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Paternal Family Tree: Fairfax
Maternal Family Tree: Mary Tracy Baroness Spencer Tilbury 1581-1671
On 30th July 1638 Mary Fairfax Duchess Buckingham was born to Thomas Fairfax 3rd Lord Fairfax (age 26) and Anne Vere Lady Fairfax.
On 15th September 1657 George Villiers 2nd Duke of Buckingham (age 29) and Mary Fairfax Duchess Buckingham (age 19) were married. She by marriage Duchess of Buckingham. He the son of George Villiers 1st Duke of Buckingham and Katherine Manners Duchess Buckingham. They were half fifth cousins.
After 1659. After John Michael Wright (age 41). Portrait of Mary Fairfax Duchess Buckingham (age 20).
Samuel Pepys' Diary. 26th July 1662. Thence to Mrs. Sarah, and there looked over my Lord's lodgings, which are very pretty; and White Hall garden and the Bowling-ally (where lords and ladies are now at bowles), in brave condition. Mrs. Sarah told me how the falling out between my Baroness Castlemaine's (age 21) and her Lord was about christening of the child lately1, which he would have, and had done by a priest: and, some days after, she had it again christened by a minister; the King (age 32), and Lord of Oxford, and Duchesse of Suffolk, being witnesses: and christened with a proviso, that it had not already been christened. Since that she left her Lord, carrying away every thing in the house; so much as every dish, and cloth, and servant but the porter. He is gone discontented into France, they say, to enter a monastery; and now she is coming back again to her house in Kingstreet. But I hear that the Queen (age 23) did prick her out of the list presented her by the King;2 desiring that she might have that favour done her, or that he would send her from whence she come: and that the King was angry and the Queen discontented a whole day and night upon it; but that the King hath promised to have nothing to do with her hereafter. But I cannot believe that the King can fling her off so, he loving her too well: and so I writ this night to my Lady to be my opinion; she calling her my lady, and the lady I admire. Here I find that my Lord hath lost the garden to his lodgings, and that it is turning into a tennis-court. Hence by water to the Wardrobe to see how all do there, and so home to supper and to bed.
Note 1. The boy was born in June at Baroness Castlemaine's house in King Street. By the direction of Lord Castlemaine, who had become a Roman Catholic, the child was baptized by a priest, and this led to a final separation between husband and wife. Some days afterwards the child was again baptized by the rector of St. Margaret's, Westminster [Map], in presence of the godparents, the King, Aubrey De Vere (age 35), Earl of Oxford, and Barbara, Countess of Suffolk (age 40), first Lady of the Bedchamber to the Queen and Baroness Castlemaine's aunt. The entry in the register of St. Margaret's [Map] is as follows: "1662 June 18 Charles Palmer Ld Limbricke, s. to ye right honorble Roger Earl of Castlemaine by Barbara" (Steinman's "Memoir of Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland", 1871, p. 33). The child was afterwards called Charles Fitzroy, and was created Duke of Southampton in 1674. He succeeded his mother in the dukedom of Cleveland in 1709, and died 1730.
Note 2. By the King's command Lord Clarendon (age 54), much against his inclination, had twice visited his royal mistress with a view of inducing her, by persuasions which he could not justify, to give way to the King's determination to have Baroness Castlemaine's of her household.... Lord Clarendon has given a full account of all that transpired between himself, the King and the Queen, on this very unpleasant business ('Continuation of Life of Clarendon,' 1759, ff. 168-178). Steinman's Memoir of Duchess of Cleveland, p. 35. The day at length arrived when Baroness Castlemaine's was to be formally admitted a Lady of the Bedchamber. The royal warrant, addressed to the Lord Chamberlain (age 61), bears date June 1, 1663, and includes with that of her ladyship, the names of the Duchess of Buckingham (age 24), the Countesses of Chesterfield and Bath (age 22), and the Countess Mareshall. A separate warrant of the same day directs his lordship to admit the Countess of Suffolk as Groom of the Stole and first Lady of the Bedchamber, to which undividable offices she had, with the additional ones of Mistress of the Robes and Keeper of the Privy Purse, been nominated by a warrant dated April 2, 1662, wherein the reception of her oath is expressly deferred until the Queen's household shall be established. We here are furnished with the evidence that Charles would not sign the warrants for the five until Catherine had withdrawn her objection to his favourite one. Addenda to Steinman's Memoir of Duchess of Cleveland (privately printed), 1874, p. i.
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In 1663 Mary Fairfax Duchess Buckingham (age 24) was appointed Lady of the Bedchamber to Catherine of Braganza Queen Consort England (age 24) which position she held until 1693.
