viscount [q. v.], Henry (baptised 21 Sept. 1600), Simon (1604–1680), afterwards Sir Simon, Walter (baptised 1 Sept. 1605), Richard [q. v.], and Michael (baptised 23 June 1611); besides four daughters: Alice, Mary, Joan (baptised 4 Jan. 1606–7), Anne (baptised 6 Aug. 1609). His widow, who was born in 1577, and whose virtues are highly commended by Anne, lady Fanshawe, her daughter-in-law, survived till 1631, being buried at Ware 3 June.
Sir Henry's will (dated 13 Nov. 1613, and proved April 1616) opens with a long profession of attachment to the protestant religion, and appoints his widow, her brother Sir Richard Smith, and his eldest son, Thomas, afterwards first Viscount Fanshawe, executors. Among his property mention is made of pictures in oil, prints, drawings, medals, engraved stones, armour, books, and musical instruments, most of which were to be removed from his London house in Warwick Lane to Ware Park, and there to remain for ever as heirlooms. Lady Fanshawe's will, dated 20 Feb. 1629–30, was proved 2 June 1631.
[Notes Genealogical and Historical of the Fanshawe Family, where Sir Henry's funeral certificate and will are printed at length; Memoir of Anne, Lady Fanshawe, ed. Nicolas (1829); Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, iii. 294–6; Nichols's Progresses of James I; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1600–16; Returns of Members of Parliament, i. 425, 431, 436.]
FANSHAWE, Sir RICHARD (1608–1666), diplomatist and author, was the fifth son of Sir Henry Fanshawe [q. v.], of Ware Park, Hertfordshire, by Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Smith or Smythe, esq. He was born at Ware Park in June 1608, and baptised on the 12th. His father died in 1616, and his education was chiefly directed by his mother. She sent him to the famous school kept by Thomas Farnaby [q. v.] in Cripplegate. In November 1623 he was admitted into Jesus College, Cambridge, as a fellow-commoner, and showed much promise as a classical scholar. Being destined by his mother for the bar, he entered the Inner Temple 22 Jan. 1626. Law proved distasteful to him, and in 1627 he went abroad to acquire foreign languages. At Paris he is said to have been robbed of his slender stock of money by Sherwood, a jesuit, but he stayed there a year, and then proceeded to Madrid. In 1635 Lord Aston, who had been reappointed English ambassador to Spain, learning of Fanshawe's accomplishments as a linguist, selected him to accompany him as secretary. In 1636 he carried despatches from Aston to Secretary Windebank. When Aston left Madrid in 1638, Fanshawe remained as chargé d'affaires till his successor, Sir Arthur Hopton, arrived. About 1640, while seeking fresh employment, his brother Thomas offered to give him the place of king's remembrancer, which had long been in the hands of the family, on condition that he paid 8,000l. for it in seven years. The outbreak of the civil war interrupted the arrangement, and Fanshawe, a zealous royalist, joined Charles I at Oxford. There he met Anne Harrison, the daughter of another royalist, and he married her at Wolvercote Church, two miles from Oxford, 18 May 1644. The wedding was attended by Sir Edward Hyde and Sir Geoffrey Palmer, with four members of the lady's family.
Anne (afterwards Lady) Fanshawe (1625–1680) was elder daughter and fourth child of Sir John Harrison of Balls, Hertfordshire, by Margaret, daughter of Robert Fanshawe of Fanshawe Gate. Her mother was her husband's first cousin. She was born in Hart Street, St. Olave's, London, 25 March 1625, and was carefully trained in needlework, French, singing, the lute, the virginals, and dancing. She loved riding, running, and all active pastimes, and was what graver people called ‘a hoyting girl.’ On 20 July 1640, when she was fifteen, her mother died, in accordance (it was said) with a prophecy made three months after her daughter's birth. The loss gave the girl's thoughts a more serious turn, and much trouble pursued her family. Her father, who held a post in the customs, lent the king a large sum of money in 1641, was imprisoned by order of the parliament in 1642, and was deprived of his property. In 1643 he directed his children to join him at Oxford, where they lodged in a poor baker's house, and suffered all the griefs of poverty. The death of a brother, William, in 1644 aggravated their troubles. When Anne married Richard Fanshawe they had not twenty pounds between them, but the union proved exceptionally happy. If ‘fine Mistress Fanshawe,’ who about 1644 visited Ralph Kettle, the eccentric president of Trinity, to ‘have a frolick,’ be identical with Richard Fanshawe's bride, she had not wholly lost the high spirits of her youth at the time of her becoming a wife (Aubrey, Lives, ii. 428).
About the date of his marriage Fanshawe was made secretary of war to Prince Charles, and joined his council. In March 1645 he left Oxford for Bristol in the company of his new master. His wife had been confined (22 Feb.) of her first child, Harrison, who died in infancy, but she joined her husband at Bristol on 20 May. The plague drove them in July to Barnstaple, and thence they journeyed with the prince's court to Truro and Penzance. Fanshawe exercised much influence in
