Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/156

 and Steele, and had a commission in the blues. He was engaged to be married to a lady of rank, and the contract was actually drawn up, when the lady jilted him, and soon afterwards he visited his American estates. Recently the marriage contract, with the lady's name carefully erased, was found among some old family papers. Fairfax finally retired to America in 1746 or 1747. The Northern Neck of Virginia, which Fairfax had inherited, comprised the whole region between the Potomac and the Rappahannock, including the Shenandoah valley. Fairfax found, settled in Virginia, his cousin William Fairfax, who became his agent, and whose son eventually succeeded as the eighth lord. For some time his lordship lived at Belvoir, the house of his cousin, on the banks of the Potomac. Here he made the acquaintance of the Washington family, and he was at Belvoir when Lawrence Washington, the elder brother of George, married Anne Fairfax, and went to live with her on the neighbouring estate of Mount Vernon. Fairfax was interested in young George Washington, and from the time when the future general was a lad of fifteen occasionally visiting at Belvoir, his lordship never failed in friendship for him, and in efforts to advance his fortunes. When George was little over sixteen Fairfax entrusted to him the important and difficult duty of surveying and mapping his property in the Shenandoah valley. Eventually Fairfax settled in the valley, building himself a house near the town of Winchester (Virginia), called Greenway Court. Here he led an active life in promoting the settlement of an extensive district, and in discharging various important public duties. But his passion was fox-hunting, and he had a fine pack of hounds. His wants were few, his habits almost ascetic, and he was famed for his liberality. So the old bachelor lived on until the war of independence broke out. He was a staunch loyalist. News of the surrender of Cornwallis reached Greenway Court, and the aged nobleman took to his bed. The downfall of the British cause, wrought by the man he had trained and moulded, was his death-blow. He died on 12 March 1782, aged 90, and was buried in the chancel of the parish church of Winchester, which he had endowed, and where there is a monument to his memory. The present Lord Fairfax, who is a citizen of the United States, is descended from the old bachelor's cousin and agent, William Fairfax of Belvoir in Virginia.



FAIRFAX, WILLIAM (1609–1644), soldier, was the second son of Sir Philip Fairfax of Steeton and Frances Sheffield. In 1629 William Fairfax married Frances, daughter of Sir Thomas Chaloner of Guisborough in Cleveland, and sister of and, the regicides [q. v.] He was knighted by Charles I at Whitehall on 1 June 1630 (Catalogue of the Dukes, Marquesses, Knights, &c., by, 1634, p. 85). In 1636 he succeeded to the family estates at Steeton and Newton Kyme. In 1642 he took the side of the parliament, and signed the Yorkshire petition of 12 May 1642, beseeching the king to trust to parliament and dismiss his guards (Old Parliamentary History, x. 524). He was given the command of a regiment in the army of Essex, which was stationed on the left wing at Edgehill and ran away (ib. xi. 475). Fairfax then joined his uncle,, lord Fairfax [q. v.], in Yorkshire, and took part in the capture of Leeds (23 Jan. 1643) and Wakefield (21 May 1643). In a letter to his wife he says of himself and his cousin: ‘For Thomas's part and mine we rest neither night nor day nor will willingly till we have done God some good service against His and our enemies’ (, Robert Fairfax, p. 14). In the victory at Nantwich (25 Jan. 1644) Sir William Fairfax commanded a wing of the horse, and at Marston Moor headed a brigade of foot on the right of the parliamentary line (, Life of the Great Lord Fairfax, pp. 130, 169;, v. 302). In August 1644 he was despatched into Lancashire with two thousand Yorkshire horse, and took part in the siege of Liverpool. In the relief of Montgomery Castle on 18 Sept. 1644 he was mortally wounded, and died the following day (, Robert Fairfax, p. 23;, Civil War in Wales, ii. 201–9). Vicars, who gives a detailed account of the death of Fairfax, states that he had fifteen wounds, and adds that his widow said ‘that she grieved not that he died in this cause, but that he died so soon to do no more for it’ (Burning Bush, p. 34). Parliament voted 1,500l. for the widow and children, and on 7 Sept. 1655 the council of state voted them 2,000l. more in lieu of arrears of pay due to their father (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1655, pp. 151, 324).

 FAIRFAX, WILLIAM GEORGE (1739–1813), vice-admiral, of a family settled in Warwickshire since the time of 