Fanshawe, Sir Richard, first baronet (1608–1666), diplomat and translator, was born in June 1608 at Ware Park, Hertfordshire, and baptized on 12 June, the youngest son of Sir Henry Fanshawe (1569–1616), exchequer official, and his wife, Elizabeth Smythe (1577?–1631). The household into which he was born was on a scale appropriate to a senior royal servant who could trace gentry status back to the medieval ...
