John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland

John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, KG, PC (1 June 1759 – 15 December 1841), styled Lord Burghersh between 1771 and 1774, was a British Tory politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, who served in most of the cabinets of the period, primarily as Lord Privy Seal ultimately spending 33 years in office.

The Right Honourable The Earl of Westmorland KG PC
Lord Westmorland in the parliamentary robes of an earl, by Thomas Lawrence c. 1806.
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
In office 1789–1794
Monarch	George III
Prime Minister	William Pitt the Younger
Preceded by	The Marquess of Buckingham
Succeeded by	The Earl FitzWilliam
Lord Privy Seal
In office 14 February 1798 – 5 February 1806
Monarch	George III
Prime Minister	Pitt, Addington
Preceded by	The Earl of Chatham
Succeeded by	The Viscount Sidmouth
In office 25 March 1807 – 30 April 1827
Monarchs	George III, George IV
Prime Minister	Portland, Perceval, Liverpool
Preceded by	The Lord Holland
Succeeded by	The Duke of Portland
Personal details
Born	(1759-06-01)1 June 1759
Died	15 December 1841(1841-12-15) (aged 82)
Nationality	British
Political party	Tory
Spouses	Sarah Child ​ ​ (m. 1782; died 1793)​ Jane Saunders ​ (m. 1800)​
Children	10
Parents	John Fane, 9th Earl of Westmorland Lady Augusta Bertie

Background

Westmorland was the son of John Fane, 9th Earl of Westmorland, and Lady Augusta Bertie, daughter of Capt. Lord Montagu Bertie. He succeeded in the earldom on the death of his father in 1774.

Political career

In 1789 Westmorland was appointed Joint Postmaster General by William Pitt the Younger and sworn of the Privy Council. Already the same year he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by Pitt, a post he held until 1794. On 18 February 1793, he was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Northamptonshire. From 1795 to 1798 he was Master of the Horse under Pitt. The latter year Pitt made him Lord Privy Seal, a position he would hold under five prime Ministers (Pitt, Addington, Pitt again, Portland, Perceval and Liverpool) for the next 35 years, except between 1806 and 1807 when Lord Grenville was in office.

Westmorland raised a Northamptonshire volunteer cavalry regiment in 1797, and was appointed its colonel on 20 April 1797. He was later Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire between 1828 and 1841. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1793.

Family

Detail of a mezzotint portrait by John Jones (circa 1745–1797) after George Romney of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, 1796.

Lord Westmorland married Sarah Anne Child (28 August 1764 – 9 November 1793), the only daughter and heiress of wealthy banker, Robert Child, against her father's wishes, at Gretna Green on 20 May 1782. Child consequently cut his daughter and her sons and their descendants out of his will, and made his daughter's daughters his heirs to prevent the Fanes from benefitting from this elopement. Their eldest daughter, Lady Sarah Sophia Fane (1785–1867), having thus been made testamentary heiress of her maternal grandfather, married George Child-Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey, her husband assuming the additional surname of Child.

The Earl and Countess of Westmorland had one son and four daughters:

• John Fane, 11th Earl of Westmorland (3 February 1784 – 16 October 1859), who succeeded his father.
• Lady Sarah Sophia Fane (4 March 1785 – 26 January 1867) who married in 1804 George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey and became heiress to the Child fortune.
• Lady Augusta Fane (1786–1871), who married firstly in 1804 (divorced 1809) Lord Boringdon, later Earl of Morley (by whom she was the mother of Henry Villiers Parker), and in 1809 Arthur Paget (1771–1840), a younger brother of Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey.
• Lady Maria Fane (1787–1834) who in 1805 married Viscount Duncannon, later 4th Earl of Bessborough; their sixth son Spencer Ponsonby-Fane inherited Brympton d'Evercy from his half-aunt Lady Georgiana.
• Lady Charlotte Fane (1793–1822), died unmarried.

The Countess of Westmorland died relatively young in 1793, aged only 29, from undisclosed causes. Lord Westmorland married secondly Jane, daughter of Richard Huck-Saunders, in 1800. After some years of marriage, they later separated and she lived at Brympton d'Evercy. By his second wife, he had three sons and two daughters, of whom only the eldest child Lady Georgiana Fane outlived both parents and inherited the Brympton estate.

• Lady Cecily Jane Georgiana Fane (25 January 1801 – 1875), died unmarried, leaving Brympton d'Evercy to her nephew Spencer Ponsonby-Fane
• Hon. Charles Saunders John Fane (1802–1810)
• Hon. Col. Henry Sutton Fane (1804–1857), died unmarried.
• Hon. Montagu Augustus Villiers Fane (1805–1857), died unmarried.
• Lady Evelina Fane (1807–1808)

Lord Westmorland died in December 1841, aged 82, and was succeeded in the earldom by his only son from his first marriage, John. The Countess of Westmorland died in March 1857.

Arms

Coat of arms of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland

Crest Out of a Ducal Coronet Or, a Bull's Head of Brindled colour, armed Or, charged on the neck with a Rose Gules. Escutcheon Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Azure three dexter gauntlets, backs afrontée or (for Fane); 2nd and 3rd, Argent three battering rams, barways in pale or, headed and garnished azure (for Bertie) Supporters Dexter: a Griffin per fess Argent and Or, collared and line reflexed over the back Sable. Sinister: a Pied or Brindled Bull, collared and line terminating in a Ring and three Staples Or. Motto Ne Vile Fano ("Disgrace Not The Altar"; Fane), Ne Vile Velis ("Form no mean wish"; Neville)