Frederick Vane-Fletcher 2nd Baronet 1760-1832

On 27th February 1760 Frederick Vane-Fletcher 2nd Baronet was born to Lionel Wright Vane-Fletcher 1st Baronet [aged 36].

On 19th July 1786 [his father] Lionel Wright Vane-Fletcher 1st Baronet [aged 63] died. His son Frederick [aged 26] succeeded 2nd Baronet Fletcher of Hutton in Cumberland.

In 1796 Frederick Vane-Fletcher 2nd Baronet [aged 35] purchased Armathwaite Hall, Cumberland [Map] on the north shore of Bassenthwaite Lake, Cumberland.

In 1796 Frederick Vane-Fletcher 2nd Baronet [aged 35] was elected MP Carlisle.

On 9th March 1797 Frederick Vane-Fletcher 2nd Baronet [aged 37] and Hannah Bowerbank [aged 24] were married. Three weeks later their third child was born. The date of their marriage subject to litigation some forty years after the death of Frederick Vane-Fletcher 2nd Baronet when his brother Frederick Henry Fletcher-Vane claimed the marriage was did not take place until after the birth of their son Francis who was, therefore, illegitimate and not eligible to inherit the family estates. See The Times.

On 29th March 1797 [his son] Francis Fletcher-Vane 3rd Baronet was born to Frederick Vane-Fletcher 2nd Baronet [aged 37] and [his wife] Hannah Bowerbank [aged 24]. He married 1823 Diana Elizabeth Beauclerk and had issue.

On 18th May 1807 [his son] Frederick Henry Fletcher-Vane was born to Frederick Vane-Fletcher 2nd Baronet [aged 47] and [his wife] Hannah Bowerbank [aged 34].

In 1823 [his son] Francis Fletcher-Vane 3rd Baronet [aged 25] and [his daughter-in-law] Diana Elizabeth Beauclerk [aged 16] were married.

On 26th February 1832 Frederick Vane-Fletcher 2nd Baronet [aged 71] died. His son Francis [aged 34] succeeded 3rd Baronet Fletcher of Hutton in Cumberland.

On 17th December 1866 [his former wife] Hannah Bowerbank [aged 93] died.

The Times. 6th November 1872. It was upon the legitimacy of the third of these children that the question turned. The plaintiff [Frederick Henry Fletcher-Vane [aged 65]] alleged that pending arrangements for his father's marriage with Miss Bowerbank, she was prematurely confined of a third child, a son, and that the marriage did not in fact take place until nearly three weeks after her confinement – viz., on March 9, 1797. The child thus born, as the plaintiff alleged about three weeks before the marriage on the 9th of March, was baptised by the name of Francis Fletcher-Vane at St. George's, Bloomsbury, on the 19th of April, 1797, and in the entry of his baptism he was stated to have been born on the 29th of March 1797. As to this entry, it was alleged by the plaintiff [Frederick Henry Vane] that the register had been tampered with and that the date of the birth was added some time after the original entry. The bill then stated that Sir Frederick Fletcher-Vane brought up Francis Fletcher-Vane, the child thus born, as his legitimate heir. After the marriage two other children were born – i.e., a daughter, and the plaintiff, who was born on May 10, 1807. Francis Fletcher-Vane married in 1823, and upon the death of his father in 1832 assumed the title and the family estates.