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The Catholic Recusancy of the Yorkshire Fairfaxes. Part II.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Hugh Aveling O.S.B.
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Extract

As we have seen (Biographical Studies, Vol. 3, no.2), Thomas went to Brussels in about 1621 and returned home to Walton in 1624 with his Flemish Catholic servant. There his father was alarmed by his open Catholicism and ordered him to leave home. He went to live in the extremely Catholic household of his mother's sister, Mrs Dorothy Lawson, at St Anthony's, Newcastle-on-Tyne. From St Anthony's-where he does not seem to have been noticed by juries— he passed to Naworth Castle, the Catholic stronghold of the convert Lord William Howard. On July 20th 1629 he marriedthere Alethea,younger daughter of Sir Philip Howard and granddaughter of Lord William. The young couple lived at Naworth until 1631 and their first two children were born there. The birth of their first son was duly recorded in the Walton church register. It is not clear what relations between Thomas and his father were like. No marriage settlement seems to survive amongst the extant Fairfax and Naworth papers. Later settlements of Thomas' property give no indication that he received any land as his wife's dowry. Alethea continued to receive a small allowance from her grandfather after her marriage. Her husband was given a rent-charge of £20 a year by his cousin, Lord Dunbar. On January 20th 1631, six months after the birth of Thomas’ son, Lord Fairfax set up a trust, consisting of his Protestant sons-in-law, Robert Stapleton of Wighill and Sir Thomas Layton of Sexhow to hold the Fairfax estates between his own death and the coming-of-age of his grandson. That is to say the 2nd Lord Fairfax was to be a mere life-tenant.

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British Catholic History , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , October 1957 , pp. 61 - 101
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Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1957

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References

1. W.MS 3/14(7) date of Howard wedding; Surtees Soc. 58. Household Books of Lord William Howard, passim; Calendar of Committee for Compounding p. 2154; (Dunbar rent charge); the 1631 settlement is referred to in the Inquis. Post Mortem of the 1st Viscount, Bodleian MS Rawlinson 391/D.p.43 and House of Lords Journal Nov.28th 1645.

2. W.MS 3/14(7) Meaburn references; Wentworth's letter in Went. MS Strafford Letters 2t— ‘My cousin your Brother hath taken the Pains to bring me hither a Copy of the last Will of my Lord your Father, wherein it hath pleased his Lordship to leave me a Pledge of his Love and Trust, agreeable to those affections and Respects he always professed unto me living … as for the £1200 appointed … I am willing to become answerable for paying eight in the hundred half yearly, which may be laid forth for his present maintenance and the Principal at least not impaired; the Bonds I give is myself, Sir George Ratcliffe and my brother Sir George Wentworth’.

3. Went. MSS. Strafford's Letter Books. II/ff. 17,3 (Went, to Coke. The answer is in Windebank's hand); W.MS 4/21 (Commissioners certificate of Composition); P.R.O. E.377/46, 49 (Recusant Rolls); Ushaw College Library. Thoresby MS; Bodleian MS Rawlinson 391/D. p.43 (copies of Fairfax's petition and answer); H.M.C. Ormonde MSS ii/376 (Fauconberg's conversion by 1615.)

4. L.MS. printed in Herald & Genealogist VIII/225ff. The original cannot now be found.

4a. Went. MS Strafford Letters 1f. It & 2t (Henry F. to Went. Nov. 1637; Went, to Henry F. and Visct. F. Sept. 1638).

5. Ibid, (note 4) (will and inventory of the second wife of the 1st Viscount); Indications of Memorials, Paintings … of the Howard Family. Henry Howard. 1834. pp.71, 74; H.M.C. Rutland MSS i/509 (visit of Earl of Rutland); Surtees Soc. 58/354 (death of Lord William Howard); Biographical Studies 3/i p.57 (Robert Howard's dedication); Y.A.S.R.S. 9/55 (Lord Fauconberg's will); Herald & Genealogist VIII/225ff. (Noreliffe deeds); Life of Robert Fairfax of Steeton. C.R. Markham. p.35n. (acquaintance with Catherine Fairfax).

