Thomas Fairfax Fifth Lord Fairfax of Cameron1,2

Male, #8949, (1657 - 6 Jan 1710)

Parent*Henry Fairfax Fourth Lord Fairfax of Cameron (30 Dec 1631 - 13 Apr 1688)
Parent*Frances Barwick (s 1631 - 14 Feb 1684)
Thomas Fairfax Fifth Lord Fairfax of Cameron|b. 1657\nd. 6 Jan 1710|p8949.htm|Henry Fairfax Fourth Lord Fairfax of Cameron|b. 30 Dec 1631\nd. 13 Apr 1688|p37615.htm|Frances Barwick|b. say 1631\nd. 14 Feb 1684|p37616.htm|||||||||||||

Birth*1657 Thomas was born in 1657. 
 He was the son of Henry Fairfax Fourth Lord Fairfax of Cameron and Frances Barwick. 
Marriage*circa Oct 1690 He married Catherine Culpeper circa Oct 1690. 
Death*6 Jan 1710 He died on 6 Jan 1710. 
Burial*10 Jan 1710 His body was interred on 10 Jan 1710 at St. Martin's in the Fields, Westminster, London, England. 
Biography* Thomas Fairfax (1657-1710), fifth Lord Fairfax of Cameron, of the nineteenth recorded generation of his family, was the representative of a junior branch which had been seated since 1558 at Denton, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and in 1627 had been raised by Charles I to the peerage of Scotland with the title of Lord Fairfax of Cameron. His father was Henry Fairfax (1631-1688) of Oglethorpe, who succeeded, 1671, as fourth Lord Fairfax on the death of the Parliamentary general, and then became also 'of Denton.' Baptised in Bolton Percy, April 16, 1657, he was entered in the pedigree his father certified at the Visitation of Yorkshire, 1665, as 'aet. 8 ann., 8 Aug., 1665.' He matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxon, November 10, 1675, 'aged 18' (Foster) ; but seems soon thereafter to have transferred to St. Johns College, Cambridge; which university was in the tradition of his family (Venn; and Cf. Torry, Founders and Benefactors of St. Johns, 1888, p. 52). In 1685 he was first returned to Parliament as burgess for Malton (Official Returns of M.P.s, 1878), so that when his father died in the last year of James II and he succeeded to the title, he was already a person of sufficient importance of make it count that he 'heartily concurred in the revolution of 1688.' He was one of the small band of gentlemen who, in November of that year, under the leadership of the earl of Danby, seized York in the interest of the Prince of Orange (Luttrell, Brief Relation, i, 478; The Memoirs of Sir John Reresby (ed. Cartwright, 1875), 411 ff. Fairfax was, for this reason, one of the Yorkshiremen to whom James II made specific advances after he got to France; and he was in consequence confined, for a brief season, in the Tower. See the Information of the Jacobite agent, John Lunt, 1694, in Historical MSS Comission, 14th Report, Appendix pt. iv, p. z94; Luttrell, iv, 60). To the convention Parliament he was returned as Knight of the Shire for Yorkshire, being the seventh of his family to attain that responsibility in, what is more remarkable, the sixth successive generation. In that capacity he sat in the House of Commons thenceforth continuously until the act of Union with the Crown of Scotland (1707) disqualified him, as being a Scots peer (Luttrell, vi, 232).
.
During this period he became also an active officer in William III's Household cavalry and saw service in Ireland in the Boyne campaign and later in Flanders (Luttrell, ii, 233, 585; iii, 258). His subsequent military career, proved by entries in the State Papers, was summed up in George William Fairfax's entry in the Leeds Castle bible, 1761, as follows: 'On 31 December, 1688, he was made Lieut. Colonel of the third regiment of Horse Guards, whence he was promoted, 20th January, 1693, to the King's Own Regiment of Horse, and on 9th March, 1701, made Brigadier General.'
.
