FAWCETT, John, D.D., a Baptist minister at Hebdenbridge, near Halifax, was born at Lidget Green, near Bradford, January 6, 1740, and died, July 25, 1817, having laboured as a minister of the gospel for fifty-four years. He was the author of several works; among which are a "Commentary on the Bible," 2 vols., 4to., and an essay "On Anger," which attracted the attention of George III., and thereby procured for the author considerable influence with that sovereign, which he used, not for personal advantage, but for bespeaking the royal clemency on behalf of criminals.—W. L. A.
FAWCETT, Sir William, an English general, was born at Shipdenhall, near Halifax, in 1728. He commenced his military service at an early age as a volunteer in Flanders, the attractions of that field having induced him to resign his appointment in a regiment then stationed in Georgia. His subsequent marriage to an heiress withdrew him for a time from the profession of a soldier; but his attachment to it resumed its sway, and he purchased a commission in the third regiment of guards. Having in the meanwhile acquired a knowledge of the French and German languages, he published in 1757 a translation of Marshal Saxe's Reveries, or Memoirs on the Art of War; and two years afterwards, the Military Regulations and Tactics of the Prussian Service were placed by him under the eye of the English reader. In the Seven Years' war he acted as aid-de-camp to General Elliot, and held the same office under his successor, the marquis of Granby. On his return home he was promoted to a lieutenant-colonelcy in the guards, and became military secretary to Lord Granby. His services on the continent having attracted the notice and won the esteem of the king of Prussia, he received liberal offers of employment and honour in that country; these, however, were declined. After passing through the grades of colonel, major-general, lieutenant-general, and succeeding General Amherst at the head of the adjutancy, he obtained his promotion to the rank of general in 1796. He was subsequently a member of the privy council, and died in 1804 a knight of the bath and governor of Chelsea hospital. There is a monument to his memory in the burial ground of that institution.—W. B.
FAWKES, Francis, an English writer, was born in Yorkshire in 1721. After graduating in Cambridge in 1741, he entered into the church, and fixed his residence at Bramham in his native county. In 1745 he first appeared as an author anonymously, publishing a poem on Bramham Park. This was followed by "Descriptions of May and Winter," by which he acquired some notoriety. The patronage of Archbishop Herring procured him advancement in the church, and he ultimately obtained the rectory of Hayes, and a chaplaincy to the princess dowager of Wales. Meantime, he continued his literary avocations, publishing original poems and translations. Amongst the latter were translations from Anacreon, Bion, Moschus, in 1760; and from Theocritus in 1767. In this last he was aided by the critical contributions of Dr. Johnson, Wharton, and others, who seem to have entertained a favourable opinion of his capacity. As an original poet he has but small merit; but as a critical and elegant translator he was held, not unjustly, in estimation. He died, August 26, 1777.—J. F. W.