6. W. MS 5/5. (Lord Fairfax's commission Sept. 3rd 1640); Army Lists of Roundheads & Cavaliers. E. Peacock, pp. 74 ff. (Aston's officers)

7. W. MS 3/14(7) gives date and place of birth of all these children; the name of Marys husband is given in a pedigree in Bodleian MS Fairfax d.I f.3 dated 1658, and in a paper of odd jottings by Henry Fairfax bf Bolton (?) after a visit to Walton in ibid. Fairfax MS 30 f.32v. which, from internal evidence, dates probably about 1666-7; C.R.S. 38/13 Register of Chapel Royal, St James. May 15th 1670. James Berkley witness at a wedding; presentments of Mary as widow at Walton Y.D.R. RVI/A. 30 (1674), A.30 (1682), A.34 a/4 (1684). There is a long series of warrants granting forfeitures to Francis Berkeley ‘the King's servant’, ‘Captain’, ‘Colonel’ 1661-74, in S.P.D. 1661-2 p. 174; 1663-4 pp. 144, 589; 1666-7 p. 40; 1671 Feb. 8th; 1673-5 p. 357; and in Cal. Treas. Books, i/354, ii/341, 356, 373, 389, 431, 469, 621, 628, 630; iii(i)/151. They seem to end with SPD 1673-5 p.357 September 15th 1674, the fines and forfeitures granted to Sir Francis Berkeley lately deceased to another. It is interesting that Mary Berkeley first appears in the Walton presentments in 1674 as ‘Domina’ Mary Barkley vid’.

8. Collins. Peerage (1768) iii/355ff. (Howard pedigree); Foster. Yorkshire Families. West Riding. (Hungate pedigree. The remnants of the Hungate MSS-deeds-are in the Gascoigne MSS.); Walton parish register.

9. Y.D.R.RVI/A.30 (presentment at Walton); P.R.O. E.377/75 (1680-1 Recusant Roll); H.M.C. House of Lords MSS 1678-88 pp. 49n., 234,240 and Oxford Historical Soc. Magdalen College and James II. (the Hungates activities); Surtees Soc. 40/269 (Mary's imprisonment); English Benedictine Congregation, Northern Province Record Book 1640-1882 f, 15 (her will— ‘to Mrs Dorothy Metham one gold ring with two Rubyes and two diamonds, to Mrs Mary Metham one Amethist ring and £5, to Mrs Catherine Metham a dressing box lined with blew Sarsenet, to Mrs Barbara Metham a Cabinet full of little drawers, being all the daughters of George Metham . . to my sister Hammond my mother Hammonds picture set in gold, to my Nephew Hammonds Will and Gervase £5 each, to the two old Mrs Daniels, Widdow Lassels Widow Mallet and Mrs Gaile guineas apece’. Her £300 to found a mission was put by the Benedictine Northern Province into the hands of George Metham.); Deputy Keeper of Public Records 40th Report App. i.p.102 (Skinner guardian of Sir Francis H.)

10. Camden Soc. 1897. Nicholas Papers iii/52-3 (Langdale to Nicholas, also printed in Downside Review 1928 p.270); Y.A.S.R.S. 20-3-5 (Metham sequestration); Ev. MS R. 14/5 a letter from George Metham to Robert Sherburne May 12th 1667. SPD 1663-4 pp. 147-8 May 22nd 1663 is a passport for Edward Ravenscroft and Katherine Metham to go to France. May 23rd the Earl of Carlisle to Secretary Bennet. Desires a Warrant for passage or return of Katherine Metham his kinswoman, who is stopped by the Mayor of Rye, being mistaken for another person. This Katherine may be Mrs Metham or her daughter of the same name going to school. The prompt use of the family connection with Carlisle is notable.

11. English Army Lists. Charles Dalton. i/61; J. Foster. Durham Visitation Pedigrees— Davison of Blackstone; Surtees Soc. 36— Chaytor of Croft; H.M.C. House of Lords MSS 1678-88 p.193 (Sir William Chater); Walton parish register.

12. List of Boys at St Gregory’s, Douay 1614-1793 (privately printed); St Martin-cum-St Gregory parish register; Test. Ebor. admin, of Nicholas Fairfax Esq. Feb. 1702 to William Hawksworth; Thoreshy Soc. xxi. Letters . . to Thoresby p.129; Gasc. MS Box 16 (5)—Oct. 15/6 1707. marriage settlement of Sir Fras. Hungate and Dame Mary Fairfax daughter of Weld.