Although he served as Deputy Lieutenant for Kent, as well as for Yorkshire (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1702-3, p. 394); and his children were all born at Leeds Castle, he lived chiefly in Yorkshire, at his house on Castle hill in the city of York and at Denton Hall, and practised at both places an abundant hospitality (Markham, Admiral Robert Fairfax, p. :231). At Denton there is a pleasant glimpse of him in Thoresby's diary for September, 1702 (Atkinson, Ralph Thoresby, 1885, ii, 64). Thoresby noted that he 'was glad to observe the continuance of so religious an order in the family, all the servants, etc., being called in to daily prayers.' Lord Fairfax showed him 'the gardens, the hawks, horses, brood mares and foals, for which 80 l. has been refused;' but Thoresby was best pleased in the old library, 'for which my lord is preparing a new place.' The next day, 'My Lord very kindly rode with us part of the way and showed us four of his oxen, that are the largest, finest beasts that ever I beheld.'
.
The anxiety of the third Lord Fairfax to provide for his daughter, the Duchess of Buckingham, had, however, deprived his successors of the income which the first Lord Fairfax had left to support the family dignity (See Appendix); the fifth Lord Fairfax had moreover inherited an extravagance which was characteristic of his race. The confusion of Lord Culpeper's affairs did not permit of relief from that estate, and in consequence, despite frequent filips of patronage from the government (Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1689-90, pp, 438, 447), Fairfax became heavily burdened by debts, aggregating 'near two and twenty thousand pound.' In December, 1709, being then in his fifty-third year, he was in London harassed by his creditors. The land agent and the servant who alone attended him persuaded him to go into concealment. A letter addressed to his wife two months later (The Fairfax Correspondence, iv, 242) rehearses what followed:
.
'I cannot learn any other reason Williams had in taking my Lord away, but to have the better opportunity of plundering him when dead, which he saw would soon happen: he was removed the 13th of December and died the 6th of January. He had several notes of Sir Francis Child and a bag of guineas before him a quarter of an hour before he left Pall Mal1; and a porter carried him from the chocolate house in the same street, from Mrs. Margett [his daughter], forty pounds; and as no creditors were paid at his last lodging or knew where to find him, Williams or his man took his monies when he was dead or dying. The servant was a creature of Williams' and one that he helped my Lord to.'
.
It was thus that, far from his own people, Fairfax died on January 6, 1709/10; and on the January 10th following, was buried at St. Martins in the Fields, as the parish register records. Subsequently, an MI. was set up in Otley Church (Whitaker, Loidis and Elnwte), which has since disappeared.
.
His will was as follows:
.
P. C. C. Young, 45.
Will dated December 30, 1709.
Proved June 4, 1711.
.
Thomas Lord Fairfax Baron of Cameron in North Britain. All my manors etc. estate real & personal (except shares of wreck granted to me by Her Majesty by indenture under Great Seal dat. 3 Apr. 1707) to Sir John Bucknall of Oschay, co. Hertf. knight, Robert Fairfax of Saint Clements Danes, co. Middx. esq. Bryan Fairfax jun of St. Margarets Westminster esq. & Bybye Lake of Middle Temple London esq. in fee on trust to pay debts and legacies, & then for my son Thomas F. in fee. Sd shares of wreck to Henry Hawker of St. Annes Westminster esq. on trust as to 30 of the shares for my younger children, two shares to sister Mary Fairfax, two others for sd. Bryan Fairfax, one share for sd Robert Fairfax & rest for my sd. son Thomas F. Sd. Sir John Bucknall & other trustees to be exers & guardians of my son Thomas F. during his minority. Witns. Stephen Crowe, Letitia Crowe John Hudson. Prob. by Bibye Lake esq. one of the exers. Power reserved for Sir John Bucknall knight, Robert Fairfax & Bryan Fairfax the other exers.
.
Source: Fairfax Harrison, "The Proprietors of the Northern Neck."



 

Family

Catherine Culpeper (1670 - May 1719)
Children

Last Edited 1 Apr 2000

Citations

  1. Dr. Patricia Petit of Washington DC, compiler, Tricia's Southern Genealogy Homepage, 1999.
    http://members.tripod.com/~Bonestwo/
  2. Col. F.W.T. Attree R.E./F.S.A. & Rev. J.H.L. Booker M.A., "The Sussex Colepepers, Part I", Sussex Archaeological Collections, XLVII, 47-81, (1904) http://gen.culpepper.com/historical/sussex/default.htm.