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Henry Bourchier, 5th Earl of Bath (1587–1654) was an English peer who held the office of Lord Privy Seal and was a large landowner in Ireland in counties Limerick and Armagh, and in England in Devon and Somerset.

Origins

Sir Henry Bourchier was probably born and was certainly brought up in Ireland. He was the fifth son of Sir George Bourchier (d.1605), an English soldier who settled in Ireland, the 3rd son of John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath (1499–1561) by his 2nd wife Eleanor Manners, daughter of George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros. Henry's mother was Martha Howard (c. 1555–1598), daughter of William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham. Thus his uncle was Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, Lord High Admiral.

Education

Henry entered Trinity College Dublin, which his father had helped to found in about 1597. He received the degree of BA in 1605, was elected the 21st Fellow of the college in 1606 and received his MA in 1610. He was one of only eight in the first thirty years of the college's existence who remained a layman.

Inheritance

Three of Henry's four elder brothers died young and the fourth one, Sir John Bourchier (d.1614), who had been knighted on 24 March 1610/11, of the manor of Clare, County Armagh, died on 25 March 1614 having been MP for county Armagh, 1613–14. By 1614, therefore, Henry had inherited in Ireland from both his father and brother over 18,000 acres (73 km), and then when in 1636 he became 5th Earl of Bath, on the death of his first cousin once removed Edward Bourchier, 4th Earl of Bath (d.1636), he added the Bourchier seat of Tawstock in Devon and 36 other manors in Devon and Somerset to his name.

Career

Henry was knighted on 9 November 1621. He joined the Privy Council on 8 August 1641 but in 1643 near the start of the Civil War he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Following his release he was appointed in 1644 Commissioner for the Defense of Oxford and in the same year, 22 January 1644 as the king's Lord Privy Seal (which office had previously been held 1572–73 by his maternal grandfather Lord Howard of Effingham) in the Oxford Parliament. He remained Lord Privy Seal until his death.

Marriage

On 13 December 1638 the 50 year old Henry Bourchier, by now the 5th Earl of Bath, married in the Mildmay family church, St. Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield, to 25 year-old Rachael Fane (1612/13-1680), fifth daughter of Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland by his wife Mary. The marriage was childless.

Monument to wife

Rachel's monument exists in St Peter's Church, Tawstock, in Devon, given by the Diocese of Bath and Wells, a white marble life-size standing female figure by Balthasar Burman, a replica of the statue made in 1671/2 by his father Thomas Burman of Mary Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (1556–1632) situated in a niche in the Shrewsbury Tower of Second Court, the building of which she financed, in St John's College, Oxford. The Latin inscription is as follows:

Rachel Comitissa Henrico digna, vix altera e sexu vel animo, vel virtute aequipollens Rebus domesticis, civilibus, sacris, ingenio plusquam virili, at materno (quo suo tempore vix maius dabatur in terris) Ecclesiae Anglicanae Filia humilis, et devota, et iniquis temporibus eiectorum Patrum mater et hie pene unica fautrix Unicum Lugendum quod in se perjisset nobile Bourchieri nomen, ni sat illa habuit virtutum vel illud immortale reddere Et liset improlis plus mille liberorum Parens, quos liberalissime educavit, dotavit, sacravit, et nobilitavit. Adhuc vivit et nunquam moritura dum his Regionibus supersunt grata pectora.("Rachel, a countess really worthy of Henry, who had scarce an equal of her sex either in spirit or in virtue. In domestic, civil and religious affairs she had a genius exceeding that of a man, and such a motherly disposition that scarce a greater then existed in the world. She was a humble and devout daughter of the Church of England and in times of persecution a mother to the ejected Fathers and in these parts almost their only protectress. This alone was worthy of our tears, that in her the noble name of Bourchier would have been extinct if she had not been endowed with virtues sufficient even to render it immortal and though she was childless yet she was parent to more than a thousand children, whom in a very genteel manner she brought up, gave portions to, consecrated and even ennobled. She still lives and never will die while any spark of gratitude remains in this country")

Death & burial

Henry Bourchier died at Tawstock on 16 August 1654 and was buried there the next day.

Succession

On Lord Bath's death without progeny (decessit sine prole) the Earldom of Bath became extinct. His Irish estates passed to his widow, and from her to her nephew Sir Henry Fane (1650-1705/6), KB, then to his son Charles Fane, 1st Viscount Fane, who, on the strength of this inheritance, was in 1718 created Viscount Fane and Baron Loughguyre, both in the Peerage of Ireland, thence by descent to about1979. The lesser entailed English estate in Devon centred on Tawstock, passed elsewhere, to the Wrey family, descended from one of the three daughters of the 3rd Earl of Bath.

