Family and Education

b. c.1693, 1st s. of Robert Fenwick, merchant, mayor of Newcastle 1708, by Isabella, da. of Cuthbert Ellison of Hebburn, co. Dur. m. (1) 21 Oct. 1713, Elizabeth (d. Mar. 1715), da. of George Baker of Crook, co. Dur., s.p.; (2) 9 May 1716, Elizabeth, da. and coh. of Sir James Clavering, 4th Bt., of Axwell, co. Dur., 6s. 7da.

Offices Held

Mayor, Newcastle 1726, 1736, 1746, 1747.

Biography

The grandson of Nicholas Fenwick, governor of the Merchant Adventurers 1697-1704, Fenwick was admitted to that Company in 1712. Representing Newcastle as a Tory for twenty years, he voted against the Administration in every recorded division. In 1733 he was given a vote of thanks by the Merchant Adventurers for his zeal in opposing the excise bill.1 Through his second wife he had acquired Lemington, in Alnwick, where he practised forestry, for which he received a gold medal from the Society of Arts.2 Retiring in 1747, he died in 1752 (buried 27 Feb.).

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. J. Richmond to Walter Blackett, 2 June 1733, Add. 27420, f. 62.
• 2. Arch. Aeliana (ser. 4), xxiii. 150.