Thomas Fanshawe (1596–1665), 1st Viscount Fanshawe of Dromore

Thomas Fanshawe, 1st Viscount Fanshawe KB (1596 – 30 March 1665) was an English politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

at various times between 1621 and 1661. He supported the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...

cause in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. Following the Restoration he was raised to the peerage.

Background

Fanshawe was the son of Sir Henry Fanshawe, of Ware Park,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

and his wife Elizabeth Smythe, daughter of

Thomas Smythe Sir Thomas Smythe (or Smith, c. 1558 – 4 September 1625) was an English merchant, politician and colonial administrator. He was the first governor of the East India Company and treasurer of the Virginia Company from 1609 to 1620 until envel ...

, of Ostenhanger Kent. His father was Remembrancer of the Exchequer.George Edward Cokayne ''Complete Baronetage Volume III, 1649-1664'' 1902
/ref>

Public life

Anne Fanshawe (1607–1628), First Wife of Thomas, 1st Viscount Fanshawe

Fanshawe succeeded as remembrancer of the exchequer on the death of his father in 1616, the post being held in trust for him until he was able to take up his duties in 1619. In 1621 he was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a ford on the River Lea, ne ...

. He was re-elected for Hertford in 1624 and 1625, and for Preston in 1626.History of Parliament Online - Fanshawe, Sir Thomas
/ref> At the coronation of Charles I, on 2 February 1626, he was made a

Knight of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one ...

. In 1628 he was re-elected MP for Hertford and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. In April 1640, Fanshawe was re-elected MP for Hertford for the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on the 20th of February 1640 and sat from 13th of April to the 5th of May 1640. It was so called because of its short life of only three weeks. Aft ...

and was re-elected MP for Hertford for the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

in November 1640. He was

commissioner of array A commission of array was a commission given by English sovereigns to officers or gentry in a given territory to muster and array the inhabitants and to see them in a condition for war, or to put soldiers of a country in a condition for military ...

for the king in 1641 and fought on the Royalist side at the

Battle of Edgehill The Battle of Edgehill (or Edge Hill) was a pitched battle of the First English Civil War. It was fought near Edge Hill and Kineton in southern Warwickshire on Sunday, 23 October 1642. All attempts at constitutional compromise between K ...

. He was disabled from sitting in parliament on 25 November 1643. He had his property sequestrated, as orders for the sale of Fanshawe's goods were issued by the parliament on 29 June 1643, and on 1 January 1644 a committee was appointed to examine a report that Sir William Litton had concealed part of Fanshawe's property. He ultimately compounded for the recovery of some of his estates for £1,310, but he was practically ruined. Fanshawe was with

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

in April 1646, and in August his brother

Sir Richard Fanshawe Sir Richard Fanshawe, 1st Baronet PC (June 1608 – 16 June 1666) was an English poet and translator. He was a diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1661 to 1666. During the English Civil War he supported the Royalist cau ...

visited him at

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

for the

Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of C ...

. He was also created Viscount Fanshawe of Dromore, in the

Irish peerage The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It is one of the five divisio ...

on 5 September 1661.

Family

Lord Fanshawe's first wife was Anne Alington, daughter of Sir Giles Alington, of Horseheath by Lady Dorothy Cecil, daughter of the

Earl of Exeter Marquess of Exeter is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1525 for Henry Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon. For more ...

. They had one daughter Anne (1628-1714). Upon his first wife's death, Lord Fanshawe married Elizabeth Cockayne, fourth daughter of Sir William Cockayne. Lord Fanshawe's sons and daughters by Elizabeth Cockayne included:

Thomas Fanshawe, 2nd Viscount Fanshawe Thomas Fanshawe, 2nd Viscount Fanshawe (1632–1674) of Ware Park, Hertfordshire was an Irish peer and Member of Parliament. He was born to Thomas Fanshawe, 1st Viscount Fanshawe by his second wife Elizabeth Cockayne, the daughter of Sir Willi ...

(1632- 1674), Henry Fanshawe, Charles Fanshawe, 4th Viscount Fanshawe (1643-1710), Simon Fanshawe, 5th Viscount Fanshawe (ca.1649- 23 October 1716) and Elizabeth Fanshawe, who married a distant relative named Sir Thomas Fanshawe of Jenkins. Lord Fanshawe died intestate at his town house in

Hatton Garden Hatton Garden is a street and commercial zone in the Holborn district of the London Borough of Camden, abutting the narrow precinct of Saffron Hill which then abuts the City of London. It takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton, a favourit ...

, and was buried at

Ware Ware may refer to: People * Ware (surname) * William of Ware (), English Franciscan theologian Places Canada *Fort Ware, British Columbia United Kingdom *Ware, Devon *Ware, Hertfordshire *Ware, Kent United States * Ware, Elmore County, Al ...

on 30 March 1665. Some say that his second wife (and widow), Elizabeth (Cockayne) Fanshawe, remarried to Sir Thomas Rich, Baronet, but that is an error: the Elizabeth Cockayne who married Sir Thomas Rich was also a daughter of a William Cockayne, but a different William: Merchant, Citizen and Skinner of London.Elizabeth Cockayne was the daughter of William Cockayne, Merchant, Citizen and Skinner of London, and Ellen Flud or Lloyd. Cokayne, George Edward
Complete Baronetage
Vol III. 1900, p. 180. Exeter: W Pollard & Co., Ltd. Further, the Elizabeth (Cockayne) Rich was baptized 11 Oct 1618 St Peter le Poor, London, England and had married Sir Rich by 1647. See also: Henning, B D, ed
RICH, Thomas (c.1601-67), of Sonning, Berks. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690
1983. Accessed 23 December 2019. File:Thomas Fanshawe, 2nd Viscount Fanshawe of Dromore.jpg, Thomes Fanshawe File:Charles Fanshawe, 4th Viscount Fanshawe of Dromore.jpg, Charles Fanshawe

References

*
FANSHAWE, Thomas II (1596-1665), of Ware Park, Herts. and Warwick Lane, London
Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604–1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010 ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Fanshawe, Thomas Fanshawe, 1st Viscount 1596 births 1665 deaths Viscounts in the Peerage of Ireland Peers of Ireland created by Charles II Cavaliers English MPs 1624–1625 English MPs 1625 English MPs 1626 English MPs 1628–1629 English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1661–1679 Members of the Parliament of England for Hertfordshire Fanshawe family