Burghley that he has been sworn her majesty's secretary in Ireland, chiefly upon the latter's recommendation. Grey arrived in Dublin on 12 Aug., bringing in his train a man more illustrious in literature, and apparently holding a similar office to Fenton, Edmond Spenser, with whom no doubt Fenton was already acquainted, as they had friends in common, such as George Turberville, and enjoyed the same patronage. From this time to his death Fenton took an active and important share in the administration of public affairs in Ireland. In December 1580 he was sent over by the lord deputy with a message to the queen, and probably on that occasion inspired her with the confidence and trust which she subsequently placed in him. He remained in Ireland as principal secretary of state through a succession of lord deputies, and made useful reports to the queen. He was member for Carlow county in the Irish parliament in 1585–6. He does not seem to have been popular in Ireland, and under one lord deputy, Sir John Perrot [q. v.], the dissensions between the secretary and his master seem to have reached a crisis. In June 1585 Perrot sent Fenton over to England to obtain the queen's consent to his new scheme for the diversion of the revenues of St. Patrick's in Dublin to the new college, afterwards Trinity College, in that city. Fenton remained some months in attendance upon the queen, and eventually returned in March 1586, bringing with him a whole schedule of charges to be met with immediate answer by the lord deputy and those employed under him. Perrot after this seems to have lost no opportunity of annoying and harassing Fenton, and finally, on the excuse of an insignificant debt of money to himself, had Fenton arrested in public, and thrown into the common debtors' prison at Dublin. From this he was released by peremptory command of the queen. In 1589, under Sir William Fitzwilliam, Fenton was rewarded for his services by knighthood, and in 1590–1 spent a year and a half in London as commissioner in the impeachment of Sir John Perrot. On the death of Elizabeth he ran some chance of losing his place, but was eventually confirmed in it for life, though he was compelled to share it with Sir Richard Coke. Besides the office of secretary, he held other posts, such as surveyor-general. He naturally did not escape the accusation of having enriched himself inordinately at the country's expense, but he seems to have had little difficulty in dispelling this charge. He was regarded as best knowing the disposition of the Irish in all parts of the kingdom, and appears to have been an honest, straightforward servant of the queen. He was a consistent supporter of English interests in Ireland. He did not shrink from advocating the assassination of the Earl of Desmond as the best way of ending the rebellion in Munster, and as a devoted protestant probably felt no compunction at assisting to administer torture to the unfortunate Dr. Hurley. He was a spectator at Sligo of the final destruction of the Spanish Armada on the west coast of Ireland. He was of great use in defeating the insurrection of the Earl of Tyrone in Ulster, and in quelling other rebellions, and generally reducing to submission the greater part of Ireland, as his influence with the queen was sufficient to obtain the money and the troops necessary for the purpose, and so niggardly supplied. In June 1585 he married Alice, daughter of Dr. Robert Weston, formerly lord chancellor of Ireland, and widow of Dr. Hugh Brady, bishop of Meath. By her he had one son, Sir William Fenton, and one daughter, Catherine, married on 25 July 1603 to Richard Boyle [q. v.], afterwards first earl of Cork. Fenton died at Dublin on 19 Oct. 1608, and was buried in St. Patrick's in the same tomb as his father-in-law, Dr. Weston.
[Chalmers's Biog. Dict.; Biographia Britannica; Lloyd's State Worthies; Calendar of State Papers (Ireland), 1580–1608; Lowndes's Bibl. Man.; Visitation of Nottinghamshire (Harleian Soc. publications, vol. iv.); Life of Hon. Robert Boyle (Works of the same, vol. i.).]
FENTON, LAVINIA, afterwards Duchess of Bolton (1708–1760), actress, was born in 1708. Her reputed father, a lieutenant in the navy named Beswick, on being summoned to duty before the birth of his child, departed with a request that in the event of the unborn proving to be a girl the name of Lavinia should be bestowed upon her. Not long after her birth her mother married one Fenton in the Old Bailey, and soon afterwards set up a coffee-house in the neighbourhood of Charing Cross. The child was then called by the surname of her mother's husband, and ‘being,’ we are told, ‘of a vivacious, lively spirit, and a promising beauty,’ she was much petted by the fine gentlemen frequenting the coffee-house. The charm of her voice, and the extraordinary correctness of her ear for music, brought her into notice. She caught at once the tunes which the ‘humming beaux’ (so the musical gentlemen were called) brought from the theatre and the opera-house, and repeated accurately every song she had once heard her mother sing. ‘A comedian belonging to the old house’ took great delight in the exhibi-
