Analecta Fairfaxiana, A[nn]o 1660, compiled by Charles Fairfax

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 206 Brotherton Collection MS Yks 2
  • Dates of Creation
      ca. 1663-1667
  • Name of Creator
  • Language of Material
      English Latin
  • Physical Description
      1 vol. (421 pp.), folio manuscript. The majority of the text is written on vellum in a single seventeenth-century hand, Charles Fairfax's autograph, but some parts of it are written in other hands. Bound in contemporary calf with some blind tooling on both outside covers and the spine and with marbling on both inside covers and endpapers. Somewhat worn and damaged in places.

Scope and Content

Contains probably the final version of the Analecta Fairfaxiana by Charles Fairfax, being his detailed history of the Fairfax and related families, including a dedication dated 1663, historical and genealogical records, accounts, and pedigrees in English and Latin, verse epitaphs likewise in English and Latin on various prominent members of the family from medieval times onwards, letters, indentures, memoranda, mottos, anagrams, coats of arms, drawings of seals, emblems, and monuments, and an index, all neatly written out, with some interlineated insertions and revisions, and with annotations by Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), especially on pp.403-406.

Administrative / Biographical History

Charles Fairfax (1597-1673) was an antiquarian, genealogist and compiler of the Analecta Fairfaxiana. He was born at Denton in Yorkshire, but spent most of his life at Menston, on his wife's estate. In 1646, his brother Ferdinando, second Lord Fairfax, appointed him steward of the courts of Ripon and he later served as a colonel of foot in Monck's army. Following Monck's march into Yorkshire, Fairfax became governor of Kingston-upon-Hull, but after a year he retired to Menston to pursue his antiquarian and literary interests.

Access Information

Access is unrestricted.

Acquisition Information

Purchased at Sotheby's sale of 14 December 1993 (Lot 489).

Note

In English and Latin.

Other Finding Aids

The poems are indexed in the BCMSV database http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/spcoll/bcmsv/bcmvlink.htm#bcyks2

Custodial History

Formerly in the Fairfax Library at Leeds Castle, Kent; then, in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, MS 10308.

Family Names