Research by Joneen Matsen and Carol Walters
(The July 2012 Issue of the NEHGR featured an article called Jonathan Fairbank of Dedham, Massachusetts and His Family in the West Riding of Yorkshire, by Ruth Fairbanks Joseph and James Swan Landberg. The following information is largely quoted or paraphrased from that article.)
Jonathan Fairbank came from the parish of Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, where his marriage on 20 May 1617 to Grace Smith of Warley, Halifax, England is recorded. The births of Jonathan and Grace’s first four children are also recorded in Halifax, John on 8 February 1617/8, George on 28 November 1619, Mary in February 1621/2, and Jonas on March 1624/5. Their daughter, Susan, was probably baptized in Thornton in Craven, Yorkshire, 10 December 1627 (that entry is difficult to read.)2 No baptism for their son, Jonathan, has been found in Yorkshire or New England. Based on the notes in the children’s baptismal records, the family was living in Warley in 1618, in Shelf (also in Halifax) in 1619 and 1622, and back in Warley in 1624.
Since Jonathan’s baptismal record has not been found, there has been an ongoing debate about the identity of his parents. The 2012 Register article shows compelling evidence that the immigrant Jonathan was the son of John Fairbank of Thornton in Craven, a parish about twenty-five miles northwest of the Town of Halifax, either by John’s first, unidentified, wife or by his second wife, Isabella Stancliffe. This John Fairbank was the son of George1 and Sybil Wade Fairbank, and the brother of George2 Fairbanks of Sowerby Bridge.
Superscript numbers indicate generation.
|
William1 Fairebanke, b. 1455; d. 1518 |
|
(Son) John2 Fairebanke, b. 1480; d. 1551; |
m. Margaret |
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(Son) Gilbert3, b. circa 1505; d. 1577-8; |
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(Son) George4, b.say 1530 |
m. (1st) Sybil Wade m. (secondly) Jenet or Johanna (Maud) Broadley) |
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(Son) George5, bp. Halifax 2 Aug 1562, |
m. (1st) Isabel Bannister m. (2nd) Susan Bentley m. (3rd) Hester Denton |
|
(Son) John5, … b. ? Halifaz |
m. (1st) ______? m. (2nd) Isabella Staincliffe m. (3rd) Ellen Parker |
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(Son) Jonathan6 b. say 1597, Halifax, |
m. Grace Smith |
For further information about Jonathan’s family in England, go to NEHGR vol 166 p 165.
There is support for the idea that Jonathan may have grown up at Brigbotham, the home of his Uncle George in Sowerby Bridge, Halifax. Jonathan is treated differently in his father’s will than his brothers, who inherited their father’s land. Jonathan receives only ¼th of the third portion of his father’s estate. The lack of land may have been a factor in his decision to emigrate to New England.
The Fairbanks Family in America states that Jonathan came to Boston in 16333, but we know of no documentation for that. He first appeared in Massachusetts records on 23 March 1636/7 when he subscribed to the covenant of the newly established town of Dedham and was allotted 12 acres of land to build his home. The following record is found in the "Towne Booke:"
"Dedham. The 23rd of ye first Month called March 1637. The First Assembly in Dedham, by whose names are underwritten, vizt, Edward Alleyn, Abraham Shawe, Samuel Morse, Philemon Dalton, Joseph Shawe, Ezechiell Holliman, Lambert Genere, Nicholas Phillips, Raffe Shepheard, John Gay, Francis Austin, Willm Berstowe, John Rogers, Daniell Morse, John Huggens.
"Jonathan Fearbanke being p'sented by John Dwite was accepted and subscribed."
Jonathan was the 31st person to sign the Dedham Covenant.
The first section of the house Jonathan and Grace built in Dedham was probably built in 1639. This house is now thought to be the oldest timber frame house in North America. A valuation of houses taken 1651in Dedham showed, "Jonath. Fayerbanke 20 17." He received various additional grants of land in the years following his arrival.
The curator of the Fairbanks House in Dedham said that Jonathan Fairbanks was not a Puritan, but he was welcomed in Dedham because, as a woodturner who made spinning wheels, he was valuable to the community. The Dedham Church records of 1646 say that Jonathan had "long stood off from the church upon some scruples about public profession of faith and the covenant, yet after divers loving conferences..., he made such a declaration of his faith and conversion to God and profession of subjection to the ordinances of Christ in the church that he was readily and gladly received by the whole church. 14d 6m 1646"
The Fairbanks property was near that assigned to Michael and Sarah Elwyn Metcalf. Michael was the 33rd signer of the Covenant. The two families apparently became close, and we were told at the Fairbanks House that after Sarah’s death, when Michael Metcalf married as his second wife, Mary Sothy Pidge, there was not room in their house for their combined family, so the Fairbanks adopted Mary’s youngest daughter, Martha. The Genealogy of the Fairbanks Family in America, 1633 - 1897, by Lorenzo Sayles Fairbanks, mentions at the end of the list of children of Jonathan and Grace Smith Fairbanks, "Martha Pidge, (1642-1676) - "Adopted child." We have no further verification of this.
Jonathan died in Dedham 5 December 1668 and was buried in the Old Village Cemetery.
Grace Smith Fairbanks lived several more years but did not remarry. She died either "28th 10th mo., 1673", or "19:3:1676." One death record is for the wife of Jonathan, the other for her granddaughter, Grace, daughter of Jonathan Fairbanks Jr. and his wife Deborah. It is unclear to us which record is for which person. However, Joneen Matsen reports that the original handwritten Dedham record for the 1676 death says, "Grace Ffairbank Deceased 19: 3: 76. (19 May 1676) and notes that the spelling of "Ffairbank" in this death record matches the spelling of Jonathan's name in his will, which may be evidence that this is the death record of the grandmother.
"Jonathan and Grace Smith Fairbanks would have a number of notable descendants including Presidents William H. Taft,[11] George H.W. Bush,[12] George W. Bush[13] and Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks.[14] They are also ancestors of the father and son governors of Vermont Erastus Fairbanks and Horace Fairbanks,[15] the poet Emily Dickinson,[16] the anthropologist Margaret Mead and the artist Avard Fairbanks." (Wikipedia)
NEHGR Vol 166 p 165-175, Jonathan Fairbank of Dedham, Massachusetts and His Family in the West Riding of Yorkshire, by Ruth Fairbanks Joseph and James Swan Landberg.
Parish registers of Thornton in Craven, Yorkshire, at the North Yorkshire County Record Office
GENEALOGY OF THE FAIRBANKS FAMILY IN AMERICA, 1633 - 1897, by Lorenzo Sayles Fairbanks, p. 254