Sir Henry Ralph Fletcher-Vane (13 January 1830 – 1908) was the eldest son of
Sir Francis Fletcher Vane, 3rd Baronet, and his wife, Diana Olivia (née Beauclerk). He was a Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for Westmoreland and Cumberland and appointed High Sheriff of Cumberland in 1856.
[Debrett's Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, 1905. Published London by Dean & Son Limited, 160a Fleet Street, London E.C.] He was also a County Alderman for Cumberland and was an officer in the
Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry
The Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry was a Yeomanry Cavalry regiment of the British Army with its origins in 1798. The regiment provided troops for the Imperial Yeomanry during the Second Boer War and served on the Western Front in World War I ...
, commanding the regiment from 1879 until 1891 when he was appointed the regiment's
Honorary Colonel.
He was the fourth
Baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
of
Hutton and the first cousin of
Sir Francis Vane.
Life
Henry Ralph Fletcher Vane was born on 13 January 1830, educated at
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
and
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...
, and succeeded his father to the baronetcy in 1842 at the tender age of 12.
In 1852 it was rumoured that Sir Henry was amorously involved with Isabella Henrietta Theodora Long, the granddaughter of
Horatio Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford
Horatio Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford (13 ''or'' 24 June 1752 – 15 June 1822), styled The Honourable Horatio Walpole between 1757 and 1806 and Lord Walpole between 1806 and 1809, was a British peer and politician.
Background
Orford was the son ...
:
It is stated that a marriage is on the tapis between Sir Harry Vane, Bart., of Hutton hall and Armathwaite, Cumberland, and Isabella Henrietta Theodora, youngest daughter of Henry Lawes Long, Esq., of Hampton Lodge, Surrey, and the Lady Catherine Long.
In 1871, at the age of 41, Sir Henry married Margaret Maxwell Gladstone at Glencairn in Dumfries, Scotland. Margaret was the daughter of Thomas Steuart Gladstone, of Capenoch, co. Dumfries; Thomas Gladstone was the eldest son of the Liverpool based merchant and plantation owner, Robert Gladstone, and his wife, Catherine (née Steuart); he was also the first cousin of
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...
, the Liberal Prime Minister who was a contemporary of Sir Henry's uncle at
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
. In 1835, Thomas and two of his brothers, Robert and William, became the trustees and executors of their father's will and guardians of their younger siblings. He was responsible for managing the Jamaican properties and plantations and for dividing the estate equally between the siblings. In his own right, Thomas Gladstone was a merchant and broker in the Liverpool firm of Gladstone and Sergeantson through which he expanded his commercial interests into South American
Guano
Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...
, Australian farming as well as trade with Asia. In later life he retired to Capenoch house, Dumfriesshire. His younger brother Adam Steuart Gladstone became an East India merchant.
In 1872, shortly after his marriage, Sir Henry Ralph Fletcher Vane was embroiled in unpleasant litigation. The litigation was initiated by his uncle, Frederick Henry Vane, the youngest son of his grandfather, Sir Frederick Fletcher Vane, 2nd Baronet. Ironically, Sir Henry may have met his wife through the introduction of Frederick Henry Vane who had been at Eton with William Ewart Gladstone. An account of the beginning of this dispute is contained in the memoirs of Frederick Henry Vane's son, Sir Francis Patrick Fletcher Vane, later 5th Baronet:
Somewhere in the later ‘sixties arose the family dispute which, owing to the bad advice of the lawyers on both sides, caused my father and his nephew, Sir Henry, to enter into a trial lasting many years. Without hesitation it can be said that unnecessary and extremely expensive litigation has been the curse of my life, my “thorn in the flesh”. To this day, in 1928, I suffer from the effects of this lawyer-made dispute. The two were honourable gentlemen, my father and my cousin, ndwould never have come to legal blows had they not been egged on by their respective solicitors, both of whom eventually committed suicide after it having been proved that they had defrauded widows and orphans’.
The litigation was first reported in ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' on 6 November 1872. The spoils at stake were the family estates in Cumberland and Westmorland. The case made by the bill was that
Sir Francis Fletcher Vane, 3rd Baronet, had been born out of wedlock. There are two accounts of this circumstance of his birth. In ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'':
It was upon the legitimacy of the third of these children that the question turned. The plaintiff alleged that pending arrangements for his father's marriage with Miss Bowerbank, she was prematurely confined of a third child, a son, and that the marriage did not in fact take place until nearly three weeks after her confinement – viz., on march 9, 1797. The child thus born, as the plaintiff alleged about three weeks before the marriage on the 9th of March, was baptised by the name of Francis Fletcher Vane at St. George's, Bloomsbury, on the 19th of April, 1797, and in the entry of his baptism he was stated to have been born on the 29th of March 1797. As to this entry, it was alleged by the plaintiff rederick Henry Vanethat the register had been tampered with and that the date of the birth was added some time after the original entry. The bill then stated that Sir Frederick Fletcher Vane brought up Francis Fletcher Vane, the child thus born, as his legitimate heir. After the marriage two other children were born – i.e., a daughter, and the plaintiff, who was born on May 10, 1807. Francis Fletcher Vane married in 1823, and upon the death of his father in 1832 assumed the title and the family estates.