13. W.MS pedigrees; C.R.S.13/61 (Forcers at Cambray); St Mary's, South Bailey register; Drake. Eboracum (1736) p. 342— M.I. of Elizabeth Forcer; there are many references to Mary Forcer in W.MSS and several letters from her; in Ampleforth Abbey Library (from Gilling Castle) are several of her books—(i) Formulaire de Prieres a l'Usage des Pensionnaires du Monastere de la Paix de Jesus en la Cite d'Arras. Arras 1702 (ii) Secretaria di Apollo or Letters from Apollo Historical and Political directed to the most Eminent Princes . . by Trajano Baccalini. vol. 2 London 1704; English Benedictine Northern Prov. Account Book of Dom R.B. Steare 1747-75 (Downside) f. 42 1761 April 2d Rd of Lord Fairfax for prayers for Mrs Forcer £5. 5. 0.

14. Harleian Soc. Lincolnshire Pedigrees iii/913 —Southcott of Blyborough; ibid. Visit, of Staffordshire. 166— Skrimshire and ibid. Essex Visitations. 1612. Elliott of Stanford Rivers and W.MSS pedigrees—these show pretty conclusively that Lady Southcott was the daughter of John Elliott of Ridware, Staffs, and Stanford Rivers, Essex by Catherine, daughter of James Skrimshire of Norbury, Staffs; S.P.D. 1635 p. 70 — Payment to Mrs Cath. Elliott as nurse of York; C.R.S. 17/283, 286 — Mary Elliott of Pontoise the daughter of Mrs Cath. Elliott who was the virtuous person from whom ‘James Steward, Duke of York, suckt Catholick Religion’,

15. Archidiaconal Court of Stow Wills. 1669-71 f.533 (Lines. Archives Committee) and P.C.C. Bruce 138-wills of Sir George Southcott, made Sept 12th 1662; G.E. Cockayne. Complete Baronetage iii/239. Southcott. Gives issue and her death; Index Library LXVI London Marriage Licences, p.33 (Palmer marriage); Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica viii/28 — M.I. of Catherine Palmer at ‘the Augustinian Nunnery, Paris’ Feb. 9th 1730; C.R.S. 6/57, 69 –Dame Aloisia Elliott sent over to England to beg in 1664 . . ‘My Ladys own relations were very … obliging. So was my Lady Southcote, Mrs Eliot and all D. Aloisias relations’.

16. Calendar of Treasury Papers 1679-80 pp. 338, 347 (passes to travel); Bodleian MS 891. Goods of the Duke of York at Culford Hall Oct. 1671 in charge of Maddam Elliott; H.M.C. xvth Report App. Pt. ii MSS of J. Eliot Hodgkin p. 19 1692 Household estab. of Duke of York. Pensioners, Mrs Kath.. Elliott £200; Camden Soc. Secret Services of Charles II and James II. pp.101, 208 –bounties to Mrs Elliott and Dame Southcott; C.R.S. 17/259 1652 Sir George Southcott and Mrs Elliott benefactors of Pontoise; Deputy Keeper of Pub. Recs. 9th Rep. App. p.335 (1690) Gilling presentment).

17. Walton register; J.F.A. Skeet. Stuart Papers, Pictures & Relics, pp. 6-7 (Jane Widdrington); Clay. Extinct & Dormant Peerages in Northern Counties — Widdrington; Cal. of Treasury Books viii(3)1685-9 p.1524 (the marriage portion); P.C.C. Drax 145 (Sir Edward Carteret's will –it is interesting that Sir Edward mentions ‘my dear sister Margaret La Cloche, Edward La Cloche and Jane de Carteret La Cloche’, but not James La Cloche, Charles IPs illegitimate son; Chamberlayne Angliae Notitia 1687 p. 155 (Carteret as Usher at £150 a year); Collins. Peerage on Carteret; W.MS 5/2 (14) –copy of will of Dame Mary Carteret, wife of Sir Philip —her son Sir Charles Carteret and her brother Sir Charles Carteret and his (unfortunately unnamed) sons; W.MS 1/14(10) –Fairfax pedigree ref. to Mary's marriage to ‘Sir Charles Cartwright'; Lansdowne MS 900 f.295 d–a Fairfax pedigree ‘wife to Sir Charles Carteret Bart’, (sic); J.L. Chester. Registers of Westminster Abbey pp.192 and note, 283, 289; G.E. Cockayne. Baronetage, iv. Carteret, (see Corrigenda). Charles Carteret and Mary Fairfax were not married in any of the Royal Protestant Chapels. (Somerset House. M.A. 4550 A. Registers of Chapels Royal. 1675-1709) L8. W.A. Shaw. Book of Knights ii/263; H.M.C. Stuart Papers i/166 (1701 warrant); ibid, p. 241 (Lady Carteret and Princess Louisa); S.P.D. 1697 p.252 and 1700-02 p.239 (Lady Carteret's activities); C.E. Lart. Jacobite Extracts from Registers of St Germain i/p.xv, ii/76 — ‘Marie Fairfax’ (her maiden name in the French fashion) godmother of Anthony, son of Bernard Howard and Anne Roper Aug. 19th 1716; ibid. 119 —Dec. 24th 1716 Charles de Carteret wit. at a burial, 215 — his own funeral; Test. Ebor. 74/277 (Lord Fairfax's will. 1719); Archives du Nord (Lille) E. 2241/1 (Dunkirk).