FAWKES, Guido or Guy, the famous conspirator, whose name is inseparably associated with the Gunpowder Plot, was the son of Edward Fawkes, a notary at York, who held the office of registrar and advocate of the consistory court of the cathedral, and was a gentleman of a good family. He died in 1578, but the date of his son's birth is unknown. Guy Fawkes inherited a small patrimony, which he spent, and then enlisted as a soldier of fortune in the Spanish army in Flanders. He was present at the capture of Calais in 1598, and in 1603 was joined with Christopher Wright in his embassy from the English Roman catholics to Philip II. He was brought to England in the following year by Thomas Wright, another of the conspirators, though at that time he was ignorant of the plot. The originator of the gunpowder treason was Robert Catesby, the lineal descendant of William Catesby, the favourite minister of Richard III., and proprietor of Ashby St. Legers in Northamptonshire, and of an estate at Lapworth in Warwickshire. He was educated in the Romish religion, which he at one period abandoned, but afterwards returned to his former faith and became one of its most enthusiastic supporters. He had been involved in various treasonable schemes towards the close of Elizabeth's reign, and now, maddened at the increased severity of the penal laws directed against the Romanists, he conceived the project of destroying at one blow, king, lords, and commons. The first persons whom he took into his confidence were—John Wright, a member of an old family in Yorkshire, and one of the best swordsmen of his time; and Thomas Winter, an able and accomplished man, whose elder brother, Robert, was the head of an ancient and opulent Worcestershire house. It was arranged that, in the first instance. Winter should repair to the Netherlands for the purpose of soliciting the mediation of the king of Spain in behalf of the English Roman catholics. At Ostend he met with Guy Fawkes, with whom he returned to England about the latter end of April, 1604. A few days after their return, Thomas Percy, a relative and confidential steward to the earl of Northumberland, was made acquainted with the plot, and a solemn oath of secrecy was taken by all the conspirators. Eleven other associates subsequently joined them. The execution of the plot was mainly devolved on Fawkes. It was he who, under the assumed name of Johnson, received the keys and kept possession of the house purchased by Percy, his pretended master, from the cellar of which a mine was to be made through the wall of the parliament house. It was he who afterwards hired the vault below the house of lords, in which they deposited the thirty-six barrels of gunpowder prepared for the destruction of the parliament. He was also despatched into Flanders shortly before Easter, 1605, to secure the co-operation of Sir William Stanley and Captain Owen, who held military command there. And, finally, it was Fawkes who undertook to fire the mine when parliament should have assembled (November 5th). On the discovery of the plot, probably through information given by Tresham, one of the conspirators, Fawkes, though aware that the government had obtained a clue to their intentions, continued to visit the vault daily. He was arrested on the morning of the 5th as he was stepping out from the door; having, as he afterwards said, just then ended his work. A watch, together with slow matches and touchwood, were found upon his person, and a dark lantern with a light in it was discovered behind the cellar door. Other four of the conspirators were killed in defending themselves at the breach. Fawkes declared to Sir Thomas Knevit who arrested him, that "if he had happened to be within the house when he took him, he would not have failed to have blown him up, house and all." When examined before the king and council he displayed astonishing firmness, and boldly avowed and justified the object of the conspiracy; but though severely tortured to extort a confession, he obstinately refused to name his accomplices until they were made known to the government through other channels. He was tried, along with seven of his associates, at Westminster on the 27th January, 1606. They were all found guilty, and executed three days later with all the revolting barbarities then inflicted upon traitors. Fawkes was not, as is commonly supposed, a low mercenary ruffian, ready for hire to perpetrate any crime; but a wild enthusiast whose understanding had been perverted and his better feelings overpowered by superstition and fanaticism, and who was ready to do and to suffer anything to promote the cause of the Romish church, to which he was devotedly attached.—J. T.
FAXE, Jakob Wilhelm, a Swedish clergyman, born in 1730; died pastor of Qvistofta, and dean of Ronneberg district, in 1790. He was the author, amongst other works, of "Det ädlaste hjerta i quinnobröst," a moral and historical description, 1785; "Kort vag till öfvertygelse ora Kristna religionens sanning," 1787; "Sammandrag af Biblisk Historia," 1812.—M. H.
FAY, Andras de, a Hungarian author, born in 1786. After having finished his law studies, his constitutional weakness prevented him from following an active mode of life; he settled, therefore, at Pesth, and devoted all his talents to literature. His poetry made him some reputation; but it was by his satirical fables, published in 1820, that he became at once one of the most popular authors of that time in Hungary. In 1825 he engaged in politics, and remained for a long time the leader of the opposition in the metropolitan county of Pesth, until Kossuth eclipsed him. He took a great interest in the establishment of the Hungarian theatre, introduced saving banks into Hungary, wrote several novels and dramas, and became one of the most respected members of the Academy.—F. P.
FAY. See Du Fay.
FAYDIT. See Faidit.
FAYDIT, Pierre, a French ecclesiastic, and a miscellaneous writer, was born at Riom in Auvergne in 1649, and died in 1709.
