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A collection of documents relating to the Fairfax family, together with other miscellaneous material, compiled by Charles Fairfax and others.

Archive Item: BC MS Yks q 1

Details

Type of record: Archive

Title: A collection of documents relating to the Fairfax family, together with other miscellaneous material, compiled by Charles Fairfax and others.

Level: Item

Classmark: BC MS Yks q 1

Creator(s): Fairfax, Charles Colonel (1597-1673)

Date(s): c.1650-1710

Language: English; Latin; Italian

Size and medium: 1 vol. (33 ff.), folio and quarto manuscript.

Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/8016

Description

Contains notes by Charles Fairfax relating to the Analecta Fairfaxiana, a Latin anagram on himself with his explanatory note referring to the tempest which his ship weathered in September 1652; also, other Latin verses, including a draft elegy on Dr Radcliffe, English verses on Lord Harrington, on the vanity of women, and other subjects, Latin prose about the tragedies of Sophocles, and a page of Italian verses.


Written in several hands, including that of Charles Fairfax. The manuscript leaves are all mounted on folio sheets and are worn, torn, and dust-stained. Bound in modern morocco-backed boards, with a gilt-embossed spine lettered thus: CHARLES FAIRFAX.- MENSTON, YORKS. 1597-1673.

Biography or history

Charles Fairfax (1597-1673) was an antiquarian, genealogist and compiler of the 'Analecta Fairfaxiana'. He was born at Denton in Yorkshire, but spent most of his life at Menston, on his wife's estate. In 1646, his brother Ferdinando, second Lord Fairfax, appointed him steward of the courts of Ripon and he later served as a colonel of foot in Monck's army. Following Monck's march into Yorkshire, Fairfax became governor of Kingston-upon-Hull, but after a year he retired to Menston to pursue his antiquarian and literary interests.

Provenance

Formerly in the Fairfax library, Leeds Castle, Kent.

Access and usage

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Access to this material is unrestricted.

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