seen on a map in 1924.

Ancestors

*Some of* William De Salis's ancestors
William Fane de Salis	Jerome, Count De Salis	Peter, Count de Salis	Jerome, Count de Salis
			Hon. Mary Fane, daughter of 1st Lord Fane.
		Anna v. Salis-Soglio	Giovanni v. Salis-Soglio (1707–1790)
			Katherina Barbara (1711–1788), daughter of Rudolfo v. Salis-Soglio (1652–1735)
	Henrietta Foster (1785–1856).	Rt Rev William Foster, DD (1744–1797).	Lord Chief Baron of the (Irish) Exchequer, Anthony Foster (1705–1779), of Collon, County Louth. They married in 1736. His nephew, John Foster, was the first husband of Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire.
			Elizabeth (d.1744), daughter of William Burgh, of Bert, County Kildare.
		Catharina-Letitia Leslie (died 23 November 1814).	Rev. Dr Henry Leslie (1719–1803), LLD, of Ballybay, County Monaghan. A scion of the family of the Earl of Rothes, who served as Prebend of Tullycorbet, and later of Tandragee; serving a sum of 44 years in religious life. His father, Rev Peter Leslie, Rector of Ahoghill, married Jane, the daughter of Rt. Rev. Dr. Anthony Dopping, Bishop of Meath.
			Catherine, daughter of the Very Rev. Charles Meredyth, of Newtown, County Meath, and Dean of Ardfert, by his wife, Letitia (née Vesey).

References

William Fane De Salis with a shotgun, in a greatcoat, at Dawley Court, circa 1890.

↑ Burke's Landed Gentry, edited by Peter Townend, eighteenth edition, volume one, London, Burke's Peerage, 1965, (pages 251-253).
↑ NOTES OF PAST DAYS, By Cecil and Rachel De Salis, Henley-on-Thames, 1939. (Printed by Higgs & Co., Caxton Works).
↑ A trace of the barque.
↑ Probate Office wills search, 1896, under "De Salis"
↑ JP counties Louth and Monaghan. High Sheriff co. Louth, 1832. Treasurer of the (Louth) Grand Jury, 1854-69.
↑ Louth County Council.
↑ this example, in watercolour, made for Sir Cecil Fane de Salis, in England

Reminiscences of Travel in China and India in 1848, 1892 (private circulation).
Quadrennial di Fano Saliceorum, volume one, by R. de Salis, London, 2003.
De Salis Family : English Branch, by Rachel Fane De Salis, Henley-on-Thames, 1934.
Burke's Irish Family Records, ed. Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, Burke's Peerage Ltd, London, 1976.
Der Grafliche Hauser, Band XI [volume 11], Genealogisches Handbuch Des Adels, C. A. Starke Verlag, Limburg an der Lahn, 1983 (pps 331-356).
Thomas Skinner, The Directory of Directors 1880, London, 1880. (a list of directors of joint stock companies in the UK).

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