Collins  says  of  Edward  Fairfax,  that  "  himself  believed  the  wonders  that  he  sung."
There  is  more  truth  in  this  than  might  be  wished.  He  was  so  much  affected  with  the
superstitions  of  his  age,  as  to  fancy  his  children  bewitched,  and  that  on  so  very  weak
grounds,  that  the  poor  wretches  whom  he  prosecuted  for  this  impossible  crime  were
actually  acquitted.     Yet  even  the  verdict  of  a  jury,  little  disposed  as  juries  then


LORD  FAIRFAX.  I77

time  before  it  mimendered.  In  this  service  he  received  a  severe  wound
in  the  face  from  a  splinter  of  a  French  Marshal's  skull.  He  was  slain
in  1604.
Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  brother  of  the  poet^  created,  A  J).  1627^  Baron
Fairfiix,  of  Cameron,  in  the  Kingdom  of  Scotland,  married  Helen,
daughter  of  Robert  Ask,  Esq.,  and  by  her  left  two  daughters  and  five
sons,  of  whom  the  eldest^  Ferdinando,  succeeded  to  the  title,  and,  by
Mary,  daughter  of  Edmund  Sheffield,  Earl  of  Mulgrave,  was  father  to
Thomas,  afterwards  third  Lord  Fairfax,  the  Parliamentary  generaL

Heralds,  who  amid  the  darkness  of  unrecorded  antiquity,  seldom  miss
of  finding  what  they  seek,  have  stretched  the  Fairfax  pedigree  beyond
the  Ultima  Thule  of  the  Norman  Conquest  Francis  Nichols,  in  his
'^  British  Compendium,"  asserts  that  the  original  seat  of  the  family  was
at  Towcester,  in  Northumberland,  whence  they  removed  into  Yorkshire.
Certainly  the  name  signifying,  fair  Jocks,  (Sax.  Feax  Hair,)  indicates
a  Saxon  derivation,  though  quaintly  Latinized  in  their  motto  Fare,  Fac,
Say  Do,  after  the  fashion  of  canting  heraldry.  But  the  more  credible
account  of  Whitelock  ascribes  the  first  elevation  of  the  house  to  the  law ;
though  its  martial  and  poetical  propensities  plead  strongly  for  the
Heralds.