19. G.E.C. Baronetage. Carteret (Isleworth); C.R.S. 28/59 (Douay)

20. Hautecoeur. Histoire du Chapitre de St Pierre de Lille; Archives du Nord (Lille) Register of Capitular Acts. Chapter of St Peter's, Lille 16.G/493 f.369 (there is no other reference to Carteret in the Lille Archives); Jacobite Peerage. Ruvigny p.225 (appointment as chaplain)

21. Foley vii/119-20, v/565; Kirk. Biographies of English Catholics in the 18th C. p.271 (Bishop Gradwell); C.R.S. 4/257 (Philip Carteret's Jacobitism);

22. Allanson. MS Biographies of the English Congregation O.S.B. i/435 and his MS Account of Missions p.50 (Ampleforth archives); W.MS 3/8 (Francis Carteret's letter to Fairfax)

23. Lart (op. cit. supra) i/xiv ; the date looks rather suspect.

24. H.M.C. Stuart Papers, i/208.

25. Walton register; Surtees Soc. 131/69.

26. ibid.; History of the Families of Skeet, Widdrington & others. (F.J.A. Skeet) pp.107-8; Payne. Records of Eng. Catholics, p. 122.

27. G.W. Johnson. Fairfax Correspondence. Memoirs of Reign of Charles 1. i/264;

28. P.R.O. Wards 9/220 f.55; H.E. Bell. Introd. to History of Court of Wards p.122ff.; Lansdowne MS 608 (Cole's Collection of Wards Precedents & Judgments — for cases of Catholic wards up to 13 Charles I only. Compare H.M.C. 5th Report p.III, the case of Lord Petre)

29. Surtees. Durham iii/245; Additional MS 18979 f.76 (Fairfax letter)

30. Bodleian MS Fairfax 32/ ff.30, 27, 23-4 (they are not bound always in order)

31. Aubrey. Brief Lives ed. Powell pp.340-44; Aubrey seems to be our only authority for Fairfax's schooling at Felsted. We cannot identify the B.M.MS life of Isaac Barrow cited as its authority by the D.N.B. article on Barrow. Aubrey's Life of Isaac Barrow seems to imply that, after marrying and leaving school, Viscount Fairfax went to London. ‘This viscount Fairfax, being a schooleboy, married a gentleman's daughter in the towne there, who had but a thousand pounds. So leaving the schoole, he would needs have Mr Isaac Barrow with him, and told him he would maintaine him. But the lorde Saye was so cruel to him that he would not allow anything that ‘tis thought he dyed for want… Young Isaac's master, Holbitch, found him out in London and courted him to come to his schoole . . but he did not care to go to schoole again. When my lord Fairfax faild and he saw he grew heavy upon him, he went to see one of his schoolfellows, one Mr Walpole a Norfolke gent …’

32. Additional MS 19149 ff. 194-6. 13. 16. 18. (Davy's Suffolk Collections. Smith of Stutton pedigree); Add. MS 900 f.295d (a Fairfax pedigree ‘from Hopkinson's Yorks. collections’. Contains the ‘schoolmaster'reference)

