He served in the Commons as a Whig collaborator during the passage of the Bill of Rights which his father, Sir Henry Vane the Younger, had fought for religious and civil liberty[1][2][3] before his beheading in 1662.

[6] Vane was MP for County Durham from 1675 to 1679, and a Whig sitting for Boroughbridge from January 1689 to November 1690 (removed by petition of Sir Brian Stayplton).

[5] Christopher accomplished this task by giving Fairlawne and Raby Castle to John Bazire and Peter Smart "for the use of the said Lord Barnard and his heirs forever.

There was immediate bad feeling between Christopher and Elizabeth, on one side, and her brother and co-heir John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

[13] The reason for Christopher Smart's legacy has been seen by some as a sign that the future poet was "the pride of Fairlawne";[14] others disagree without an offered explanation.