Sarah Anne Fane, Countess of Westmorland, in 1786 by Ozias Humphrey
Sarah Sophia Child Villiers, Countess of Jersey (née Fane) (Alfred Edward Chalon)

Sarah Anne Fane, Countess of Westmorland (née Child; 28 August 1764 9 November 1793) was an English noblewoman.

She was the only child of Robert Child, the owner of Osterley Park and principal shareholder in the banking firm Child & Co, and Sarah Child. She married John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, on 20 May 1782 at Gretna Green after they eloped together. Her parents were dissatisfied with the match: Sarah Anne being an only child, her father wanted her to marry a commoner who would take the Child name; but Sarah Anne told her mother, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."[1] Her father would leave no capital to her or any eldest child,[2] leaving his house and fortune to the (any) second child of Sarah Anne, instead of the likely Westmorland primogeniture heir-to-be.[1] A second marriage ceremony took place at Apethorpe, Northamptonshire on 7 June 1782.[3] She died of a fever at Phoenix Park, Dublin on 9 November, 1793.[4]

Sarah Anne and the earl's surviving children were:

As only one son of the marriage survived, most of Child's fortune eventually went to his eldest granddaughter, Lady Sarah Sophia.[5]

Seven years after Sarah's death, the Earl of Westmorland married Jane Saunders, an heiress, and had further children.

References

  1. 1 2 "Osterley Park" in: Lydia Greeves, Houses of the National Trust, National Trust Books, 2008, ISBN 978-1-905400-66-9, p. 238
  2. John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland (1759-1841), Politician", National Portrait Gallery
  3. Northamptonshire Marriages (Findmypast, subscription required.)
  4. G. E. C. [George Edward Cokayne], Complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Volume 8, 1898, p119
  5. Roland Thorne, "Fane, John, tenth earl of Westmorland (1759–1841)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2008. (subscription or UK public library membership required)

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