Samuel Pepys' Diary. 6th November 1663. Thence, after walking a good while in the Long gallery, home to my Lord's lodging, my Lord telling me how my father did desire him to speak to me about my giving of my sister something, which do vex me to see that he should trouble my Lord in it, but however it is a good occasion for me to tell my Lord my condition, and so I was glad of it. After that we begun to talk of the Court, and he tells me how Mr. Edward Montagu (age 28) begins to show respect to him again after his endeavouring to bespatter him all was, possible; but he is resolved never to admit him into his friendship again. He tells me how he and Sir H. Bennet (age 45), the [her husband] Duke of Buckingham (age 35) and his Duchesse (age 25), was of a committee with somebody else for the getting of Mrs. Stewart (age 16) for the King (age 33); but that she proves a cunning slut, and is advised at Somerset House [Map] by the Queene-Mother (age 24), and by her mother (age 53), and so all the plot is spoiled and the whole committee broke. Mr. Montagu and the Duke of Buckingham fallen a-pieces, the Duchesse going to a nunnery; and so Montagu begins to enter friendship with my Lord, and to attend the Chancellor (age 54) whom he had deserted. My Lord tells me that Mr. Montagu, among other things, did endeavour to represent him to the Chancellor's sons as one that did desert their father in the business of my Lord of Bristol (age 51); which is most false, being the only man that hath several times dined with him when no soul hath come to him, and went with him that very day home when the Earl impeached him in the Parliament House, and hath refused ever to pay a visit to my Lord of Bristol, not so much as in return to a visit of his. So that the Chancellor and my Lord are well known and trusted one by another. But yet my Lord blames the Chancellor for desiring to have it put off to the next Session of Parliament, contrary to my Lord Treasurer's (age 56) advice, to whom he swore he would not do it: and, perhaps, my Chancellor, for aught I see by my Lord's discourse, may suffer by it when the Parliament comes to sit. My Lord tells me that he observes the Duke of York (age 30) do follow and understand business very well, and is mightily improved thereby.
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Samuel Pepys' Diary. 26th October 1664. By and by the Queene (age 54) comes and her Mayds of Honour; one whereof, Mrs. Boynton, and the Duchesse of Buckingham (age 26), had been very siclee coming by water in the barge (the water being very rough); but what silly sport they made with them in very common terms, methought, was very poor, and below what people think these great people say and do.
In November 1664 Captain Thomas Howard (age 33) and [her sister-in-law] Mary Villiers Duchess Lennox Duchess Richmond (age 42) were married. She the daughter of George Villiers 1st Duke of Buckingham and Katherine Manners Duchess Buckingham. They were fifth cousin once removed.
Samuel Pepys' Diary. 3rd March 1667. From them I walked into the Parke, it being a fine but very cold day; and there took two or three turns the length of the Pell Mell [Map]: and there I met Serjeant Bearcroft, who was sent for the [her husband] Duke of Buckingham (age 39), to have brought him prisoner to the Tower [Map]. He come to towne this day, and brings word that, being overtaken and outrid by the Duchesse of Buckingham (age 28) within a few miles of the Duke's house of Westhorp [Map], he believes she got thither about a quarter of an hour before him, and so had time to consider; so that, when he come, the doors were kept shut against him. The next day, coming with officers of the neighbour market-town to force open the doors, they were open for him, but the Duke gone; so he took horse presently, and heard upon the road that the Duke of Buckingham was gone before him for London: so that he believes he is this day also come to towne before him; but no newes is yet heard of him. This is all he brings.
On 16th January 1668 [her husband] George Villiers 2nd Duke of Buckingham (age 39) fought a duel at Barn Elms with Francis Talbot 11th Earl of Shrewsbury (age 45) with whose wife Anna Maria Brudenell Countess Shrewsbury and Waterford (age 25) he was conducting a relationship. The duel may, less plausibly, be about Talbot's first wife Anne Conyers although Pepys appears to contradict this. Francis Talbot 11th Earl of Shrewsbury was fatally wounded dying two months later. Following the duel George Villiers 2nd Duke of Buckingham commenced living with Shrewsbury's wife Anne Maria. His wife Mary Fairfax Duchess Buckingham (age 29) returned to live with her parents.
Admiral Robert Holmes (age 46) and Jenkins acted as seconds to George Villiers 2nd Duke of Buckingham. Jenkins was killed.
John Talbot of Lacock (age 37) and Bernard Howard (age 27) acted as seconds to Francis Talbot 11th Earl of Shrewsbury. Note. Bernard Howard a guess based on name and age.
On 12th November 1671 [her father] Thomas Fairfax 3rd Lord Fairfax (age 59) died.
All About History Books
The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
In November 1685 [her sister-in-law] Mary Villiers Duchess Lennox Duchess Richmond (age 63) died.
