Quote:
Originally posted by ELizabeth:
John,
Your picture of the castles (?)razed by General Fairfax interested me for the following reason:
I live in Fairfax County, VA. The county is named after Lord Fairfax who was granted a very large piece land in what is now Northern VA by whichever King was sitting on the English throne at the time. King George the ? It is said that as soon as the Am.Revolution began Lord Fairfax packed up and fled to England. I wonder if they are related.
Have you heard from the unemployed piano player lately? He has made a stunning cd of his songs.
|
I receive at least one funny email from Rex “the Rez” every day
Now regarding messrs Fairfax
Truly amazing Lizbet
Continuing in my mission to bore the pants off recalcitrant ex convicts down under
I feel compelled to reply at length.
But I will send a link to this topic to a very good Australian friend in my home town of Sherborne in Dorset England in the hope that as a converted Lighthead she might care to comment here,. She might well post using the member name “Rainbow Trout”
Meanwhile lady from Fairfax county VA
Yes they were certainly related
I googled and found a link on a wiki at:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_...fax_of_Cameron
Thomas Fairfax
at the very top it says:-
"Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron (January 17, 1612 – November 12, 1671) was a general and commander-in-chief during the English Civil War."
then further down:-
"Descendants
His only daughter, Mary Fairfax, was married to George Villiers, the profligate duke of Buckingham of Charles II's court.
His descendant Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1693-1781), inherited from his mother, the heiress of Thomas Culpeper, 2nd Baron Culpeper, large estates in Virginia, and having sold Denton Hall and his Yorkshire estates he retired there about 1746, dying a bachelor. He was a friend of George Washington. Thomas found his cousin William Fairfax settled in Virginia, and made him his agent. William's son Bryan Fairfax (1737-1802), eventually inherited the title, becoming 8th lord in 1793. His claim was admitted by the House of Lords in 1800. But it was practically dropped by the American family, until, shortly before the coronation of Edward VII, the successor in title was discovered in Albert Kirby Fairfax (born 1870), a descendant of the 8th lord, who was an American citizen. In November 1908 Albert's claim to the title as 12th lord was allowed by the House of Lords"
Elizabeth there is also a lot about your man, whose picture I failed to find, at:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_...fax_of_Cameron
such as
Lord Fairfax was the only resident peer in colonial America. In 1748, he made the acquaintance of George Washington, a distant relative, then a youth of 16
Yet another link between MY Sherborne and the United States especially Virginia
Two others being
1 the misspelt town of Sherborn in Masachusetts
the Sherborn Inn (note the single Key in the “real” Sherborne is a familiar pub called the “Cross Keys”
whose symbol as you can see is a pair of similar golden Keys
and
2.Sir Walter Raleigh.(who built Sherborne “New” Castle in 1594)
"Raleigh has been credited with bringing potatoes and tobacco back to Britain, although both of these were already known via the Spanish. However, Raleigh did help to make smoking popular at court."
from:-
http://www.who2.com/sirwalterraleigh.html
Some sources say on the day he was beheaded Raleigh was granted a last smoke of tobacco -- establishing the tradition of giving a prisoner a last cigarette before execution.
another good read about myths and urban legends associated with Rawleigh is at:-
http://www.trivia-library.com/b/sir-...elizabeth.htm, including
"As legend has it, Sir Walter mucked about in the English colony of Virginia in 1586 and took a shipload of tobacco back home with him. In point of fact, he never made it to the North American mainland at all, although he was responsible for establishing three settlements on offshore islands near the North Carolina coast. In any event, it was the Frenchman Jean Nicot, from whose name the word nicotine is derived, who introduced tobacco to France in 1560, and it was from France, not the New World, that tobacco reached England."
There is an oft repeated story that there is a seat in the grounds of Sherborne New Castle where Raleigh was found by a servant smoking and thinking he was on fire soaked him in water
a story retold in another wiki:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_ta...Munro/Archive2
"Incidentally Sherborne Castle makes the same claim about Walter Raleigh, except there he had a bucket of water thrown over him, as they thought he was on fire!"
Googling found me a page of Irish history about Raleigh at:-
http://www.turtlebunbury.com/history...sh_raleigh.htm
which includes this:-
"As with most places associated with Raleigh, Myrtle Grove duly became a hotbed for legends. Raleigh is said to have planted the first potatoes in Ireland here but, as will be seen later in this tale, the true originator of the potato in Europe was far more likely to have been Thomas Hariot of Molana Abbey. Raleigh might also have tried to grow tobacco here, alongside the myrtles (now gone), arbutus bushes and yews (standing proud). A famous anecdote recalls how he was having an exploratory puff in the garden when a servant, never having seen tobacco before and fearing his master was on fire, dowsed him with a bucket of water"
In addition to the above two anecdotes a few miles to the east of Sherborne is the
Virginia"]http://www.greenekinginns.co.uk/somerset/inn_05/index.htm]Virginia Ash Pub[/url] “a charming 17th century grade II listed old coaching Inn”
Indeed on the current pub owner’s site (the Greene King Group) linked above it is claimed:-
“Sir Walter Raleigh was known to frequent the Inn and the pictorial sign depicts him returning from the Americas and lighting up his pipe, to the amazement of the locals, who quickly ran to fetch a bucket of water and threw it over him, to put out the fire.”
Finally if you want a real laugh find Bob Newhart’s classic spoof telephone call between Raleigh and his bemused UK agent regarding tobacco
Introducing Tobacco to Civilization
I found the full (text) transcript at:-
http://www.hkexpats.com/HKXPosts~ID~...8~FORUM~10.htm
Scroll down to a posting at the bottom of that page
which ends like this:-
"What's the matter, Walt...
You spilt your what...
Your coff-ee?
What's coffee, Walt...
That's a drink you make out of beans, huh? ha! ha! ha!...
That's going over very big there, too, is it?...
A lot of people have a cup of coffee right after their first cigarette in the morning, huh?...
Is that what you call the burning leaves, Walt?... cigarettes?...
I tell you what, Walt!, why don't you send us a boatload of those beans, too!
If you can talk people into putting those burning leaves in their mouths... they've gotta go for those beans, Walt!... right?
Listen, Walt... don't call us... we'll call you!..."
AND you can hear the first 30 seconds in a clip on the Barnes and Noble site at:-
http://music.barnesandnoble.com/sear...disc=1&track=1
just scroll down to find:-
Introducing Tobacco to Civilization
I myself used to live on a road on the Eastern edge of Sherborne called “Castle View”
It is just off the top of this fine photograph of a UK (Westland) –built Boeing Apache gunship flying over both the Old castle ruins and the “New” Castle; Built by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1594,.
Raleigh originally built it in simpler form as a letter “E” in homage to his former love Queen Elizabeth the First, (a number of buildings seem to have been built about that time in the shape of an ‘E’ to honour Queen Elizabeth I).
Note that the new castle takes the form of the letter “H” (in honour of somebody else no doubt)