Arms: Argent, three bars gemelles Gules surmounted by a lion Sable.
SOURCES, NOTES & CREDITS: The illustration for background, the blazon and the text is based on, and adapted from ” The Scots Peerage”, Vol. III, Sir James Balfour Paul, KCVO, Editor, published by David Douglas, Edinburgh, 1906, pp 595-606; and the Wikipedia internet article for the Lords Fairfax of Cameron.
Thomas Fairfax, 9th Lord Fairfax of Cameron was an American born Scottish peer, who along with his father, on 11 December 1799, was among the last guests at Mount Vernon before Washington died. Thomas descended from Sir Thomas Fairfax for whom Charles I created the title of Lord Fairfax of Cameron on 18 Oct 1627 in the Peerage of Scotland.
Thomas Fairfax was born in 1762. He was the son of Bryan Fairfax, 8th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1736–1802) and his wife, Elizabeth Cary. His younger brother was Ferdinando Fairfax (1766-1820) whose godparents were George and Martha Washington.
In 1802, Thomas succeeded his father to the title of Lord Fairfax of Cameron. He lived the life of a country squire overseeing his 40,000 acres (160 km2), and lived at Belvoir, Ash Grove, and Vaucluse, where he died in 1846.
Thomas Fairfax was a follower of Swedenborg. Because of these religious beliefs, he manumitted his slaves (including the great-great-great grandfather of Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, some of whom he taught a trade and sent to Liberia.
His descendent is Nicholas John Albert Fairfax, 14th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (born 4 January 1956), who is a Scottish nobleman, peer, and politician. He succeeded his father, Thomas Fairfax, 13th Lord Fairfax of Cameron in 1964.
In 1999, like most other lords he was removed from the House of Lords. In Nov 2015, he was elected to return to the House at a Conservative hereditary peers’ by-election, following the death of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu (1926–2015).
In 2020, Lord Fairfax endorsed Justin Fairfax, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in his bid for Governor in the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election. Lt. Gov. Fairfax’s great-great-great-grandfather was a slave manumitted by Thomas Fairfax, 9th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. Justin Fairfax lost out in the Republican Primaries.
The artwork is an interpretation of John Hamilton Gaylor
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