Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland

Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland (March 1701 – 25 November 1771), MP for Lyme Regis and a lord commissioner of trade. He was an ancestor of George Orwell, the writer.

Thomas Fane was the second son of Henry Fane of Brympton d'Evercy in Somerset and Anne sister and coheir of John Scrope, children of Thomas Scrope, a Bristol merchant. Anne was a granddaughter of Colonel Adrian Scrope the regicide. Thomas Fane inherited John Scrope's fortune and mansion in Bristol, and from him Colonel Adrian Scrope's property in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Thomas Fane married Elizabeth Swymmer, the daughter of a Bristol merchant and member of the slave trade, William Swymmer. In 1762 he inherited the title of Earl of Westmoreland from John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland, his father's second-cousin, who had died without issue. The couple had two sons and two daughters, including:

In 1761 Joshua Reynolds painted his full-length portrait entitled Mr Fane. Reynolds was paid 80 guineas for the work, which depicted the powder-wigged subject walking through a wooded landscape wearing rose-coloured velvet attire. In May 1903 the portrait was sold to Martin Colnaghi for 2,100 guineas.

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