[Illustration] The Fanes or Vanes are said to have originated from
Wales; in the reign of Henry VI. they were seated at Hilden in
Tunbridge, in Kent, by a marriage with the Peshalls. In 1574 Sir
Thomas Fane married Mary daughter and heir of Henry Neville, Lord
Abergavenny; hence the importance of the family, and the Earldom of
Westmoreland, the ancient honour of the house of Neville. Apthorp
came from the heiress of Mildmay, about the end of the reign of
Queen Elizabeth.
Younger Branches. Fane of Wormesley, Oxfordshire, descended from
Henry Fane, Esq., younger brother of Thomas eighth Earl of
Westmoreland. The Duke of Cleveland (1833) and Sir Henry Vane, of
Hutton Hall in Cumberland, Baronet (1786), descend from John younger
brother of Richard Fane, ancestor of the Earl of Westmoreland.
See Brydges's Collins, iii. 283, and iv. 499; Hasted's Kent, ii.
265; and Blore's Rutlandshire, p. 103.
ARMS.--_Azure, three right-hand gauntlets or_.
Present Representative, Francis William Henry Fane, 12th Earl of
Westmoreland.