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.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
Knightly.
Clavering of Callaly Castle.