156 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 225. 



The word is still in use, and signifies what is 

 capable of being inherited. II. P. 



Lincoln's Inn. 



LORD FAIRFAX. 

 (Vol. ix., p. 10.) 



Your correspondent W. H. M. has called my 

 attention to his Note, and requested me to answer 

 the third of his Queries. 



The present rightful heir to the barony of Fair- 

 fax, should he wish to claim it, is a citizen of the 

 United States, and a resident in the State of Vir- 

 ginia. He is addressed, as any other American 

 gentleman would be, Mr., when personally spoken 

 to, and as an Esquire in correspondence. 



A friend of mine, Captain W., has thus kindly 

 answered the other Queries of W. II. M. : 



1. Sir Thomas Fairfax of Denton in Yorkshire 

 was employed in several diplomatic affairs by 

 Queen Elizabeth, and particularly in negotiations 

 with James VI. of Scotland. By Charles I. he 

 was created a peer of Scotland, his patent having 

 been dated at Whitehall on Oct. 18, a.d. 1627. 



2. The family of Fairfax never possessed pro- 

 perty, or land, in Scotland, and had no connexion 

 with that country beyond their peerage. Many 

 English gentlemen were created peers of Scotland 

 by the Stuart kings, although unconnected with 

 the nation by descent or property. I may cite 

 the following instances : — The old Yorkshire 

 House of Constable of Burton received a peerage 

 in the person of Sir Henry Constable of Burton 

 and Halsham; by patent, dated Nov. 14, 1620, Sir 

 Henry was created Viscount Dunbar and Lord 

 Constable. Sir Walter Aston of Tixal in Staf- 

 fordshire, Bart , was created Baron Aston of For- 

 far by Charles I., Nov. 28, 1627. And, lastly, Sir 

 Thomas Osborne of Kineton, Bart, was created by 

 Charles II., Feb. 2, 1673, Viscount Dumblane. 



3. Answered. 



4. William Fairfax, fourth son of Henry Fair- 

 fax of Tolston, co. York, second son of Henry, 

 fourth Lord Fairfax, settled in New England in 

 America, and was agent for his cousin Thomas, 

 sixth lord, and had the entire management of his 

 estates in Virginia. His third and only surviving 

 son, Bryan Fairfax, was in holy orders, and re- 

 sided in the United States. On the death of 

 Robert, seventh Lord Fairfax, July 15, 1793 ; this 

 Bryan went to England and preferred his claim to 

 the peerage, which was determined in his favour 

 by the House of Lords. He then returned to 

 America. Bryan Fairfax married a Miss Eli- 

 zabeth Cary, and had several children. (Vide 

 Douglas, and Burke's Peerage.") 



There are several English families who possess 

 Scottish peerages, but they are derived from Scot- 

 tish ancestors, as Talmash, Radclyffe, Eyre, &c. 



Perhaps the writer may be permitted to inform 

 your correspondent W. II. M. that the term "sub- 

 ject" is more commonly and correctly applied to 

 a person who owes allegiance to a crowned head, 

 and "citizen" to one who is born^and lives under 

 a republican form of government. L W. W. 



Malta. 



1. Thomas, first Lord Fairfax (descended from 

 a family asserted to have been seated at Towcester, 

 co. Northampton, at the time of the Norman inva- 

 sion and subsequently of note in Yorkshire), ac- 

 companied the Earl of Essex into France, temp. 

 Eliz., and was knighted by him in the camp be- 

 fore Rouen. He was created a peer of Scotland, 

 4th May, 1627 ; but why of Scotland, or for what 

 services, I know not. 



2. I cannot discover that the family ever pos- 

 sessed lands in Scotland. They were formerly 

 owners of Denton Castle, co. York (which they 

 sold to the family of Ibbetson, Barts.), and after- 

 wards of Leeds Castle, Kent. 



3. Precise information on this point is looked 

 for from some transatlantic correspondent. 



4. The claim of the Rev. Bryan, eighth Lord 

 Fairfax, was admitted by the House of Lords, 

 6th May, 1800 (H. L. Journals). He was, I pre- 

 sume, born before the acknowledgment of inde- 

 pendence. 



5. The title seems to be erroneously retained in 

 the Peerages, as the gentleman now styled Lord 

 Fairfax cannot, it is apprehended, be a natural- 

 born subject of the British Crown, or capable of 

 inheriting the dignity. It seems, therefore, that 

 the peerage, if not extinct, awaits another claimant. 

 As a direct authority, I may refer to the case of 

 the Scottish earldom of Newburgh, in the suc- 

 cession to which the next heir (the Prince Gusti- 

 niani), being an alien, was passed over as a legal 

 nonentity. (See Riddell on Scottish Peerages, 

 p. 720.) There is another case not very easily 

 reconcilable with the last, viz. that of the Earl of 

 Athlone, who, though a natural-born subject of the 

 Prince of Orange, was on 10th March, 1795, per- 

 mitted to take his seat in the House of Lords in 

 Ireland {Journals H. L. I.). Perhaps some cor- 

 respondent will explain this case. EL G. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



Mr. Lyte on Collodion. — When I had the pleasure 

 of meeting you in London, I promised that I would 

 write to you from this place, and give you a detailed 

 account of my method of making the collodion, of 

 which I left a sample with you ; but since then I have 

 been making a series of experiments, with a view, first, 

 to simplifying my present formulas, and next, to pro- 

 duce two collodions, one of great sensibility, the other 

 of rather slower action, but producing better half- 

 tones. I have also been considering the subject of 



