In the words of his grandson, Sir Frederick Fletcher Vane ‘was not without the faults and passion of youth’.[5][6] He has also been described as a ‘colourful and difficult character’.[7] Notwithstanding the last remark, expressed after Sir Frederick's death, his character and personality while alive were interesting enough to see him successfully proposed for membership of Brooks's in 1796 by the Whig politician and wit, Charles James Fox, Brooks's being a club where the Prince of Wales was a member.[8] Sir Frederick joined the Whig Club on 11 April 1797 and, in 1798, Coleridge and Wordsworth made use of Sir Frederick's library at Hutton.[1][9][10]Bobus Smith was the inspiration behind the Whig Club and would later be a trustee on the resettlement of the Fletcher-Vane estates ahead of the marriage in 1823 of Sir Frederick's son, Francis, to Diana Beauclerk, the granddaughter of Topham Beauclerk and Lady Diana Beauclerk.[11][12]
^Memorials of Brooks’s, MDCCLXIV to MCM, From The Foundation Of The Club 1764 To The Close Of The Nineteenth Century, Compiled From The Records Of The Club. Published by Ballantyne & Co. Limited, Tavistock Street, London, W.C., MCMVII, p.50