Career
Editorial Fairfax"s father, also named Thomas, was presumably a supporter of the House of York in the Wars of the Roses. His original home was near the site of the Battle of Towton. Based on the 1349 marriage between Margaret de Etton and their ancestor, a third Thomas Fairfax of Walton, the elder Thomas Fairfax successfully claimed the ownership of the Gilling Estate during two inquisitions, the first of which was in 1489.
The elder Thomas Fairfax married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Sherburne of Lancashire.
In 1513, the younger Fairfax served with Henry VIII on his expedition to Artois. He was knighted when the city of Tournai (now in Belgium) surrendered to the king.
Upon his father"s death in 1505, the younger Thomas Fairfax inherited the Gilling estate.