33. Stutton parish register; Additional MS 18979 ff.198ff. (Ibson's letter);

34. Y.C.A. E/63. Order Book of the York Committee for Compounding, f.9 (answer refusing petition of Alethea, Lady Fairfax of Walton for discharge from monthly assessments), f.39v. (second refusal), ff.40, 70 (refusal of petitions from Ibson)— all these in 1645; H.M.C. 9th Report. MSS of Alfred Morrison of Fonthill p.443 (Lady Fairfax's letter—which has now left Fonthill and cannot be traced. It came from the Fairfax MSS— originally from the Denton collection at Leeds Castle in Kent —in the collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps. According to Henry Howard. Indications of Memorials . . of the Howard Family, in 1834 there were ‘several’ of Lady Alethea's letters to Lord Fairfax of Denton in the Leeds MSS (p. 74); Bell. Fairfax Correspondence. Memorials of the Civil War. i/189— Col. Atkins’ letter and compare p.281.

35. MS Register of House of Lords Nov. 28th 1645; W.MS 5/4–copy of Lords order dated Dec. 12th, naming the committee as the Earls of Northumberland, Kent, Pembroke, Salisbury, Lincoln, Manchester, Lords Wharton, Robartes, Howard and Grey; S.P.D. 1654 p.354 (distraint on Denton)

36. Test. Ebor. May 29th 1648.

37. Herald & Genealogist VIII/225ff.; C.A. Goodricke. History of the Goodricke Family, pp. 17, 24 W.MS pedigrees.

38. Yorks. Archaeological Soc. Library MS 282 (Dodsworth's Gilling transcripts on ff. 1-56; there are two copies of t he Dodsworth Fairfax pedigree and one of his treatise on Fairfax heraldry amongst the W.MSS; Bodleian Fairfax MS (Lord Fairfax of Denton to Isaac Fairfax of Dunsley); ibid. Fairfax MS 32 f.188 (Henry Fairfax to Charles, Viscount Fairfax); ibid. Fairfax MS 34 f.58 (Charles, Viscount Fairfax's answer —this is the original letter and the only specimen of his hand so far discovered)

39. C.R. Markham. Life of Robert Fairfax. p.35n.

40. Camden Soc. 1875. Autobiography of Anne, Lady Halkettup. 39ff., 96

41. Harleian Soc. LVI Visitations of Berks, i/318 — Yate of Buckland, but contrast the M.I. in Buckland church to Sir John Yate, according to which his elder son Edward died at the age of twelve. Sir John died intestate Jan. 27th 1658 aged 53; Calendar of Committee for Compounding 2833 — sequestration of Sir John Yate; Berks. Arch. Journal 36/59ff. and 49/27ff. on the Yates–Abigail, Lady Fairfax had as cousin Henry Marten the Regicide; P.C.C. Bath 136-will of Sir Charles Yate, Abigail's brother does not mention his sister Abigail or his Fairfax relations at all (made 0ct.6th 1671, proved Oct 19th 1680); Sir Charles married Frances, daughter of Sir Thomas Gage of Firle, Sussex. The male line of the Yates ceased in 1690 and Buckland passed to the Throekmortons. There is a portrait of Alethea Fairfax, daughter of Abigail, as a small girl, at the Throckmorton house, Coughton Court. One book of Abigail's mother's (Mary Yate) is now in Ampleforth Abbey Library — ‘The Modest Critick or Remarks upon the most Eminent Historians Antient and Modern with useful cautions and Instructions as well for Writing as Reading History … by one of the Society of the Port-Royal’. London 1689. In the back there is part of a small (late 17c?) Latin prayer book. SPD 1649-50 p.547 Sept. 18 1649 pass for Lady Yates to go to France. The Yate family MSS exist amongst the Throckmorton MSS at Coughton Court, Warwickshire (Shelf 4/69; 68; Chaddesley Corbet Deeds; Buckland Papers.) There is no reference in them whatever to Abigail or her husband. Nothing in her brother Charles’ marriage settlement to Frances Gage June 26th 1656, 1658 indenture of Sir. Charles’ debts (which at least, in acknowledging his sister Elizabeth's portion as unpaid and ignoring Abigail, implies that Abigail was married before 1658), Aug. 21st 1660 settlement by Sir Charles mentions only Appolonia of his sisters. The wills of Sir Charles (1671) and Sir John Yate (1690) have no Fairfax references. It is evident that the Yates were a wealthy family, with property in Middlesex and London. There are many Yate family portraits at Coughton, of Abigail's parents and grandparents and all her sisters but none of Abigail and the small portrait of ‘Aletheia daughter of Lord Fairfax’ as a small girl in a cap, with flowers in her hand and a castle in the background (Gilling?) has a seventeenth century inscription ‘Aletheia’ and is very crudely painted.

