Fawkes, Walter Ramsden (1769 -1825)

Born Walter Ramsden Hawkesworth at Hawkesworth Hall, West Riding of Yorkshire, he was the son of Walter Beaumont Fawkes and Amelia Farrer. He was educated at Westminster School 1781-1786, before entering Trinity College Cambridge in 1786. He inherited Farnley Hall in 1792 and took the surname of Fawkes by Royal Licence, 1 Dec 1792, as his father had done in 1786. Member of the Whig party, he represented the County of York, 1806-1807. Fawkes was a vociferous anti-Slavery advocate. In 1823 he was appointed High Sheriff of Yorkshire. He married Maria, daughter of Robert Grimston of Neswick, and sired thirteen children. On the death of his first wife in 1813, he married Maria Sophia Vernon. Fawkes became an intimate friend and early patron of the artist J.M.W. Turner. He was a keen agriculturalist, and also wrote several books, including The Chronology of the History of Modern Europe (1810).