John Evelyn's Diary. 6th July 1686. I supp'd with the Countesse of Rochester (age 40), where was also the Dutchesse of Buckingham (age 47) and Madame de Governe, whose daughter (age 20) was married to ye Marquess of Halifax's (age 52) sonn. She made me a character of ye French King (age 47) and Dauphin (age 24), and of ye persecution. That they kept much of the cruelties from the King's knowledge; that the Dauphin was so afraid of his father, that he durst not let any thing appeare of his sentiments; that he hated letters and priests, spent all his time in hunting, and seem'd to take no notice of what was passing.
On 16th April 1687 [her husband] George Villiers 2nd Duke of Buckingham (age 59) died. Duke of Buckingham, Marquess of Buckingham, Earl Buckingham extinct. Baron Ros Helmsley abeyant.
On 20th October 1704 Mary Fairfax Duchess Buckingham (age 66) died.
Adeline Horsey Recollections. Allan Fea, in his interesting book, "Nooks and Corners of Old England", describes how, "some time before the poor little plain Duchess (of Buckingham) suspected that she had a formidable rival in the beautiful Countess, she was returning from a visit to Deene [Map] to her house at Stamford, where her reckless husband found it convenient to hide himself, as a warrant for high treason was out against him, when she noticed a suspicious little cavalcade travelling in the same direction. Ordering the horses to be whipped up, she arrived in time to give the alarm. The [her former husband] Duke had just then set out for Burleigh House with some ladies in his company, and the serjeant actually saw the Duke alight and lead a lady into the house, but he and his soldiers were not in time to force an entrance, and so the Duke escaped!".
[her father] Thomas Fairfax 3rd Lord Fairfax and [her mother] Anne Vere Lady Fairfax were married. They were second cousin twice removed.
Letters of Horace Walpole. Rochester, Kent [Map], Sunday.
We have finished our progress sadly! Yesterday after twenty mishaps we got to Sissinghurst to dinner. There is a park in ruins, and a house in ten times greater ruins, built by Sir John Balier, chancellor of the exchequer to Queen Mary. You go through an arch of the stables to the house, the court of which is perfect and very beautiful. The Duke of Bedford has a house at Cheneys, in Buckinghamshire, which seems to have been very like it, but is more ruined. This has a good apartment, and a fine gallery, a hundred and twenty feet by eighteen, which takes up one side: the wainscot is pretty and entire: the ceiling vaulted, and painted in a light genteel grotesque. The whole is built for show: for the back of the house is nothing but lath and plaster. From thence we Went to Bocton-Malherbe, where are remains of a house of the Wottons, and their tombs in the church; but the roads were so exceedingly bad that it was dark before we got thither, and still darker before we got to Maidstone: from thence we passed this morning to Leeds Castle [Map].347 Never was such disappointment! There are small remains: the moat is the only handsome object, and is quite a lake, supplied by a cascade which tumbles through a bit of a romantic grove. The Fairfaxes have fitted up a pert, bad apartment in the fore-part of the castle, and have left the only tolerable rooms for offices. They had a gleam of Gothic in their eyes, but it soon passed off into some modern windows, and some that never were ancient. The only thing that at all recompensed the fatigues we have undergone was the picture of the Duchess of Buckingham348, la Ragotte, who is mentioned in Grammont-I say us, for I trust that Mr. Chute is as true a bigot to Grammont as I am. Adieu? I hope you will be as weary with reading our history as we have been in travelling it. Yours ever.
Note 347. A very ancient and magnificent structure, built throughout of stone, at different periods, formerly belonging to the family of Crovequer. In the fifteenth of Edward II Sir Thomas de Colepeper, who was castellan of the castle, was hanged on the drawbridge for having refused admittance to Isabel, the Queen-consort, in her progress in performing a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury. The manor and castle were forfeited to the crown by his attainder, but restored to his son, Sir Thomas Colepeper. By his Diary of May 8, 1666, it appears to have been hired by Evelyn for a prison. "Here," he says, "I flowed the dry moat, made a new drawbridge, brought spring-water into the court of the castle to an old fountain, and took order for the repairs."-E.
Note 348. Mary, Duchess of Buckingham, only daughter of [her father] Thomas, Lord Fairfax.-E.
