and the apprehension of the Scots entering England, he was desired, May 9, by the parliament, to advance in person into the North, to reduce those places, and to prevent any danger from the threatened invasion. Accordingly he began to march that way the 20th. But he was soon recalled to quell an insurrection in Kent, headed by George Goring, earl of Norwich, and sir William Waller. Advancing therefore against them from London in the latter end of May, he defeated a considerable party of them at Maidstone, June 2, with his usual valour. But the earl and about 500 of the royalists, getting over the Thames at Greenwich into Essex, June 3, they were joined by several parties brought by sir Charles Lucas, and Arthur lord Capel, which made up their numbers about 400; and went and shut themselves up in Colchester on the 12th of June. Lord Fairfax, informed of their motions, passed over with his forces at Gravesend with so much expedition, that he arrived before Colchester June 13. Immediately he summons the royalists to surrender; which they refusing, he attacks them the same afternoon with the utmost fury, but, being repulsed, he resolved, June 14, to block up the place in order to starve the royalists into a compliance. These endured a severe and tedious siege of eleven weeks, not surrendering till August 28, and feeding for about five weeks chiefly on horse-flesh; all their endeavours for obtaining peace on honourable terms being ineffectual. This affair is the most exceptionable part in lord Fairfax's conduct, if it admits of degrees, for he granted worse. terms to that poor town than to any other in the whole course of the war; he endeavoured to destroy it as much as possible; he laid an exorbitant fine, or ransom, of 12,000l. upon the inhabitants, to excuse them from being plundered; and he vented his revenge and fury upon sir Charles Lucas and sir George Lisle, who had behaved in the most inoffensive manner during the siege, sparing that buffoon the earl of Norwich, whose behaviour had been quite different: so that his name and memory there ought to be for ever detestable. After these mighty exploits against a poor and unfortified town, he made a kind of triumphant progress to Ipswich, Yarmouth, Norwich, St. Edmund's-bury, Harwich, Mersey, and Maldon. About the beginning of December he came to London, to awe that city and the parliament, and to forward the proceedings against the king; quartering himself in the royal

palace of Whitehall: and it was by especial order from him and the council of the army, that several members of the house of commons were secluded and imprisoned, the 6th and 7th of that month; he being, as Wood expresses it, lulled in a kind of stupidity. Yet, although his name stood foremost in the list of the king's judges, he refused to act, probably by his lady's persuasion *. Feb. 14, 1648-9, he was voted to be one of the new council of state, but on the 19th he refused to subscribe the test, appointed by parliament, for approving all that was done concerning the king and kingship. March 31 he was voted general of all the forces in England and Ireland; and in May he marched against the levellers, who were grown very numerous, and began to be troublesome and formidable in Oxfordshire, and utterly routed them at Burford. Thence, on the 22d of the same month, he repaired to Oxford with Oliver Cromwell, and other officers, where he was highly feasted, and created LL.D. Next, upon apprehension of the like risings in other places, he went and viewed the castles and fortifications in the Isle of Wight, and at Southampton, and Portsmouth; and near Guildford had a rendezvous of the army, which he exhorted to obedience. June 4, he was entertained, with other officers, &c. by the city of London, and presented with a large and weighty bason and ewer of beaten gold. In June 1650, upon the Scots declaring for king Charles II. the juncto of the council of state having taken a resolution to be beforehand, and not to stay to be invaded from Scotland, but to carry first the war into that kingdom; general Fairfax, being

*From Whitlock and Clarendon we learn that this lady, at the mock trial of king Charles, exclaimed aloud a. gainst the proceedings of the high court, and the irreverent usage of the king by his subjects, insomuch that the eourt was interrupted: for, her husband, the lord Fairfax, being called first as one of the judges, and no answer being made, the crier called him the second time, when there was a voice heard that said, "he had more wit than to be there," which put the court into some disorder; and somebody asking who it was, there was no answer, but a little murmuring. But, presently, when the impeachment was read, and that expression used, of "All the good people of England," the same voice, in a louder tone, answered,

"No, nor the hundredth part of them;" upon which, one of the officers bid the soldiers give fire into that box whence the presumptuous words were uttered. But it was quickly disccrned that it was the general's wife, who had uttered both those sharp sayings; who was presently persuaded or forced to leave the place, to prevent any new disorder.-Having been bred in Holland, she had little reverence for the church of England, and so had unhappily concurred in her husband's entering into rebellion, never imagining, says Clarendon, what misery it would bring upon the kingdom; and now abhorred the work in hand, as much as any body could do, and did all she could to hinder her husband from acting any part in it.