On Bath's death the Irish estates passed to his widow, and from her to her nephew Sir Henry Fane, KB, (1650-1705/6), then to his son Charles, who, on the strength of this inheritance, was created Viscount Fane and Baron Loughguyre, both in the peerage of Ireland, in 1718, and thence by descent to c.1979. The lesser entailed English estate in Devon, centred around Tawstock, passed elsewhere, to the Wrey family, as a result of their descent from the daughter of the 3rd Earl of Bath.

Residences

Henry lived from 1640 at Bath House, 53/54 Lincoln's Inn Fields, his London townhouse. His Devon seat was Tawstock Court, Tawstock, North Devon. Other seats of his were: Clare Castle, near Tandragee, co. Armagh; Bourchier Castle, Lough Gur, near Bruff, Limerick, a tower house originally built by the FitzGerald family, Earls of Desmond. Bourchier Castle still stands, although Clare Castle, 'a stoney house or castle of lime', a 100 by 80-foot (24 m) fortified house, is today a ruin.

Estates

The county Limerick estate (which spilled over into county Tipperary) covered 12,800 acres (52 km) (English acres) and included the manors of Lough Gur and Glenogra, in the Barony of the Small County in County Limerick, Munster, which had been granted by letters patent or other grant of Queen Elizabeth I (E.I. 30) on 2 November 1589 to his father Sir George.

In about 1718 the estate consisted of: The manor of Loughguyre & Glenogre, 5 castles, 300 Messuages, 1500 cottages, 400 Tofts, 8 Mills, 1600 Gardens, 2,500 acres (10 km) of land, 1,300 acres (5.3 km) of Meadow, 3,600 acres (15 km) of Pasture, 500 acres (2.0 km) of Wood & underwood, 300 acres (1.2 km) of Furze & Heath & 200 acres (0.81 km) other.

Most of the estate in Armagh, at least 6,000 acres (24 km), lying between Tandragee and Portadown, was granted to Henry's elder brother John (died 1614) by a patent of James I (J.I.8) on 30 November 1610. Henry acquired more land in county Armagh from Sir Francis Cook on 23 July 1646. Part of the Armagh estate, Brackagh Bog, under two miles (3 km) south of Portadown, is today a Nature and Moss Reserve. Other lands in both Limerick and Armagh were sold to them or once belonged to Sir William St Leger (1586–1642) as shown by a Deep Poll, dated 17 July 1619.

In 1805 at the time of its partition between the heirs of the Charles Fane, 2nd Viscount Fane, the last viscount, namely Peter, 3rd Count de Salis and John Montagu, 5th Earl of Sandwich, the Bourchier/Fane Irish estate comprised 6,620 acres (26.8 km) in county Limerick (with gross annual rental value of £4,189), and 6,908 acres (27.96 km) in county Armagh (worth £2,671 per annum). In 1883 the de Salis part of the divided Bourchier estate in Ireland was listed in Bateman's Great Landowners, Return of Owners of Land (taken from the Return of Owners of Land, 1873), as consisting of 3,663 acres (14.82 km), (worth £5,392 per annum), in County Armagh and 4,026 acres (16.29 km), (worth £3,349 per annum), in County Limerick.

Tawstock accounts

Todd Gray's transcription of the Bath account books reveals some of the Countess of Bath's orders:

• June 1640 paid Mr Gelthrope for the Lady Peterbrough's picture £12 0s 0d (Gray, p. 174), ;
• between 29 May and 4 June 1641 to Sir Anthony Vandick in part for my picture 20 0 0 (Gray, p. 238);
• between 4 and 14 June 1641 to Sir Anthony Vandick for my picture 10 0 0; for the frame 4 0 0; to his man 1 0 0 (Gray, p. 238), ;
• November 1641 paid Lewis the 6th of Novem. for a copy of my own Dick to the ... 18s (Gray, p. 241);
• cJanuary 1642/43 To Lewie the painter in further part of his bill of £15 5s 0 (Gray p. 116);
• c.March to Lewie the painter in further part of his bill 5 0 0 (Gray, p. 116);
• May 1646 Lewis the painter is to have £8 for 2 pieces & 18s for one frame & £5 for a copy drawn by him of my picture (Gray, p. 190);
• September – March 1646/47 to Mr Gildropp by bill 01 18 00 (Gray, p. 131).

The vicar of Shiplake the Rev. James Granger (1723–1776) in his Biographical History of England, from Egbert the Great to the Revolution (1769) describes the Lombart engraving of the Van Dyck portrait of RACHAEL MIDDLESEXIAE comitissa:

"Rachel, daughter of Francis Fane, the first Earl of Westmoreland. She was first married to Henry Bourchier, Earl of Bath; secondly, to Lionel Cranfield, the third Earl of Middlesex, who succeeded his brother James in 1651. Lionel died without issue by her, 26 Oct 1674. I have seen her picture at Basilden, in Berkshire , among the ancestors of the late Lord Viscount Fane. She is said to have left a very large sum to build a private chapel; but the money was never applied to the use for which it was intended. Lord Fane used to speak of her as a very good woman. Her portrait was painted by Vandyck, in the reign of Charles I. The print should have been inscribed, " Lady Rachel Fane, or Rachel Countess of Bath." Anachronisms of this kind are too common upon portraits".