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Kings Wessex: Great x 17 Grand Daughter of King Edmund "Ironside" I of England
Kings Gwynedd: Great x 15 Grand Daughter of Owain "Great" King Gwynedd
Kings Seisyllwg: Great x 20 Grand Daughter of Hywel "Dda aka Good" King Seisyllwg King Deheubarth
Kings Powys: Great x 16 Grand Daughter of Maredudd ap Bleddyn King Powys
Kings England: Great x 9 Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Kings Scotland: Great x 16 Grand Daughter of King Duncan I of Scotland
Kings Franks: Great x 13 Grand Daughter of Louis VII King Franks
Kings France: Great x 17 Grand Daughter of Robert "Pious" II King France
Kings Duke Aquitaine: Great x 21 Grand Daughter of Ranulf I Duke Aquitaine
Great x 4 Grandfather: William Fairfax of Steeton 8 x Great Grand Son of King Henry "Curtmantle" II of England
Great x 3 Grandfather: William Fairfax of Steeton 7 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Elizabeth Fairfax 6 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Great x 2 Grandfather: Thomas Fairfax 8 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 1 Grandfather: Thomas Fairfax 1st Lord Fairfax of Cameron 9 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
GrandFather: Ferdinando Fairfax 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron 7 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Robert Aske 4 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 3 Grandfather: John Aske 5 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Elizabeth Clifford 4 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Great x 2 Grandfather: Robert Aske of Aughton in Yorkshire 6 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Ralph Rhyther 9 x Great Grand Son of King John of England
Great x 3 Grandmother: Eleanor Rhyther 10 x Great Grand Daughter of King Henry "Curtmantle" II of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Katherine Constable 9 x Great Grand Daughter of King Henry "Curtmantle" II of England
Great x 1 Grandmother: Ellen Aske 6 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 3 Grandfather: John Dawnay of Cowick
Great x 2 Grandmother: Elizabeth Dawnay 5 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Richard Neville 2nd Baron Latimer of Snape 3 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 3 Grandmother: Dorothy Neville 4 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Anne Stafford Baroness Latimer 13 x Great Grand Daughter of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England
Father: Thomas Fairfax 3rd Lord Fairfax 8 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Robert Sheffield 8 x Great Grand Son of King Henry "Curtmantle" II of England
Great x 3 Grandfather: Edmund Sheffield 1st Baron Sheffield 5 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Jane Stanley 4 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 2 Grandfather: John Sheffield 2nd Baron Sheffield 6 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: John de Vere 15th Earl of Oxford 5 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 3 Grandmother: Anne Vere Baroness Sheffield 6 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Elizabeth Trussell Countess of Oxford 11 x Great Grand Daughter of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England
Great x 1 Grandfather: Edmund Sheffield 1st Earl Mulgrave 7 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Thomas Howard 2nd Duke of Norfolk 5 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 3 Grandfather: William Howard 1st Baron Howard 6 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Agnes Tilney Duchess Norfolk
Great x 2 Grandmother: Douglas Howard Baroness Sheffield 7 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Thomas Gamage
Great x 3 Grandmother: Margaret Gamage Baroness Howard 10 x Great Grand Daughter of King John of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Margaret St John 9 x Great Grand Daughter of King John of England
GrandMother: Mary Sheffield 8 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: William Tyrwhitt
Great x 3 Grandfather: Robert Tyrwhitt 10 x Great Grand Son of King Henry "Curtmantle" II of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Anne Constable 9 x Great Grand Daughter of King Henry "Curtmantle" II of England
Great x 2 Grandfather: William Tyrwhitt 8 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Robert Tailboys 8th Baron Kyme 6 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 3 Grandmother: Maud Tailboys 7 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Elizabeth Heron Baroness Kyme
Great x 1 Grandmother: Ursula Tyrwhitt 9 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Great x 3 Grandfather: William Girlington
Great x 2 Grandmother: Isabel Girlington
Mary Fairfax Duchess Buckingham 9 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Robert de Vere 6 x Great Grand Son of King Henry "Curtmantle" II of England
Great x 3 Grandfather: John de Vere 4 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Joan Courtenay 3 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Great x 2 Grandfather: John de Vere 15th Earl of Oxford 5 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 3 Grandmother: Alice Colbroke
Great x 1 Grandfather: Geoffrey Vere 6 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: William Trussell
Great x 3 Grandfather: Edward Trussell
Great x 2 Grandmother: Elizabeth Trussell Countess of Oxford 11 x Great Grand Daughter of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England
Great x 4 Grandfather: John Donne
Great x 3 Grandmother: Margaret Donne 10 x Great Grand Daughter of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Elizabeth Hastings 9 x Great Grand Daughter of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England
GrandFather: Horace de Vere 1st Baron Vere 7 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 1 Grandmother: Elizabeth Hardkyn
Mother: Anne Vere Lady Fairfax 8 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: William Tracy
Great x 3 Grandfather: William Tracy
Great x 2 Grandfather: Henry Tracy
Great x 4 Grandfather: Simon Digby
Great x 3 Grandmother: Agnes Digby
Great x 1 Grandfather: John Tracy
GrandMother: Mary Tracy Baroness Spencer Tilbury