[Illustration] "The truly ancient family of Fairfax," as Camden
styles it, is supposed to be of Saxon origin, and to have been
seated at Torcester in Northumberland at the period of the Conquest.
In 1205 (sixth of John,) Richard Fairfax, the first of the family
proved by evidence, was possessed of the lands of Ascham, not far
from the City of York. His grandson William purchased the Manor of
Walton in the West Riding, which continued for near six hundred
years, till the extinction of the elder male line of the family in
the person of Charles Gregory Fairfax, tenth Viscount Fairfax of
Ireland, in 1772, the inheritance of his descendants. From a younger
son of Richard Fairfax, of Walton, Chief Justice of England in the
reign of Henry VI. the present family is descended, as well as
Fairfax of Denton, Baron Fairfax of Cameron in Scotland (1627,) who
represents an elder line,* and who resides in the United States of
America.
Steeton was the gift of the Chief Justice to Sir Guy Fairfax, his
third son, the founder of this branch of the family, and here he
erected a castle in 1477.
See Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, ed. 1754, vol. ii. p. 397.
ARMS.--_Argent, three bars gemelles gules, surmounted by a lion
rampant sable, crowned or_.
Present Representative, Thomas Fairfax, Esq.
* He is descended from the _eldest_ son of Sir William Fairfax of
Steeton, who died in 1557.