Christopher Vane, 1st Baron Barnard
Encyclopedia
Christopher Smart
Christopher Smart , also known as "Kit Smart", "Kitty Smart", and "Jack Smart", was an English poet. He was a major contributor to two popular magazines and a friend to influential cultural icons like Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding. Smart, a high church Anglican, was widely known throughout...
.
Biography
Christopher Vane was the son of Henry Vane the YoungerHenry Vane the Younger
Sir Henry Vane , son of Henry Vane the Elder , was an English politician, statesman, and colonial governor...
. He inherited Raby Castle
Raby Castle
Raby Castle is situated near Staindrop in County Durham and is one of the largest inhabited castles in England. The Grade I listed building has opulent eighteenth and nineteenth century interiors inside a largely unchanged, late medieval shell. It is the home and seat of John Vane, 11th Baron...
, Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
and Fairlawne, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, on the beheading of his father at Tower Hill
Tower Hill
Tower Hill is an elevated spot northwest of the Tower of London, just outside the limits of the City of London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Formerly it was part of the Tower Liberty under the direct administrative control of Tower...
in 1662. Vane was MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
from 1675 to 1679, and a Whig
British Whig Party
The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...
sitting for Boroughbridge
Boroughbridge (UK Parliament constituency)
Boroughbridge was a parliamentary borough in Yorkshire from 1553 until 1832, when it was abolished under the Great Reform Act. Throughout its existence it was represented by two Members of Parliament in the House of Commons....
from 1689 to 1690 (when his election was overturned on petition). He was made a Privy counsellor
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
in 1688, and in 1698, was created Baron Barnard of Barnard Castle
Barnard Castle
Barnard Castle is an historical town in Teesdale, County Durham, England. It is named after the castle around which it grew up. It sits on the north side of the River Tees, opposite Startforth, south southwest of Newcastle upon Tyne, south southwest of Sunderland, west of Middlesbrough and ...
by William III
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
.
During his time at Raby Castle, Christopher hired John Bazire and Peter Smart, father of Christopher Smart. A struggle between his wife and his daughter-in-law Lucy Jolliffe ensued after 1703 and Christopher refused to pay the inheritance annuity to his son, William, after William was to be given the Fairlawn estate. Christopher accomplished this task by giving Fairlawn and Raby Castle to John Bazire and Peter Smart "for the use of the said Lord Barnard and his heirs forever." William took a lawsuit over the inheritance to the House of Lords, and during this time Christopher and his wife lived at Raby Castle.
Later years
When his son Gilbert married Mary Randyll, Elizabeth started a quarrel with her daughter-in-law, which forced Christopher and Elizabeth to move back to Fairlawne. In 1712, Christopher hired John Proud, the steward of Raby Castle, to engage 200 workmen to strip the castle. Owen Stanley Scott described the way that the castle was stripped:- "of its lead, glass, doors, and furniture, even pulling up the floors, cutting down the timber, and destroying the deer, and 'of a sudden in three days' did damage to the tune of £3000, holding a sale at which the household goods, lead, etc., were sold for what they would fetch"
In response, Gilbert sued Christopher for the damages to the castle in the case Vane vs. Lord Barnard 1716.
He died on 28 October 1723, aged 70 at Shipbourne
Shipbourne
Shipbourne lies in the English county of Kent, in an undulating landscape traversed by the small streams of the River Bourne, set in a clay vale at the foot of the wooded Sevenoaks Greensand Ridge....
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
and was buried in the parish church. He wrote in a codicil to his will that Peter Smart would receive £40 a year. Also, he bequeathed £200 to Christopher Smart and £50 to the other children of Peter Smart. The reason for Christopher Smart's legacy has been seen by some as a sign that the future poet was "the pride of Fairlawn"; others disagree without an offered explanation. Christopher Smart never received this money, as it was tied up and lost in a court battle. In response to this loss, Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington
Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington
Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington PC was an English peer, the son of Gilbert Vane, 2nd Baron Barnard.On 2 September 1725, he married Lady Grace Fitzroy, daughter of Charles Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Southampton and they had seven children.Vane was Whig MP for Launceston from 1726 to 1727, St Mawes...
, Christopher's grandson through Gilbert, took the young Christopher Smart in at Raby Castle and paid for his education at Durham School.
Family
On 9 May 1676, he married Elizabeth Holles, daughter of Gilbert Holles, 3rd Earl of ClareGilbert Holles, 3rd Earl of Clare
Gilbert Holles, 3rd Earl of Clare was an English nobleman, styled Lord Haughton from 1637 until his accession in 1666....
. There was immediate bad feeling between Christopher and Elizabeth, on one side, and her brother and co-heir John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. They had three children:
- Henry Vane (1676–1676), died in infancy.
- Gilbert Vane, 2nd Baron Barnard (1678–1753), married to Mary Randyll (1681 - 1728), mother of Anne, mistress of Frederick, Prince of WalesFrederick, Prince of WalesFrederick, Prince of Wales was a member of the House of Hanover and therefore of the Hanoverian and later British Royal Family, the eldest son of George II and father of George III, as well as the great-grandfather of Queen Victoria...
- William Vane, 1st Viscount Vane (c. 1680–1734), married to Lucy Jolliffe