42. N.R.Q.S. v/10 (fine for the play); Y.C.A. E/63 f.80v. (Ampleforth prebend); H.M.C. 5th Report App. p.93 (Thomas Gower to John Langley on the Gilling meeting, Jan. 5th 1660).

43. Ev. MS (York Assize directions on dealing with Recusants)

44. Memoirs of Sir John Reres by ed. A. Browning (Fairfax at Assize day at York); Northern Turf History, i. Hambleton & Richmond. J. Fairfax-Blake borough, p.31 (this gives no definite evidence of connection of the Fairfaxes with race meetings before 1722, but their subscription to them and attendance then is not likely to have been a new thing. William Heseltine, a noted early 18 C. jockey was keeper of the Fairfax Arms at Gilling and married a daughter of Michael Fox of Gilling.) Camden Soc. Life ofMarmaduke Rawden pp. 77, 89, 124, 150, 155; Y.D.R. RVI/A.24 f.360 (Rawden recusancy). Even a Catholic could contribute to the Militia in the 1660s – B.M. Add. MS 41254 – Letter Book of Lord Fauconberg as Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding, c. 1665. A perfect list of Sir Metcalfe Robinson's Troop. Rydall. Duke of Buck. 4; Henry Crosland I (my note–a Catholic); Lord Fairfax 1. A perfect list of Captaine Gowers Troop taken the 9th of August 1665. Ryedale. Duke of Newcastle 2; Lord Fairfax I.

45. C.R. Markham. Life of Robert Fairfax pp. 59-60, 210, 206 (relations with Steeton Fairfaxes, especially p. 206, Thomas Fairfax, Major-General for Limerick to Admiral Robert Fairfax, Limerick Sept. 19th 1707.

‘Dear Nephew, Pray when you go to Gilling be pleased to give my humble thanks to my Lord Fairfax and that I will doe Mr Robinson all the service I can, but I am unfortunately out of town … but shall be about ten dayes in Dublin and then I'll use all my endeavour to do him all the service I can … and I know my Lord Inchiquin will do him all the service in the world that lies in his power…’)

Brian Fairfax. Life of the Duke of Buckingham; H.M.C. MSS of Mrs Frankland-Russell-Astley. p.60 (Fauconberg and Gilling).

46. Ampleforth Abbey Library. MS 1/5 (MS commonplace book of ‘Johannes Renaldsonus’ ‘Richardus Legatus 1671’, ‘Petras Forcerus’, ‘Gulielmus Trafford’ with Diconson's diary in the back. 1694-1699)

47. Test. Ebor. 58/36 (Walmesley's will); P.C.C. Irby 84 (Widdrington's will); Herald and Genealogist VIII/225ff. (Norcliffes); L.MS ‘Book of Pedigrees'; Great Villiers. H.W. Chapman, p.285. Lord Fairfax had business and social relations with the Constables of Everingham (a Catholic family). Tenants from Everingham settled at Gilling or as servants there (Ev. MSS Select MS 125c & 89) The Constables sold horses at Gilling (Ev. MS Account Book 59-Sept. 1673 to shewing the grey mare at Gilling . .) and bought deer from Gilling park for Everingham (ibid. Account Book 27. Feb. 20th 1685) The families were linked in the Metham trust set up on March 20th 19 Charles II by George Metham,and consisting of Lord Fairfax, Lord Langdale Sir Marmaduke Constable, (ibid. Select MS 130)

48. Markham. Life of Robert Fairfax, pp. 206, 225 etc.; Cal. S.P.D. 1689-90 p.447 (Lord Fairfax of Denton and Popish estates); Browning. Memoirs of Reresby. p.581-3 etc. Note that William Hammond, Isabella Bladon's husband had probably lapsed, (see Note on Fairfaxes of Steeton).

49. Surtees Soc. 62/25 Iff. (Mrs Thornton)

50. Y.D.R. RVI/A. 26 (1663), A. 28 (1667), in 1674 the Gilling wardens failed to make any returns, and in 1682, 1684-8 and 1693 no Fairfaxes are mentioned, (a. 33,34,37) N.R.R.O. Quarter Sess. Names of Papists within the N. Riding 30 Charles II and 3 William III; Ev. MS R. 14/1 List of Catholic landowners with ‘Out payt extracted’ and ‘gross summs’ – Lord Fairfax (under both headings) £66. No date but seems to be, from internal evidence, late 17 C.

