Fulwar, 4th Baron Craven of Hamstead Marshall

 

Fulwar Craven, fourth Baron Craven, portrait by James Latham c.1740.

    Fulwar Craven, fourth Baron Craven of Hamstead Marshall, was born in about 1701. The exact date is unknown. Nobody expected him to succeed to a peerage so they don't seem to have kept a record. He was the second son of William Craven, 2nd Baron Craven and his wife Elizabeth née Skipwith, who died in childbirth on 16th May 1704, so this may be Fulwar's date of birth, unless she was giving birth to another child, who also died. ¹
    Fulwar got his rather unusual name from his mother's side of the family. Her father had been named Humberston Skipwith, and his father had been Fulwar Skipwith. The Skipworth family seat was at Newbold Hall in Warwickshire, not far from Coombe Abbey.

     Fulwar was extremely fond of racing, and hunting on his Berkshire estates at Hamstead Marshall and Ashdown Park. He was a typical Tallyho country squire, always in the saddle. He kept his own stud of racehorses and set up a racecourse at Lambourn. In those days there was no racing at Newbury, and this was the first great racecourse of Berkshire. He and his brother William founded the Craven Hunt, one of the most flourishing in the country at the time.

This painting "The Kill at Ashdown Park" by James Seymour is in the Tate Gallery. Done in 1743 it was acquired in 1968 from the sale of pictures belonging to the Craven family. It shows a hunting scene in the park, with the house in the distance to the viewer's left. The sport depicted seems to be hare-coursing and Lord Craven is triumphantly holding the dead animal aloft. Soon it would be hung, skinned, and prepared to go into a game pie.

    The artist's viewpoint appears to have been on Kingstone Downs, to the south-east of the house, the hills on the right of the picture being Weathercock Hill and Crowberry Tump.

    When Fulwar died on 10 November 1764, the title and estates passed to his nephew but there was one notable bequest. When the Will was proved on 6th December 1764 it included a generous five hundred pounds plus an annuity of two hundred pounds per year to his servant Sarah Masling, for "her long & devoted service". These sums meant that she could live in comfort as a gentlewoman for the rest of her life. If Sarah was his mistress, and he was closely attached to her, this may explain why the 4th Baron never married. ²

Nevertheless although he left no legitimate children, the name Fulwar continued to be used in the Craven family for two centuries.

1. https://www.thepeerage.com/p2078.htm#i20777

2. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D494189