Major-General Thomas Fairfax, 5th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (16 April 1657 – 6 January 1710) was an English military officer and politician.
Contents
Early life
Fairfax was born on April 16, 1657, the great-grandson of Thomas Fairfax, 1st Lord Fairfax of Cameron of the Scottish peerage. His father was Henry Fairfax, 4th Lord Fairfax of Cameron and his mother was Frances Barwick.
Career
Fairfax graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1675 and served in the Yorkshire Militia under the Earl of Danby. Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, he was appointed as lieutenant colonel of Lord Castleton's Regiment of Foot, an English Army regiment raised to fight in the Nine Years' War. In 1690 William III appointed Fairfax as colonel of Edward Lloyd's Regiment of Foot following Lloyd's death and in 1694 Fairfax became colonel of Richard Leveson's Regiment of Dragoons. Fairfax was promoted to brigadier general shortly before the Treaty of Ryswick ended the war in 1697 and left the English army in 1703 at the rank of major general.
In 1690 and 1695, he was a Member of Parliament generally supporting the Tory interest, although the modern concept of political parties did not yet apply. He was able to sit in the English Parliament because his title was part of the Scottish peerage; after the 1707 Act of Union, Scottish peers were disqualified and he was required to give up his seat. In 1704 Fairfax obtained a three-year licence from Queen Anne to search for wrecks and treasure in the West Indies but the venture was a financial failure. He died on 6 January 1710.
Family
In 1685, Fairfax married Catherine Colepepper, daughter of Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper, and they had seven children: Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, Henry Colpepper Fairfax, Katherine Fairfax, Margaret Fairfax, Frances Fairfax, Mary Fairfax, Robert Fairfax.