Thomas FAIRFAX

(1st V. Emley)

Born: 1574, Edonley, England

Died: 23 Dec 1636, Howsham, Yorkshire, England

Father: William FAIRFAX (Sir)

Mother: Jane STAPLETON

Married 1: Catherine CONSTABLE 1594

Children:

Married 2: Mary FORD (dau. of Robert Gord and Frances Glenham) 1 Jan 1626/7

Son of Sir William Fairfax and Isabel Thwaites. Knighted in 1601 by James I on his way from Scotland. Onee of the Council of the North in 1599 and 1602, and High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1627. In 1629 he paid £1300 for the Irish Viscountcy of Emley in the County of Tipperary. Such titles were being sold by Charles I to raise money (however one of Sir Thomas’s friends said he only paid £900). In 1609 he was made Vice President of the Council of the North and in 1617 he supported Sir Thomas Wentworth as Lord President of the North. In 1601 he had been Member of Parliament for Boroughbridge. In spite of all this Thomas represented Hedon in Parliament from 1620-1622 and from 1624-1626.

In Scrayingham church there is a memorial tablet to him and I presume he is buried there, although in his will he wished to be buried at Walton. He left to the poor of Walton and Gilling £10 each, his wife £100 and his best coach and four horses. His servant William Laskew is to feed at Gilling Castle all his life. His grandson William (son and heir apparent of his eldest son Thomas) to be tutored by Thomas Viscount Wentworth, his cousin, and Henry Fairfax his second son.

Five years after his succession Sir Thomas made an inventory of his possessions at Walton Hall, which he owned as well as Gilling. He left an estate worth some £2700 per annum. In the great chamber there was a substantial quantity of furniture including the following:

"A drawing table, a rowned table, a liery cupboard, and a little table, all having carpets of green cloth, a frame on which stands a paire of virgenalls, a chare with other chares and stooles in it, a paire of white and black checkered tables....two dornix (Tournai) window curtins and an iron rod for them, two formes, three irish stitched low stooles, two set work low stooles, and iron chimney, a clock, cushions"

In his bedchamber were:

"A standing bedsteed with tester and head piece wrought with black velvet and yellow silk and five curtins of red cloth, a matt, a featherbed, a fine quilt, two paire of blankets, a boulster, two pilloes and a counter pointe. The white damask chare, a little red chare, an orpharion, five pictures a standing cubberd, a great chest, a cabinet..."

to Bios Page	to Family Page
to Peerage Page	to Home Page