as an equity barrister. In 1823 Lord Eldon appointed him one of the five commissioners of the ‘Thirteenth List,’ and on 2 Dec. 1831 he was nominated by Lord Brougham one of the six commissioners who were to hold office under the new act establishing the court of bankruptcy. In later life his judicial bearing was marked by an eccentricity of manner, but although his decisions were frequently the subject of comment, very few of his judgments were reversed on appeal. He was much interested in railway schemes, and was for some years a director of the Eastern Counties railway. As a member of the Law Amendment Society he was a constant attendant at the weekly meetings in Lancaster Place. Fane was an ardent lover of field sports, and was well known in the Leicester hunts; he was also a patron of the fine arts, and possessed a collection of paintings. He died at the Burdon Hotel, Weymouth, 4 Oct. 1864. He married first, 24 June 1835, Isabella Mary, youngest daughter of Admiral Sir Eliab Harvey, G.C.B.; she died at Rolls Park, Chigwell, 15 Dec. 1838; and secondly, 7 Sept. 1841, Harriet Anne, only daughter of Admiral the Hon. Sir Henry Blackwood, bart.; she died 31 Dec. 1869. By his first wife Fane had no issue. By his second wife he had a son, Cecil Francis William, and two daughters.
Fane was the writer of the following works: 1. ‘Letter addressed to the Attorney-General [Sir John Campbell] on his Bill for the Abolition of Imprisonment for Debt,’ 1837. 2. ‘Bankruptcy Reform, in a series of Letters addressed to Sir R. Peel,’ letters i–iii., 1838. 3. ‘Bankruptcy Reform,’ letters iv–vii., 1838. 4. ‘Observations on the proposed Abolition of Imprisonment for Debts on Mesne Process, in a Letter to Sir R. Peel,’ 1838. 5. ‘Outline of a Plan for Improving the Law of Debtor and Creditor, without Abolishing Imprisonment for Debt,’ 1844. 6. ‘A Letter to Lord Cottenham on the present position of Her Majesty's Commissioners of the Court of Bankruptcy, and suggesting a more extended use of that Court in matters of Account,’ 1846. 7. ‘Bankruptcy Reform, in a series of Letters addressed to W. Hawes, Esq.,’ letters i–iv., 1848. 8. ‘Ministry of Justice; its necessity as an Instrument of Law Reform,’ 1848. 9. ‘Sketch of an Act to Establish Tenant-Right in conformity to the principles suggested in an article in the “Law Review” for November 1848, signed C. F.,’ 1849. 10. ‘Tenant-Right, its necessity as a means of promoting good Farming,’ No. ii. 1849.
[Times, 6 Oct. 1864, p. 9; Law Times, 15 Oct. 1864, p. 543; Gent. Mag. December 1864, p. 799; Foster's Peerage.]
FANE, Sir THOMAS (d. 1589), politician, was the elder of two Thomas Fanes, the sons of George Fane of Badsell, in the parish of Tudeley, Kent, by his wife Joan, daughter of William Waller of Groombridge in the same county. Having engaged in Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion of 1554 he was committed prisoner to the Tower, attainted of high treason, and a warrant issued for his execution; but the queen, pitying his youth, pardoned him by a bill addressed to her chancellor, Stephen Gardiner, from St. James's, on 18 March 1554 (Rymer, Fœdera, edit. 1704–35, xv. 373). A week later he was restored to his liberty and estate (Stow, Annales, edit. 1615, pp. 622, 623). Fane was knighted at Dover Castle 26 Aug. 1573 by Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth. In November 1580 he was appointed a deputy-commissioner within the county of Kent for the increase and breed of horses, and for the keeping of horses and geldings to service (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547–80, p. 685). When the Armada was expected he did good service in disposing forces along the coast of Kent (ib. 1581–90, pp. 478, 501, 502). He died on 13 March (not on 28 Feb. as on his tomb) 1588–9, and was buried at Tudeley, whence his body was afterwards removed to Mereworth, Kent. His will, signed at Badsell on 7 March 1588–9, was not proved until 10 Feb. 1590–1 (registered in P. C. C. 10, Sainberbe). Fane married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper of Bedgebury, Kent, who died childless; and secondly, on 12 Dec. 1574, at Birling, Kent, Lady Mary Neville, sole daughter and heiress of Henry, baron Abergavenny, by whom he had a numerous issue. In her right he became possessed of the castle and manor of Mereworth, Kent. His widow, by letters patent bearing date at Westminster on 25 May 1604, was restored to the name, style, and dignity of Baroness Le Despencer and to the heirs of her body, with the ancient seat, place, and precedency of her ancestors. As far back as 1588 she had claimed the barony of Abergavenny against Edward Neville, the heir male. James I compromised the matter by allotting the barony of Le Despencer to the heir general, and the barony of Abergavenny to the heir male (Collins, Baronies by Writ, pp. 61, 136). Papers relating to her case, with copious marginal notes and observations by Lord Burghley, are preserved in the Record Office (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1581–90, pp. 564, 574, 1591–94, p. 404). She died 28 June 1626, aged 72, and was buried with her husband at Mereworth. Their eldest son, Francis Fane, was created K.B. at the coronation of