51. Gilling register; see Appendix on Chaplains to the Fairfaxes.

52. H.M.C. 12th Report App. pt. 7 p.41 (the 1666 meetings in Lanes,); Foley 7(2) p.1413 (book presented by Charles, Lord Fairfax to the School at Scarisbrick); Test. Ebor. 58/36 (Walmesley's will); C. Dalton. English Army Lists i/135. See also the rapid use by the Fairfaxes of the Earl of Carlisle's influence for Katherine Metham. (NOTE 10)

53. Gilling register; Cal. S.P.D. 1680-1 p.487 (James Wallis to the Duke of Newcastle); Diary of Sir Henry Slingsby ed. D. Parsons p.380 (Newcastle to Slingsby); the Widd-rington connection led Fairfax into trouble with the Earl of Derby. Widdrington's cousin, William Stanley, was a convert. He bequeathed to Widdrington arrears of an annuity from Derby of some £9000 (P.C.C. Irby 84. Widdrington's will 1694) Derby brought a law suit against Fairfax, as Widdrington's executor, to recover the annuity, on the grounds that Stanley had been practised upon by a priest on his death bed. (H.M.C. House of Lords MSS N.S. ii p.536 –1696-7, case of Charles, Lord Fairfax of Emuli v. Earl of Derby) Yet Derby had had Brigadier Tom Fairfax of Steeton as a mentor. (H.M.C. Ormonde MSS N.S. iii/366, 367-8. There are several letters catalogued in H.M.C. Ormonde MSS – in 4th Report– as from ‘Fairfax’ to Ormonde which are really all letters from Brigadier Fairfax, as the originals, now in the National Library of Ireland show) and William Dicconson of Wrightington, Fairfax's friend and connection and a Catholic, frequently dined with Derby at the period of the law case. (Dicconson's Diary. Note 132)

54. Cal. Treasury Papers. 1678 p.621 – it is very likely that the party went to the convent at Pontoise where Widdrington's sister, Dame Elizabeth Widdrington was clothed on May 4th 1679, where Dame Christina Thorold was a nun, and two of Lady Southcott's sisters. In 1685-6 Mr and Mrs Metham'were benefactors of the convent. (C.R.S. 17/259, 277, 306, 260-1)

55. Brian Fairfax. Life of Buckingham; compare Reresby's version of the death bed scene, received from Fairfax and Troutbeck, in Memoirs, ed. Browning. p.583;iot John Troutbeck M.D. see J. Foster. Yorks. Families. W. Riding (under Foljambe – Troutbeck, of Hope, co. York, married Frances, heiress of Sir Francis Foljambe and widow of Sir Christopher Wray, in 1665. She died in 1667, and was a relation of Reresby's) and Test. Ebor. 60/253, will of John Troutbeck M.D. of St Martin in the Fields, made June 15th 1684, to be buried near his wife in St Martin's–niece Frances Lowther daughter of Francis Lowther– niece Sarah Silverwood–sister Dowsabella Werden of Preston, Lanes and her son Roger Welshman by her first husband –brother in law John Thompson – loving friends Mr John Ward, Captain Thomas Ward, John Gopp, Samuel Hartcliffe–witnesses Gilbert Talbot, John Bright, George Potts, John Brane; Thomas Hughes. House at Monk Freiston, Yorks and house property in York.

56. H.M.C. MSS of Mrs Frankland-Russell-Astley p.60 (Fauconberg's letter); Markham. Life of Robert Fairfax, passim; W.MS 4/23(16) –Fairfax's Lieutenancy commission, (see also G. Duckett. Penal Laws & the Test Act p. 16)’, Fairfax presided at North Riding Quarter Sessions on three occasions only –Jan.10, April 24 and Oct. 2, 1688 (N.R.Q.S. vii/86, 84, 90). Fairfax's influence seems to have spread beyond the North Riding. Thus the young Sir Philip Constable of Everingham, now a Catholic Deputy-Lieutenant for the East Riding was keeping in close contact with Fairfax – Ev. MSS Account Book 27 – August 25-30 1687 given my Lord Fairfax servants . . paid for yr horse when yr worship went to meete Ld Fairfax (apparently from the market and races at Malton); Jan 30th 1687/8 given to my Ld Fairfax his keepers for 4 brace of deere £4 . . Feb. 27 mending waggon when they went to Gilling . . September 11th 1688 your worships commission for being Deputy Lieutenant 2 guineys . . Sept 24th yor worship had to Gilling £1.

