Charles Fanshawe 1643-1710

Charles FANSHAWE, 4th Viscount Fanshawe 1643-1710

Biographical Note

Fifth (but third surviving) son of Thomas Fanshawe, 1st Viscount Fanshawe, MP, Remembrancer of the Exchequer, and Royalist supporter during the Civil War. MA Christ's College, Cambridge 1665; admitted at the Inner Temple 1664. After unsuccessfully seeking to be made a fellow of the College (the Master declared him "unfit") he attended the Anglo-Dutch peace negotiations at Breda, and in 1670 became a captain in the Coldstream Guards, serving in Flanders in 1678. Succeeded his nephew as 4th Viscount, 1687. MP for Mitchell, Cornwall 1689 but soon afterwards ejected for refusing the oaths to William and Mary; imprisoned in the Tower as a suspected Jacobite in 1692, after which he retired to the country.

Books

Fanshawe's books were sold by retail sale in London, beginning 12 June 1710. No catalogue survives but the advertisement in the Daily Courant referred to "an extraordinary collection of English, Spanish, and French books, extremely fair, gilt and letter'd, and on the largest paper".

Characteristic Markings

None of Fanshawe's books have been identified.

Sources

• History of Parliament.
• Alston, R. C. Inventory of sale catalogues 1676-1800. St Philip, 2010.