William Andrew Salius Fane de Salis

William Fane de Salis

William aged 49 by Camille Silvy, 1861

William Andreas Salius Fane de Salis (27 October 1812 – 3 August 1896) was a businessman, colonialist, and barrister.

De Salis was the third son of Jerome, 4th Count de Salis-Soglio (d. 1836), by his third wife, Henrietta Foster (d. 1856). Peter John Fane, Count de Salis was an elder half-brother. William Foster Stawell was a first cousin, and the poet Lord De Tabley was a nephew. Colonel Bisse-Challoner was a brother-in-law.

Born in St. Marylebone, Westminster, brought up in County Louth he was educated at Eton (1824–27); Heidelberg University (1828–29); and Oriel College, Oxford (1830–1834, Classics, 4th class). He was called to the Bar, 30 January 1836; and was at 3 Brick Court, Inner Temple, by 1840. He was the revising barrister in Northants (1839) and then Nottingham.

Professional life

_{Silver-gilt given to De Salis by the London Chartered Bank}

De Salis visited Australia in 1842, 1844 and 1848 to pursue business opportunities in the Australian wool industry, then rapidly expanding. His younger brother Leopold Fabius Fane de Salis had migrated there in 1840. William became, with John Thacker, a partner in Thacker & Co, Jardine Matheson’s affiliated house in Sydney, but resigned from 1 July 1847. By 1848 he owned with Robert Towns a 345 ton barque, the Statesman. This they sold, March 1854, for $16,500, she having had an accident 'on her passage up to China from Sydney' trading sandalwood, tea pines...

On his return to England De Salis joined the Grand Junction Canal Co in 1850 and held the following appointments:

• Directorship of the Union Bank of Australia;
• Director of the Australian Agricultural Co (AAco) and its offshoot the Peel River Land and Mineral Co Ltd;
• Director of the Marine and General Mutual Life Assurance Society;
• Director and later chairman of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company. He was a director between 1851–1895 and was elected chairman in 1878-1881;
• Deputy-chairman then chairman of the London Chartered Bank of Australia from 1852 to 1874/80.

Personal life

Detail of a drawing entitled evenings at home depicting De Salis and his wife, c. 1870.

In the early 1850s he lived between the Jerusalem Coffee House; Dawley Lodge (near Hillingdon); 1, Upper Belgrave street; 24 Wilton street, and 107 Eaton square. From the late 1850s he lived at Dawley Court, near Hillingdon, Middlesex and Teffont Manor, Teffont Evias, Wiltshire, home of his wife Emily Harriet (d 24 July 1896), eldest daughter of John Thomas Mayne, who he had married on 12 March 1859.

His wife, Emily Mayne

File:MrsWilliamFaneDeSalis.jpg

_{Carte de visites of Emily, daughter of John T. Mayne and wife to William Fane De Salis.}

He was a Fellow of the Geological Society and of the Royal Geographical Society, JP for Middlesex, (1868), Lord of the Manor and Patron of the Living of Teffont, and JP for Wiltshire. He co-founded the Harlington, Hounslow and Cranford Cottage Hospital in 1884. He left Dawley to his youngest brother's second son, one of whose younger brothers was Charles Fane de Salis.

Photo c1865/1870 of Teffont manor.

At his death he left effects valued at £147,382 6s 7d. His nephew Rodolph was executor. His wife had died a mere ten days earlier leaving £1,930.

Works

• Reminiscences of Travel in China and India in 1848, 1892 (private circulation).
• Introductory Remarks to a Residence In Australia, And To Travels In China And India, (a short pamphlet).
• Original Poems with Translations from the German of Schiller, (private circulation).

His Reminiscences of Travel in China and India in 1848 contains lithographs, after his own sketches, of Mount Ophir, Pulo Brassey, Cape Comorin, Cochin harbour, Cannamore, Mangalore, Marmagoa, the Island of Socotra, cantonments of Aden from the Kyber pass, Mocha, Jebel Tear, Jebel Wady, Lahuna, the coast of Nubia, the mountains of Abyssinia, Mount Zapheran, Tagus, Gibraltar and Malta.

Ancestors

Some of William De Salis's ancestors

William Fane de Salis	Jerome, Count De Salis	Peter, Count de Salis	Jerome, Count de Salis
			Hon. Mary Fane, daughter of 1st Lord Fane.
		Anna v. Salis-Soglio	Giovanni v. Salis-Soglio (1707–1790) (casa Battista).
			Katherina Barbara (1711–1788), daughter of Rudolfo v. Salis-Soglio (1652–1735) (casa di Mezzo).
	Henrietta Foster (1785–1856).	Rt. Rev. William Foster, DD (1744–1797).	Lord Chief Baron of the (Irish) Exchequer, Anthony Foster (1705–1779), of Collon, co. Louth. They married in 1736. His nephew, John Foster, was the first husband of Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire.
			Elizabeth (d.1744), daughter of William Burgh, of Bert, co. Kildare.
		Catharina-Letitia Leslie (d. 23 November 1814).	Rev. Dr. Henry Leslie (1719–1803), LLD, of Ballibay, co. Monaghan. A scion of the family of the Earl of Rothes. Prebend of Tullycorbet and then of Tandragee (44 years). His father, Rev. Peter Leslie, was rector of Ahoghill, and married Jane, the daughter of Rt. Rev. Dr. (Anthony) Dopping, Bishop of Meath.
			Catherine, daughter of the Very Rev. Charles Meredyth, of Newtown, co. Meath. Dean of Ardfert, by his wife Letitia Vesey.

References

• Quadrennial di Fano Saliceorum, volume one, by R. de Salis, London, 2003.
• De Salis Family : English Branch, by Rachel Fane De Salis, Henley-on-Thames, 1934.
• Burke's Irish Family Records, ed. Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, Burke's Peerage Ltd, London, 1976.
• Der Grafliche Hauser, Band XI [volume 11], Genealogisches Handbuch Des Adels, C. A. Starke Verlag, Limburg an der Lahn, 1983 (pps 331-356).
• Thomas Skinner, The Directory of Directors 1880, London, 1880. (a list of directors of joint stock companies in the UK).