Family and Education

bap. 8 June 1628, 1st s. of Thomas Fanshawe of Jenkins, clerk of the crown in the K.b., by Susan, da. and coh. of Matthias Otten of Putney, Surr. educ. I. Temple 1646. m. (1) 5 Feb. 1657, Margaret (d.1674), da. and h. of Sir Edward Heath of Cottesmore, Rutland, 1da.; (2) Elizabeth (d.1729), da. of Sir Thomas Fanshawe I, 1st Visct. Fanshawe of Dromore [I], of Ware Park, Herts., s.p. suc. fa. 1652; kntd. 10 Dec. 1660.1

Offices Held

J.p. Essex Mar. 1660-Apr. 1688, Oct. 1688- bef. 1701, commr. for militia Mar. 1660, assessment, Essex Aug. 1660-80, 1689-90, Rutland 1673-80, sewers, Havering and Dagenham levels Sept. 1660, Wittersham marshes Dec. 1660; dep. lt. Rutland 1671-Mar. 1688.2

Clerk of the crown in the K.b. June 1660-d.3

Biography

Fanshawe belonged to a younger branch of the family which had acquired the manor of Barking in 1567. His father, who inherited a valuable office in the King’s bench, was elected for Lancaster in 1640 and sat at Oxford during the Civil War. He compounded for £1,300 on the Barnstaple articles on an income of £900, of which £200 represented his salary.4

Fanshawe was with his father in the west of England in 1645-6 and succeeded to his office at the Restoration. He took no known part in politics until 1685, when he was returned to James II’s Parliament for Essex as a Tory at the head of the poll. His only committee was on the bill to prevent the import of tallow candles. In 1688 he gave negative answers on the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws, and was removed from county office. The King’s agents reported that he would be nominated for re-election in the Church interest. He was restored to the commission of the peace in October, but refused to act until after the Revolution. He did not appear at the general election of 1689 and probably never stood again. He died after several years of ‘decrepitude’ on 29 Mar. 1705, and was buried at Barking, the last of the Essex Fanshawes to sit in Parliament. He bequeathed Jenkins to his cousin, Thomas Fanshawe of Parsloes, but the will was upset on a technicality and the property passed to his daughter, the widow of Baptist Noel.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: Gillian Hampson / Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. Vis. Eng. and Wales Notes ed. Crisp, vi. 150-1.
• 2. Essex RO, assize rolls 35/102-26, QSR448-52, T2/26; C191/7/48; CSP Dom. 1671, p. 273; 1689-90, p. 477.
• 3. Cal. Treas. Bks. i. 630.
• 4. H. C. Fanshawe, Fanshawe Fam. 231-2; Keeler, Long Parl. 172-3; Cal. Comm. Comp. 1661; Fanshawe Mems. 15.
• 5. Fanshawe Mems. 312-14; Bramston Autobiog. (Cam. Soc. xxxii), 172, 316-17, 326, 346; Essex RO, DD/Ac2; R. Hist. Soc. Trans. (ser. 4), xix. 185; VCH Essex, v. 192.