(Edward), natural son of Sir Thomas Fairfax, was an English poet who lived in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. and dedicated a translation of Tasso to the former. The last account we have of him is in the year 1631, but the time of his death is uncertain. He wrote several poetical pieces, and was an accomplished genius. Dryden introduces Fairfax with Spencer, as the leading writers of the times; and even seems to give the preference to the former in the way of harmony, when he observes that Waller owed himself indebted for the harmony of his numbers to Fairfax's Godfrey of Boulogne.

(Sir Thomas), general of the parliamentary forces against Charles I. in 1644. See History of Britain p. 127 et seq. He resigned in 1650; after which he lived privately, till he was invited by general Monk to assist him against Lambert's army. He cheerfully embraced the occasion; and, on the third of December 1659, appeared at the head of a body of gentlemen of Yorkshire; when, upon the reputation of his name, a body of 12,000 men forsook Lambert and joined him. He was at the head of the committee appointed by the House of Commons to attend king Charles II. at the Hague, to desire him speedily to return to England; and having readily assisted in his restoration, returned again to his seat in the country; where he lived in a private manner, till his death, which happened in 1671, in the 60th year of his age.—He wrote, says Mr Walpole, memorials of Thomas lord Fairfax, printed in 1699; and was not only an historian, but a poet. In Mr Thoresby's museum were preserved in manuscript the following pieces: The Psalms of David, the Canticles, the songs of Moses, and other parts of Scripture, versified; a poem on Solitude; Notes of sermons by his lordship, by his lady daughter of Horace lord Vere, and by their daughter Mary the wife of George second duke of Buckingham; and a treatise on the shortness of life. But of all lord Fairfax's works, says Mr Walpole, the most remarkable were the verses he wrote on the horse on which Charles II. rode to his coronation; and which had been bred and presented to the king by his lordship. How must that merry monarch, unapt to keep his countenance on more serious occasions, have smiled at this awkward homage from the old victorious hero of republicanism and the covenant! He gave a collection of manuscripts to the Bodleian library.