| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Earl of Westmorland | |
| Honorific-Suffix: | KG PC |
| Office1: | Lord Lieutenant of Ireland |
| Term Start1: | 1789 |
| Term End1: | 1794 |
| Monarch1: | George III |
| Primeminister1: | William Pitt the Younger |
| Predecessor1: | The Marquess of Buckingham |
| Successor1: | The Earl FitzWilliam |
| Office2: | Lord Privy Seal |
| Term Start2: | 14 February 1798 |
| Term End2: | 5 February 1806 |
| Monarch2: | George III |
| Primeminister2: | Pitt, Addington |
| Predecessor2: | The Earl of Chatham |
| Successor2: | The Viscount Sidmouth |
| Term Start3: | 25 March 1807 |
| Term End3: | 30 April 1827 |
| Monarch3: | George III, George IV |
| Primeminister3: | Portland, Perceval, Liverpool |
| Predecessor3: | The Lord Holland |
| Successor3: | The Duke of Portland |
| Birth Date: | 1759 6, df=yes |
| Nationality: | British |
| Party: | Tory |
| Children: | 10 |
John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, (1 June 175915 December 1841), styled Lord Burghersh between 1771 and 1774, was a British Tory politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, who served in most of the cabinets of the period, primarily as Lord Privy Seal ultimately spending 33 years in office.
Westmorland was the son of John Fane, 9th Earl of Westmorland, and Lady Augusta Bertie, daughter of Capt. Lord Montagu Bertie. He succeeded in the earldom on the death of his father in 1774.[1]
In 1789 Westmorland was appointed Joint Postmaster General by William Pitt the Younger[1] and sworn of the Privy Council. Already the same year he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by Pitt, a post he held until 1794. On 18 February 1793, he was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Northamptonshire. From 1795 to 1798 he was Master of the Horse under Pitt. The latter year Pitt made him Lord Privy Seal, a position he would hold under five prime Ministers (Pitt, Addington, Pitt again, Portland, Perceval and Liverpool) for the next 35 years, except between 1806 and 1807 when Lord Grenville was in office.[1]
Westmorland raised a Northamptonshire volunteer cavalry regiment in 1797, and was appointed its colonel on 20 April 1797. He was later Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire between 1828 and 1841.[1] He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1793.
Lord Westmorland married Sarah Anne Child (28 August 1764 – 9 November 1793), the only daughter and heiress of wealthy banker, Robert Child, against her father's wishes, at Gretna Green on 20 May 1782.[1] Child consequently cut his daughter and her sons and their descendants out of his will, and made his daughter's daughters his heirs to prevent the Fanes from benefitting from this elopement. Their eldest daughter, Lady Sarah Sophia Fane (1785–1867), having thus been made testamentary heiress of her maternal grandfather, married George Child-Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey, her husband assuming the additional surname of Child.
The Earl and Countess of Westmorland had one son and four daughters:
The Countess of Westmorland died relatively young in 1793, aged only 29, from undisclosed causes. Lord Westmorland married secondly Jane, daughter of Richard Huck-Saunders, in 1800.[1] After some years of marriage, they later separated and she lived at Brympton d'Evercy. By his second wife, he had three sons and two daughters, of whom only the eldest child Lady Georgiana Fane outlived both parents and inherited the Brympton estate.
Lord Westmorland died in December 1841, aged 82, and was succeeded in the earldom by his only son from his first marriage, John. The Countess of Westmorland died in March 1857.[1]
| Escutcheon: | Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Azure three dexter gauntlets, backs afrontée or (for Fane); 2nd and 3rd, Argent three battering rams, barways in pale or, headed and garnished azure (for Bertie) |
| Crest: | Out of a Ducal Coronet Or, a Bull's Head of Brindled colour, armed Or, charged on the neck with a Rose Gules. |
| Supporters: | Dexter: a Griffin per fess Argent and Or, collared and line reflexed over the back Sable. Sinister: a Pied or Brindled Bull, collared and line terminating in a Ring and three Staples Or. |
| Motto: | Ne Vile Fano ("Disgrace Not The Altar"; Fane), Ne Vile Velis ("Form no mean wish"; Neville) |