Fairfax
Fairfax names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Fairfax an English-American family of good repute
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
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.
Fairfax THOMAS, LORD
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THOMAS, LORD, a British military officer; born in Denton, England, Jan. 17, 1611. He was the eldest son of Ferdinand, Lord Fairfax. On the first breaking out of the civil discontents, following the example of his father, Fairfax embraced the popular side, and ranged himself as one of the firmest opponents of the royal party in Church and state. On the commencement of hostilities, he was commissioned by the Parliament to act as general of the horse under his father, who was made commander in the north. After the passing of the "Self-denying ordinance," Fairfax was appointed general, conjointly with Cromwell. He and Skipton commanded the main body of the Parliamentary army at the battle of Naseby; after which he marched with a powerful division to the W. counties; and, having reduced Exeter and other important towns, proceeded to lay siege to Oxford. His conduct on all occasions was marked by the highest sense of honor and humanity. During the Commonwealth Cromwell treated him with contempt. After Cromwell's death, when it became evident that the restoration of the monarchy was the general wish, he came forward to co-operate in bringing about that event. It was through his influence mainly that the Irish brigade forsook Lambert and joined Monk's army. Fairfax then seized York on the royal behalf; was made a member of the healing Parliament; and was nominated head of the committee appointed to wait upon Charles II. at The Hague and invite him to the throne of England. On the Restoration he withdrew altogether from active life. He wrote "Short Memorials" of his life, etc. He died near York, England, Nov. 12, 1671.
Fairfax THOMAS, 6th Baron of Cameron
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THOMAS, 6th Baron of Cameron; born in England in 1691; was educated at Oxford and was a contributor to Addison's "Spectator." Disappointed in England, he came to America and settled on a vast landed estate in Virginia which he had inherited from his mother, a daughter of Lord Culpeper. It was there, at Greenway Court, that Washington first met him. Between the two there sprang up a warm friendship, and when, years later, he learned that Washington had captured Cornwallis, he was overcome with emotion, and called to his body-servant to carry him to his bed, "for I am sure," he said, "it is time for me to die." He died at his lodge, Greenway Court, in Frederick co., Va., Dec. 12, 1782. The 11th Lord Fairfax and Baron of Cameron who succeeded his brother to the baronetcy in 1869, and who died in Northampton, Md., Sept. 28, 1900, like his American predecessors, made no claim to the title.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both Aiton's (1910) and Collier's (1921) stress that the American Fairfaxes "made no claim to the title" ote of an "empty title" nobody wanted — but that had already ceased to be true when Aiton's went to press: Albert Kirby Fairfax, born in Virginia, established his claim before the House of Lords in 1908 as 12th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, and the family afterwards resettled in England, where the Scottish barony continues today. Greenway Court, where the 6th Baron entertained the young Washington, is gone, but his grave at Christ Church in Winchester, Virginia, still marks him as the only British peer buried on American soil, and Fairfax County, Virginia, now a suburb of nearly 1.2 million people, carries his name. On the Fair Maid of Norway, later scholarship has tidied up Aiton's account: the impostor who claimed to be Margaret came out of Germany to Norway around 1300 and was burned at Bergen in 1301, where she was afterwards popularly venerated as a martyr. The military portraits of the third Baron, victor at Naseby, stand up well, and his "Short Memorials" remains the basis of what is written about him.
Written for this edition, 2026.