In his memoirs,
Sir Francis (5th Bt) provides a more fanciful account of the birth of his uncle,
Sir Francis (3rd Bt):
When the third hild of Sir Frederick and Hannah Bowerbank
Hild or Hildr may refer to:
* Hildr or Hild is one of the Valkyries in Norse mythology, a personification of battle
* Hild or Hilda of Whitby is a Christian saint who was a British abbess and nun in the Middle Ages
* Hild (Oh My Goddess!), the ult ...
was about to be born, Sir Frederick repented and decided to marry his mistress, and not wishing to have this ceremony performed in Cumberland, took her up to London. On Bushey Heath they were attacked by highwaymen, he shot one of them, the others flying-but the result of this shock caused premature confinement, which happened at the house of a doctor at Watford.
The above account is not corroborated by any of the extant law reports of the trial.
In the 1881 census, Sir Henry and his wife were living at 35 Cadogan Place in
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
, London where he describes his occupation as magistrate, and in the 1891 census he was living in
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
. Debrett's Baronetage of 1905 states Sir Henry's seats as Hutton in the Forest and Scarness Cottage in Bassenthwaite. He was by then a member of the
Carlton Club
The Carlton Club is a private members' club in St James's, London. It was the original home of the Conservative Party before the creation of Conservative Central Office. Membership of the club is by nomination and election only.
History
The ...
and Arthur's.
Sir Henry Ralph Vane died at Hutton in the Forest on 15 June 1908 and probate was granted in
Carlisle
Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...
on 7 August 1908 to the Right Honourable Henry de Vere Vane, Baron Barnard, the Hon. William Lyonel Vane and Edward Lamb Waugh. Sir Henry's effects were valued at £107,747 or £11,662,072 in 2015 prices.
The executors of the estate were as follows:
•
The Rt. Hon. Henry de Vere Vane, 9th Baron Barnard (10 May 1854 – 28 December 1918), the son of Sir Henry Morgan Vane and Louisa, youngest daughter of the Rev. Richard Farrer of Ashley, Northamptonshire;
• The Hon. William Lyonel Vane, brother of the Rt. Hon. Henry de Vere Vane, 9th Baron Barnard (born 30 August 1859); and
• Edward Lamb Waugh (born 14 August 1851 at Cockermouth in Cumberland), the eldest son of Edward Waugh, a solicitor, and Mary Jane Waugh.
At the time of Sir Henry's death in 1908, the heir to the baronetcy was his first cousin,
Francis Patrick Fletcher Vane, born 1861, a grandson of
Sir Frederick Fletcher Vane, 2nd Baronet, by Sir Frederick's youngest son, Frederick Henry Vane. The litigation challenging Sir Henry Ralph Vane's legitimacy to the Hutton estates was conducted in the 1870s and was prosecuted by
Francis's father. At that time, it is not clear to what extent the litigation would cost Francis his inheritance. Certainly, the literature of
Hutton in the Forest
Hutton in the Forest is a Grade I listed country house near the village of Skelton in the historic county of Cumberland, which now forms part of the modern county of Cumbria, England. It has belonged to the Fletcher-Vane family, latterly t ...
makes no mention of
Sir Francis Patrick Fletcher Vane, 5th Baronet. An article in ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' dated 10 October 1912 states the following:
The debtor ir Francis Fletcher Vanewas also entitled, in the discretion of the trustees of the will of the late Sir Henry Ralph Vane, and upon the death of the Dowager Lady Vane and of Colonel Wing, a nephew of the testator, to a life interest, not exceeding £500 a year, charged upon the Vane estates; and, under the resettlement of the estates in 1907, to a life interest in reversion in the whole of the income contingent upon his surviving the Dowager Lady Vane and Colonel Wing.
Sir Francis Fletcher Vane did survive the Dowager Lady Vane (widow of the 4th Baronet), who died at Scarness Cottage in Bassenthwaite in 1916, and he survived
Major-General Frederick Drummond Vincent Wing CB, who was killed in action during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in 1915. In terms of the executors, Edward Lamb Waugh died on 27 October 1917, Henry de Vere Vane died on 28 December 1918 and William Lyonel Vane died on 23 January 1920. In 1931, the Hutton estates were gifted to
William Fletcher-Vane, 1st Baron Inglewood
William Morgan Fletcher-Vane, 1st Baron Inglewood, TD (12 April 1909 – 22 June 1989), was a British Conservative Party politician.
Early life
Inglewood was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. William Lyonel Vane, a descendant of Gilbert Va ...
, three years before the death of
Sir Francis Patrick Fletcher Vane, 5th Bt.
[Hutton in the Forest Guide Book]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher-Vane, Henry
1830 births
1908 deaths
People educated at Eton College
Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
High Sheriffs of Cumberland
Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain
Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry officers
English justices of the peace