Early life

Fairfax was born at Denton, Yorkshire on 5 March 1597, and was the seventh and third surviving son of Sir Thomas (afterwards first Lord) Fairfax

Thomas Fairfax, 1st Lord Fairfax of Cameron

Thomas Fairfax, 1st Lord Fairfax of Cameron was an English soldier, diplomat and politician, his title being in the Peerage of Scotland.-Life:...

. His two surviving brothers (four others were killed fighting in 1631) were Ferdinando

Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron

Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron , English parliamentary general.-Early life:He was born in Yorkshire the eldest son of Thomas Fairfax, whom Charles I in 1627 created Lord Fairfax of Cameron in the Peerage of Scotland and received a military education in the Netherlands. Two of his...

 and Henry

Henry Fairfax (academic)

-Early life:He was born in 1588 at Denton, Yorkshire, the fourth son of Thomas Fairfax, 1st Lord Fairfax of Cameron. Two of his brothers were Ferdinando Fairfax and Charles Fairfax. His uncle, Edward Fairfax, who, says Brian Fairfax, was very serviceable to his brother, the first lord Fairfax, in...

. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

 on 5 October 1611, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 9 March 1618. About 1627 he married Mary, sole heiress of the Breary family, of Scough Hall in the forest of Knaresborough and Menston.

The counsellor and annalist of his family, the rest of his life was spent mainly on his family tree, at Menston

Menston

Menston is a village and civil parish in the county of West Yorkshire, England. Along with Burley in Wharfedale, Menston is part of Wharfedale Ward in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford. It has a population of 4,660.-Landmarks:...

, Yorkshire. At Menston he was within a few miles of his paternal home at Denton.

Civil war

A few days before the battle of Marston Moor

Battle of Marston Moor

The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the First English Civil War of 1642–1646. The combined forces of the Scottish Covenanters under the Earl of Leven and the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester defeated the Royalists commanded by Prince...

 (2 July 1644) Cromwell and other parliamentary leaders held a conference at Fairfax's house at Menston around a table now at Farnley Hall, Yorkshire. While his nephew, Sir Thomas

Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron

Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron was a general and parliamentary commander-in-chief during the English Civil War...

, afterwards the third Lord Fairfax, did much to preserve the minster and archives at York, Charles was engaged with another antiquary, Roger Dodsworth

Roger Dodsworth

Roger Dodsworth was an English antiquary.-Life:He was born at Newton Grange, Oswaldkirk, near Helmsley, Yorkshire, in the house of his maternal grandfather, Ralph Sandwith...

, in the search for and rescue of books and documents. In 1646 he was appointed by his brother, Ferdinando

Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron

Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron , English parliamentary general.-Early life:He was born in Yorkshire the eldest son of Thomas Fairfax, whom Charles I in 1627 created Lord Fairfax of Cameron in the Peerage of Scotland and received a military education in the Netherlands. Two of his...

, the second Lord Fairfax, as steward of the courts at Ripon

Ripon

Ripon is a cathedral city, market town and successor parish in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, located at the confluence of two streams of the River Ure in the form of the Laver and Skell. The city is noted for its main feature the Ripon Cathedral which is architecturally...

, and during the later years of the Commonwealth was induced to take service as a Colonel of Foot, a position which he held in George Monck's army in Scotland at the time of the Restoration

English Restoration

The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

 of 1660. During Monck's march into Yorkshire he was appointed governor of the town of Kingston-upon-Hull. This office he held only about a year and then retired to Menston with a pension, granted him by Charles II out of the customs at Hull.

Death and family

He died in Menston in December 1673. The registers of Fewston parish church record his burial, and also that of his wife in 1657; they were both buried in the Fairfax transept of the parish church at Otley

Otley

-Transport:The main roads through the town are the A660 to the south east, which connects Otley to Bramhope, Adel and Leeds city centre, and the A65 to the west, which goes to Ilkley and Skipton. The A6038 heads to Guiseley, Shipley and Bradford, connecting with the A65...

, where there was a mural monument to their memory. Among his children were twin brothers, John, a captain in the army, and Henry

Henry Fairfax (dean)

Henry Fairfax was an English clergyman and academic, Dean of Norwich after the Glorious Revolution.-Life:He was a twin son of Charles Fairfax, and grandson of Thomas Fairfax, 1st Lord Fairfax of Cameron. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he matriculated 21 July 1653. He graduated...

, a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and dean of Norwich, who were so alike as to be indistinguishable by their own mother.

Written work and collections

Fairfax wrote a work in manuscript entitled Analecta Fairfaxiana. It contains pedigrees, carefully written and blazoned on vellum, of all the branches of the Fairfax family, and of many of the families connected with it, interspersed with many genealogical and literary notes, and about fifty anagrams, epigrams, and elegies in Latin. The "Fairfax Manuscripts" went to Leeds Castle, Kent.

The collection of the Dodsworth Manuscripts, now in the Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

 at Oxford, was the joint work of Fairfax and Roger Dodsworth,. It is usually stated that Lord Fairfax gave these volumes (160) to the Bodleian; but in a note to an account of Edward Fairfax in Francis Atterbury

Francis Atterbury

Francis Atterbury was an English man of letters, politician and bishop.-Early life:He was born at Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, where his father was rector. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he became a tutor...

's ‘Correspondence’ by Brian Fairfax

Brian Fairfax

Brian Fairfax, LL.D. , was an English politician.-Early life:Brian Fairfax, the second son of the Rev. Henry Fairfax, was born at the rectory at Newton Kyme, Yorkshire, on 6 October 1633. He gives some account of his early life in a manuscript narrative written for his sons...

 it is stated that it was Henry Fairfax, dean of Norwich (son of Charles), who donated them.

By his will, dated 1672, Fairfax bequeathed manuscripts to Lincoln's Inn

Lincoln's Inn

The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...

.