Fairfax

an English-American family of good repute. The Fairfaxes were barons in the county of York. The second Baron Fairfax (1584-1648) was a member of the Long Parliament and commanded the forces of his county at the battle of Marston Moor. A son, the third Baron Fairfax, led a squadron of horsemen in the same battle. In 1645 he was made commander-in-chief of the parliamentary forces. He defeated Charles I at Naseby and was one of the commissioners to invite Charles II to return to England. He left autobiographical works covering the years of his public activity. The sixth of his name is known in American history as Lord Fairfax. The paternal estate in Yorkshire having been sold to pay his father's creditors, this Thomas Fairfax emigrated to Virginia, where he inherited a large tract of land from his mother, a daughter of Lord Culpepper. He settled eventually near Winchester. He employed George Washington to survey his lands in the Shenandoah Valley. He was an admirer of young Washington, but remained an ardent loyalist. This American Lord Fairfax was a man of education and fine feeling. He was educated at Oxford and contributed papers to Addison's Spectator. Successive heirs to the family title have lived in Virginia. The eleventh "Lord Fairfax," if he had cared to return to England and claim an empty title, died in Northampton, Maryland, in 1900. See Washington; George

Fair Maid of Norway (1283-1290), the name by which Margaret, the little daughter of Eric II of Norway, is known in Scottish history. Margaret's mother was the daughter of Alexander III of Scotland. Alexander III died in 1285. Immediately a betrothal was arranged by Edward I of England between Margaret and his son. When the little girl was seven years old, she started for Scotland, but died on the journey. The circumstances of her death were never known clearly, and suspicion of foul play was entertained. Some thought she had been made way with at sea, others that she had been taken away and kept in concealment. About ten years afterward a woman appeared in Leipsic who claimed that she was the lost Margaret. She was proved to be an imposter.