Thomas Fanshawe, 2nd Viscount Fanshawe
Thomas Fanshawe, 2nd Viscount Fanshawe KB (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 William Cockayne, who served as the Lord Mayor of London in 1619.[1]
Biography[edit]
By the time Thomas was ten years old, the English Civil War had begun between Parliament and King Charles I over whose authority took precedence over the other. As staunch Royalists, the Fanshawe family sent many members of the family, including Fanshawe's father, to fight for the king.
While his father was away, Thomas's uncle, Sir Simon Fanshawe, married the Katherine Walter, the widow of Knighton Ferrers, who was a wealthy neighboring landowner. As a result, Sir Simon gained custody of the dead gentleman's daughter, Katherine (d. 1660). To solidify a union between the two families, Sir Simon arranged for Katherine to marry Thomas in 1648. According to popular legend, Katherine became the "Wicked Lady", a female highwayman who terrorised the county of Hertfordshire.
Thomas would afterwards go on to serve in the Second English Civil War. For his service to the new king, Charles II, he was created a Knight of the Bath in 1661 upon the Restoration and became an active member for Hertford in the Cavalier Parliament from 1661 to his death.
Personal life[edit]
After the death of his first wife, either from childbirth or, if the legend is true, the mortal wounds inflicted upon her in one of her latest and final exploits as the infamous highway woman, Lord Fanshawe married Sarah Evelyn, daughter of Sir John Evelyn and cousin of the noted diarist John Evelyn.[2] By her Lord Fanshawe had a son that he named Evelyn Fanshawe, who would succeed him as the 3rd Viscount Fanshawe of Dromore after his own untimely death in 1674 as a result of apoplexy. This was a hereditary medical condition that both his father and grandfather died from as well.