their general that both his sons had been killed at the siege of Frankenthal. Two other sons are stated by Thoresby to have died a violent death in the same year: Peregrine at La Rochelle and Thomas in Turkey. Upon the accession of Charles I, Fairfax unsuccessfully sought a seat for Yorkshire in the parliament of 1625. He drew up a statement of his services, and on 4 May 1627 was created Baron Fairfax of Cameron in the Peerage of Scotland. The grant was facilitates by a payment of 1,500l., which was to include all the fees and other expenses. He complained that he had to provide the bags required by the royal emissaries to convey the coin from Denton to Scotland.
Fairfax spent the remainder of his life at Denton, taking, however, even to the last, an active interest in northern political affairs. Archbisbop Matthews having complained that of his three sons one had wit without grace, another grace without wit, and a third neither grace nor wit, Fairfax to comfort him said that of his own three sons, Ferdinando, bred to be a soldier, was a mere coward; Henry [q. v.], meant for a divine, was only good as a lawyer: and Charles, sent to the inns of court, was no lawyer though a sound divine. He said on another occasion that he expected something from his grandson, Thomas, afterwards the general [q. v.], but shortly before death told his son Charles [q. v.] that he was in great trouble about his family, thinking that it would be ruined after his death by the ambition of Thomas, 'led much by his wife.' On 13 June 1639 he wrote to his 'ever-loving grandchild, Thomas Fairfax, captain of a troop of horse in his majesty's service.' exhorting him to serve the king, obey his general, avoid private quarrels, and do his best against the common enemy (the Scots), having apparently some doubts of 'Tom's' prudence.
Fairfax died 1 May 1640. He was buried, by the side of his wife, who had died in 1620, in the south transept of Otley Church, where a large altar-tomb, surmounted with their effigies, still commemorates their virtues. The legend, written by Edward Fairfax the poet, Fairfax's brother, desribes his wife:
Here lies Leah's fruitfulness, here Rachel's beauty;
Here Rebecca's faith, here Sarah's duty.
Besides the sons mentioned above, Fairfax had two daughters: Dorothy, married to Sir William Constable, and Anne, wife of Sir George Wentworth of Woolley.
Fairfax is said in 'Analecta Fairfaxiana' to have written: 1. A discourse, containing 150 pages, entitled 'Dangers Diverted, or the Highway to Heidelbergh.' 2, 'Conjectures about Horsemanship.' 3. 'The Malitia of' Yorkshire.' 4. A large tract on the Yorkshire cavalry and against horse racing. 5. 'The Malitia of Durham.' 6. 'Orders for the House,' &c. 7. Many excellent treatises upon several subjects and not bound together.
[Herald and Genealogical, October 1870; Fairfax Correspondence, vols. i. and ii.; Douglas and Wood's Scottish Peerage, i. 569; Markham's History of the third Lord Fairfax; Hart's Lecture on Wharfdale; Analectiana Fairfaxiana (manuscript).]
FAIRFAX, THOMAS, third Lord Fairfax (1612–1671), general, son of Ferdinando, second lord Fairfax [q. v.], was born at Denton in Yorkshire on 17 Jan. 1611–12 (Fairfax Correspondence, i. 61). In 1626 he matriculated at St. John's College, Cambridge, and three years later was sent to the Low Countries to learn the art of war under Sir Horace Vere (ib. i. 56, 160; Markham, Life of the Great Lord Fairfax, p. 13). He was present at the siege of Bois-le-Duc (1629), travelled for a time in France and elsewhere, and returned to England in 1632 in hopes of obtaining permission to join the Swedish army in Germany (Fairfax Correspondence, i. 163). Fairfax married, on 20 June 1637, Anne Vere, the daughter of his old commander (ib. i. 296–305; Markham, p. 20). During the first Scotch war Fairfax commanded a troop of 160 Yorkshire dragoons, and was knighted by the king on 28 Jan. 1640 (Rushworth, iii. 926; Catalogue of Knights). According to Burnet he had a command in the army which was defeated at Newburn, ‘and did not stick to own that till he passed the Tees his legs trembled under him’ (Own Time, 1838, p. 16). Nevertheless it is doubtful whether he took any part in the second Scotch war. From the commencement of the civil war Fairfax was prominent among the supporters of the parliament in Yorkshire. On 3 June 1642 he presented to the king on Heworth Moor a petition of the Yorkshire gentry and freeholders. The king refused to accept it, and is said to have attempted to ride over him (Markham, p. 48; Rushworth, iv. 632). Fairfax also signed the protest of the Yorkshire parliamentarians on 29 Aug. 1642, and was one of the negotiators of the treaty of neutrality of 29 Sept. When the treaty was annulled he became second in command to his father, and distinguished himself in many skirmishes during the later months of 1642. His first important exploit, however, was the recapture of Leeds on 23 Jan. 1643 (Rushworth, v. 125; Markham, pp. 66–90). Two months later (30 March 1643) Fairfax