57. Reresby. Memoirs, ed. Browning pp.512-3 (Charles Fairfax as Mayor).

58. ibid, pp.514, 518.

59. H.M.C. 12th Report App. pt. 7 p.225. See also 11th Rpeort App. pt.7 pp.36-7– siezure in the post, 1689, of a letter, apparently from the chaplain at Gilling to Elizabeth Tempest at Broughton. Also accusation that Gilling is being supplied with Jacobite information by ‘a servant* of Lord Fairfax's in Northumberland, Thomas Wilson. (This must be Pom Thomas Wilson). Compare ibid. p.26 a letter-from Dom Nicholas Colston, chaplain to Mrs Hammond at Towton (sister-in-law to Mrs John Fairfax) to his aunt Mrs Bridget Foster at Durham, also siezed. Both these letters seem to have been outspokenly loyal to James II and hostile to William of Orange. N.R.Q.S. vii/99 –July 1689 arms siezed at Gilling.

60. H.M.C. 14th Report App. pt.4 p.295 (1694 list); N.R.R.O. Quarter Sess. April 14th 1708.

61. Y.A.J. 37. Beresford. Glebe terriers and Open Fields, Yorkshire.; W.MS contain court rolls for all Fairfax manors from the late 15th or mid-16th Cs. to the 1620s or 1630s and then a gap until the mid-18th C. A good deal more could be discovered about the arrangements of the estate from these. W.MS 5/4 (Widdrington's receipt for £8000 of the dowry. Security given for the other £2000); ibid. 3/8 (financial state of Lord Fauconberg at his death) B.M. Add MS 41255-f.105v 1694 – Fauconberg lends Lord Widdrington £6000.

62. Ampleforth Abbey Archives. Abstract of the Title of Charles Gregory (Pigott) Fairfax Esq. to Freehold and Leasehold Estates in Ampleforth –this contains abstracts of all the main Fairfax deeds from the 1699 entail onwards; College of Arms MS I.C.B. No.1. Stemmat: Famil: in Com: Ebor. p.134.

63. C.R.S 9/373 (Lady Fairfax's piety); Ushaw College Eyre MSS xxxviii (her £300 to the secular clergy) and Ushaw MS iii/94C. Regulations on the distribution of funds in the N.District. Sept 5th 1739. £100 given to Mr Perkinson by Madam Apollonia Yates, but ordered by her to be entered here as the gift of Abigail, Viscountess Fairfax of Gilling Castle approp. to supply the York chapel with the oblig. of keeping the anniv. of Lady Fairfax July 14th and of the Lord Charles Fairfax July 6th; C.R.S. 9/373 donation from Lady Fairfax to the English convent at Paris; Record Book of the Northern Province. O.S.B. (MS Downside) f.11-1696 a note by Fr Augustine Tempest that Viscountess Fairfax has deposited £100 in ‘the Chamber of Paris’ in the name of the Northern Province. The meaning of this is not very evident; Test. Ebor. 67/263ff. (Lord Fairfax's will made June 4th 1711 and proved July 17th. He died in Suffolk Street, London –on July 6th,, according to Mrs Yate – and his body was not buried at Gilling until July 23rd.

In the National Portrait Gallery there is a large wedding portrait, signed by Gerard Soest, and inscribed ‘Sr Thomas & Lady Fairfax.’ It was at Gilling until the late 19th century. It has several times been reproduced as a portrait of Lord Fairfax of Cameron (3rd Baron, the great Parliamentary general) and his wife Anne Vere, and ascribed to Dobson. (e.g. by C.R. Markham. life of the Great Lord Fairfax, p.430) Unfortunately the portrait is of about 1650 or a few years later. It represents a very young pair, and Lord Fairfax was then forty. The inscription is probably of the late 18th or early 19th centuries. It is quite possible therefore that this is really a wedding portrait of Charles, 5th Viscount Fairfax of Emly and Abigail Yate.