Oswald Barron, writing in 1905 and 1906, described her: "She was a great lady and a busybody, and her cloud of kinsfolk held her in fear as their patroness and suzerain...a masterful woman, she lived feared and respected by her numerous kindred whom she advanced by her interest at court".

Portraits or artefacts associated with Bath or his wife

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• _{Bourchier Tower at Lough Gur (September 2005), owned by the Earl, at the heart of his county Limerick estate}
• _{Portrait of Rachel Fane, Countess of Bath (1613-1680) (and sometime Countess of Middlesex), painted c. 1642/43-1646. (79 x 48.5 inches). His wife}
• _{Detail of the frame of the adjacent mid-seventeenth-century picture frames, showing papier-mâché appliqué. Part of a frame measuring 79 x 48.5 inches. Detail of seventeenth-century frame of portrait of the Earl}
• _{One of a pair of candlesticks made for Bath's widow. Marks for Robert Cooper, London, 1679. They bear Bath's arms}

Sources

This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Henry Bourchier, 5th Earl of Bath" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

• This article uses information from R. de Salis, R : B : M, Centre for Salis Studies, London, 2009.
• William Urwick, The Early History of Trinity College Dublin, 1591–1660, London & Dublin, 1892.
• McDowell & Webb, Trinity College Dublin, Cambridge University Press, 1982.
• G. E. Cokayne, Vicary Gibbs, The Complete Peerage, volume II, page 19, The St. Catherine Press, London, 1912 (the series was published: 1910–1959).
• Todd Gray (ed), Devon Household Accounts 1627–59 Part II, Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 1996.
• Fane de Salis MSS.
• John Bateman, Great Landowners, 1883.
• Rev. James Graves & John G. Augustus Prim, The History, Architecture, and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of St. Canice, Kilkenny, Dublin, 1857.
• A Biographical History of England, from Egbert the Great to the Revolution: consisting of characters disposed in different classes, and adapted to a methodical catalogue of engraved British Heads: intended as an essay towards reducing our biography to system, and to a help to the knowledge of portraits: interspersed with a variety of anecdotes, and memoirs of a great number of persons, not to be found in any other biographical work. With a preface, shewing the utility of a collection of engraved portraits to supply the defect, and answer the various purposes, of medals, by the Rev. James Granger (1723–1776), vicar of Shiplake in Oxfordshire. Fifth edition, volume IV out of VI, London, 1824. (First edition was 1769). (Page 78, a description of the Countess of Bath's portrait by Van Dyck).
• Oswald Barron, The Fanes, in Ancestor, January 1905, xii, 9–10.
• Oswald Barron, FSA (ed), Northamptonshire Families, (VCH), Archibald Constable, London, 1906.
• University of Toronto Libraries

References

1. Gray, Todd, Devon Household Accounts, 1627–59, Part II, Henry, Fifth Earl of Bath and Rachel, Countess of Bath, 1637-1655, Devon and Cornwall Record Society, Exeter, 1996, p.xxii
2. Hoskins, W.G., A New Survey of England: Devon, London, 1959 (first published 1954) , p.489; "Mary, Countess of Shrewsbury, promised to finance a second court. Built in 1598–1602, it cost £3,600, of which the countess, owing to her misfortunes, contributed only £2,700" From: 'The colleges and halls: St. John's', A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3: The City and University of Cambridge (1959), pp. 437-450.
3. The lady of Hudscott in Chittlehampton was another Devonshire protectress of ejected clerics (Andrews, Rev. J.H.B., (Vicar of Chittlehampton & Prebendary of Exeter Cathedral), Chittlehampton Parish Magazine, volume 20, January 1949)
4. Based on framed 19th. century handwritten translation at base of monument; also similarly translated by Layley, Lords of Barnstaple, p.27, reproduced in Gray, p.xxii
5. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitation of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.107, pedigree of Bourchier
6. Gray, Todd, Devon Household Accounts, 1627–59, Part II, Henry, Fifth Earl of Bath and Rachel, Countess of Bath, 1637-1655, Devon and Cornwall Record Society, Exeter, 1996
7. James Granger, History of England, from Egbert the Great to the Revolution, volume 4, fifth edition, 1824, p.78

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• 1587 births
• 1654 deaths
• Bourchier family
• Earls in the Peerage of England
• Earls of Bath (1536)
• Lords Privy Seal
• People associated with Trinity College, Dublin
• People from County Armagh
• People from County Limerick
• People of Elizabethan Ireland
• Oxford Parliaments