consulted, seemed to approve of the design: but afterwards, by the persuasions of his lady, and of the presbyterian ministers, he declared himself unsatisfied that there was a just ground for the parliament of England to send their army to invade Scotland; and resolved to lay down his commission rather than engage in that affair; and on the 26th that high trust was immediately committed to Oliver Cromwell, who was glad to see him removed, as being no longer necessary, but rather an obstacle to his farther ambitious designs. Being thus released from all public employment, he went and lived quietly at his own house in Nun-Appleton in Yorkshire; always earnestly wishing and praying (as we are assured) for the restitution of the royal family, and fully resolved to lay hold on the first opportunity to contribute his part towards it, which made him always looked upon with a jealous eye by the usurpers of that time. As soon as he was invited by general Monk to assist him against Lambert's army, he cheerfully embraced the occasion, and appeared, on the 3d of December 1659, at the head of a body of gentlemen of Yorkshire; and, upon the reputation and authority of his name, the Irish brigade of 1200 horse forsook Lambert's army, and joined him. The consequence was, the immediate breaking of all Lambert's forces, which gave general Monk an easy march into England. The 1st of January 1659-60, his lordship made himself master of York; and, on the 2d of ́ the same month, was chosen by the rump parliament one of the council of state, as he was again on the 23d of February ensuing. March 29 he was elected one of the knights for the county of York, in the healing parliament; and was at the head of the committee appointed May 3, by the house of commons, to go and attend king Charles II. at the Hague, to desire him to make a speedy return to his parliament, and to the exercise of his kingly office: May 16 he waited upon his majesty with the rest, and endeavoured to atone in some measure for all past offences, by readily concurring and assisting in his restoration. After the dissolution of the short healing parliament, he retired again to his seat in the country, where he lived in a private manner till his death, which happened November 12, 1671, in the sixtieth year of his age *. Several letters, remons

* In a paper extracted from an original manuscript by Dr. Bryan Fairfax, and inserted in the Annual Register

for 1773, are some circumstances relating to the latter part of lord Fairfax's life. He was afflicted with the

trances, and other papers, subscribed with his name, are preserved in Rushworth and other collections, being published during the time he was general; but he disowned most of them. After his decease, some After his decease, some "short memorials, written by himself," were published in 1699, 8vo, by Brian Fairfax, esq. but do his lordship no great honour," either as to principle, style, or accuracy. Lord Fairfax, as to his person, was tall, but not above the just proportion," and of a gloomy and melancholy disposition. He stammered a little, and was a bad orator on the most plausible occasions. As to the qualities of his mind, he was of a good natural disposition; a great lover of learning, having contributed to the edition of the Polyglott, and other large works; and a particular admirer of the History and Antiquities of Great Britain, as appears by the encouragement he gave to Mr. Dodsworth. In religion he professed Presbyterianismn, but where he first learned that, unless in the army, does not appear. He was of a meek and humble carriage, and but of few words in discourse and council;' yet, when his judgment and reason were satisfied, he was unalterable; and often ordered things expressly contrary to the judgment of all his council. His valour was unquestionable. He was daring, and regardless of self-in-" terest, and, we are told, in the field he appeared so highly transported, that scarcely any durst speak a word to him, and he would seem like a man distracted and furious. Had not the more successful ambition and progress of Cromwell eclipsed lord Fairfax's exploits, he would have been considered as the greatest of the parliamentary commanders; and one of the greatest heroes of the rebellion, had not the extreme narrowness of his genius, in every thing but war, obstructed his shining as a statesman. We have already noticed that he had some taste for literature, and that both at York and at Oxford he endeavoured to pre

gout and stone, the pains of which he endured with a courage and patience equal to what he had shewn in his warlike exploits. These disorders were the result of the wounds he had suffered, and the fatigues he had gone through, during the war. The gout took from him the use of his legs, and confined him to a chair, in which he sat like an old Roman, his manly countenance striking awe and reverence into all that beheld him; while it was mixed with as much modesty and sweetness as

were ever represented in the figure of mortal man. Most of his time was spent in religious duties, and a great part of the remainder in reading valuable books, for which he was well qualified by his skill in modern languages. His death was occasioned by a fever, which carried him off in a few days. The last morning of his life he called for a bible, saying, "his eyes grew dim," and read the forty-second Psalm.

serve the libraries from being pillaged. He also presented twenty-nine ancient MSS. to the Bodleian library, one of which is a beautiful MS. of Gower's "Confessio Amantis." When at Oxford we do not find that he countenanced any of the outrages committed there, but on the contrary, exerted his utmost diligence in preserving the Bodleian from pillage; and, in fact, as Mr. Warton observes, that valuable repository suffered less than when the city was in the possession of the royalists. Lord Orford has introduced lord Fairfax among his "Royal and Noble Authors," "not only as an historian, but a poet. In Mr. Thoresby's museum were preserved in manuscript the following pieces: "The Psalms of David;""The Song of Solomon;""The Canticles;" and "Songs of Moses, Exod. 15. and Deut. 32." and other parts of scripture versified. "Poem on Solitude." Besides which, in the same collection were preserved "Notes of Sermons by his lordship, by his lady, and by their daughter Mary," the wife of the second duke of Buckingham; and "A Treatise on the Shortness of Life." But, of all lord Fairfax's works, by far the most remarkable were some verses which he wrote on the horse on which Charles the Second rode to his coronation, and which had been bred and presented to the king by his lordship. How must that merry monarch, not apt to keep his countenance on more serious occasions, have smiled at this awkward homage from the old victorious hero of republicanism and the covenant!" Besides these, several of his MSS. are preserved in the library at Denton, of which Mr. Park has given a list in his new edition of the "Royal and Noble Authors." 1

FAIRFAX (THOMAS, SIXTH LORD), was born about 1691. He was the eldest son of Thomas, fifth lord Fairfax, of Cameron, in the kingdom of Scotland, by Catherine, only daughter and heiress of Thomas lord Culpepper; in whose right he afterwards possessed Leeds Castle, with several manors and estates in the county of Kent, and in the Isle of Wight;. and that immense tract of country comprised within the boundaries of the rivers Potowmac and Rappahannoc in Virginia, called the Northern Neck; containing by estimation five millions seven hundred thousand acres. He had the misfortune to lose his father while and at his decease, he and his two brothers, Henry 1 Biog. Brit.

young;