and member of Gray's Inn. On 28 April 1468 he was appointed king's serjeant, and in 1476 became recorder of York. He was raised to a judgeship of the king's bench and is first mentioned as a judge in Trinity term 1477. In this office he won an honourable reputation, and on 8 Oct. 1482 he received a grant of a hundred merks yearly in addition to his salary. He was continued in his judgeship on each subsequent demise of the crown, and under Edward V became chief justice of Lancaster (Grants of Edward V, 6). He died in 1495. By his wife, Margaret, a daughter of Sir William Ryther, he had six children, four sons (the eldest, William, a judge of the common pleas under Henry VIII) and two daughters.
[Foss's Judges of England; Year-books, 3 and 17 Edward IV; Drake's York, p. 363; Plumpton Correspondence, lii, lxvi.]
FAIRFAX, HENRY (1588–1665), friend of George Herbert, fourth son of Thomas, first lord Fairfax [q. v.], was born at Denton, Yorkshire, in 1588. His uncle, Edward Fairfax [q. v.], who, says Brian Fairfax, was very serviceable to his brother, the first lord Fairfax, in the education of his children, was living at New Hall, Otley, Yorkshire, about 1600. Henry Fairfax proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, of which, in 1608, he became a fellow. In the same year George Herbert entered the college, where he also obtained a fellowship. They were intimate friends until Herbert's death in 1634. Fairfax gave up his fellowship on accepting the living of Newton Kyme, Yorkshire, from his father. This preferment he exchanged for a few years for the parish of Ashton-in-Makerfield in Lancashire, returning at the end of that time to Newton Kyme. He married (second wife) Mary, daughter of Sir Henry Cholmeley of Whitby, and his rectory at Newton was during the civil wars ‘a refuge and a sanctuary to all their friends and relations on both sides’ (Fairfax MSS.)
Fairfax took an active part in the unsuccessful movement, about 1640, to obtain the foundation of a university for the north. Petitions were sent up to parliament urging the necessity of such a seat of learning. York and Manchester competed warmly for the honour of receiving it. Fairfax wrote to his brother Ferdinando, then second lord Fairfax [q. v.], 20 March 1641, asking for his influence. In 1646 Fairfax was removed from Newton Kyme to the neighbouring, and much richer, rectory of Bolton Percy. Here he resided for a great portion of the time with his nephew Thomas, third lord Fairfax [q. v.], as a parishioner at Nun Appleton, until the Restoration in 1660. At that time, his position being doubtful, he voluntarily withdrew in favour of a Mr. Wickham, and retired to a private estate which he had inherited at Oglethorpe, Yorkshire. Here he died 6 April 1665. He was buried in the choir of Bolton Percy Church by the side of Mary, his wife, who had died in 1650. His eldest son Henry succeeded a cousin as fourth lord in 1671. His second son, Brian [q. v.], is separately noticed.
Fairfax was an admirable parish priest, and something of an antiquarian and genealogist. His learned brother, Charles Fairfax [q. v.], the author of ‘Analecta Fairfaxiana,’ frequently quotes from his notes on antiquarian and family subjects, and evidently held his learning in the highest respect. None of his works now survive, except some anagrams and epigrams in ‘Analecta Fairfaxiana.’
[Fairfax Correspondence; Herald and Genealogist, October 1870; Analecta Fairfaxiana (manuscript); C. R. Markham's Admiral Robert Fairfax, where a notice of Henry Fairfax by his son Brian is printed.]
FAIRFAX, HENRY (1634–1702), dean of Norwich, was a twin son (with John) of Charles Fairfax [q. v.], antiquary and genealogist. Thomas, first lord Fairfax [q. v.], was his grandfather. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated B.D. 26 April 1660, and D.D. 10 March 1680. He was elected a fellow in 1659, and was senior fellow in 1687, when James II endeavoured to force on the college a president of his own choosing. Fairfax signed the petition to the king (9 April 1687) begging him to cancel his decree ordering the fellows to elect Anthony Farmer [q. v.] When that appeal failed he voted for a second petition to the same effect (15 April), and on 17 April took a prominent part in electing John Hough to the presidentship. With his colleagues he wrote to the Duke of Ormonde (19 April), entreating his intervention with James II. On 6 June he was summoned before the court of high commission at Whitehall. On 13 June he was brought before Jeffreys, president of the court, protested loudly against the proceedings, denied their legality, and declined to sign any answer to the charges brought against him. Jeffreys abused him roundly, and told him he was fit for a madhouse. On 22 June 1687 the high court commissioners suspended Fairfax from his fellowship; but he disputed the validity of the act, and still resided in the college. When the royal commissioners first visited Magdalen on 20 Oct. Fairfax absented himself, although he was in Oxford, whereupon he was pronounced contumacious (31 Oct.) He appeared before
