Career
Of Dutch descent, Germain was thought to be an illegitimate half-brother of William III of England. He was created a baronet in the Baronetage of England on 25 March 1698. His affair with Mary, wife of the seventh Duke of Norfolk led to the breakdown of that marriage.
On her death in 1705 he inherited Drayton.
He was then elected for Totnes in a by-election on 22 April 1717, following the death of Arthur Champernowne. He sat for this seat until his death the following year at the age of sixty-eight, when his baronetcy became extinct.
Germain"s second wife, Lady Elizabeth ("Betty") Berkeley, survived him until 1769. She left the Drayton estate to Lord George Sackville, who adopted the surname Germain.
