resolution and valour.” At Helmsley Castle (September
1644), Fairfax was seriously wounded but recovered.
In February 1645, Fairfax was named commander
in chief of the New Model Army, the official title of
the reformed Parliamentary army. According to Joshua
Sprigge in Anglia Rediviva (1647), Fairfax’s official title
was “Captain-General of all the Parliament’s Forces
in England.” As commander, on 14 June 1645 he led
some 13,000 forces personally against Prince Rupert,
who commanded some 9,000 Royalist troops at Naseby
in Northamptonshire, the most decisive battle of the
first English Civil War. Historian George Bruce writes:
“Prince Rupert’s first charge broke the Parliamentary
left wing, but as usual the pursuit was carried too far,
and before the cavalry returned Cromwell on the right
had turned the scale, and the battle was over. The Roy-
alist infantry, overwhelmed by superior numbers, were
almost annihilated, 5,000 prisoners and all the artillery
being captured.” The last Royalist forces were subdued
by Fairfax at Langport in July 1645.
King Charles was captured following the defeat at
Naseby. When Royalist forces rose up to rescue their
sovereign, Fairfax took up arms a second time and led
the Parliamentary forces to victory at Maidstone (1 June
1648) and Colchester (13 June 1648). Although he had
fought against the king, when Charles was tried and sen-
tenced to death, Fairfax spoke out against the sentence.
After the king was beheaded on 30 January 1649, Fair-
fax agreed to serve as a member of the Council of State,
created to establish a new form of government. How-
ever, he resigned in protest when his old friend Oliver
Cromwell, the new government leader, planned an inva-
sion of Scotland in 1650. Following Cromwell’s death
in 1658, Fairfax worked with the former Royalist and
Parliamentary commander George monck to restore
the rule of Parliament when its rights were threatened
by the military.
In 1660, Fairfax joined with others in inviting
Charles II, son of the executed king, to come to England
to succeed to the throne, vacant since his father’s death
11 years earlier. This, however, was Fairfax’s last public
service. He retired to his estate at Nunappleton, near
Cawood in Yorkshire, where he died on 12 November
1671 at the age of 59.
References: Markham, Clements R., A Life of the Great
Lord Fairfax, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Par-
liament of England (London: Macmillan and Company,
1870); Gibb, Mildred Ann, The Lord General, a Life of
Thomas Fairfax (London: L. Drummond, Ltd., 1938);
Wilson, John, Fairfax: A Life of Thomas, Lord Fairfax,
Captain-General of all the Parliament’s Forces in the English
Civil War, Creator & Commander of the New Model Army
(London: John Murray, 1985); A Perfect Diurnall of Some
Passages in Parliament and Daily Proceedings of the Army
under His Excellency the Lord Fairfax from Munday the 29
of January till Mund. the 5 of February 1648 [1649 N.S.]:
Containing an Account of the Beheading of King Charles
the First (London: Printed for Francis Coles & Lawrence
Blacklock, ca. 1649); Sprigge, Joshua, Anglia Rediviva; En-
gland’s Recovery: Being the History of the Motions, Actions
and Successes of the Army Under the Immediate Conduct of
His Excellency Sr. T. Fairfax, Kt., Captain-Gen. of all the
Parliaments Forces in England.... (London: Printed for
John Partridge, 1647); Young, Peter, Naseby 1645: The
Campaign and the Battle (London: Century Publishing,
1985), 119–120; Bruce, George, “Naseby,” in Collins
Dictionary of Wars (Glasgow, Scotland: HarperCollins
Publishers, 1995), 174.Farragut, David Glasgow (James Glasgow
Farragut) (1801–1870) American naval officer, first
admiral in the United States Navy
David Farragut was born James Glasgow Farragut at
Campbell’s Station, near Knoxville, Tennessee, on 6
July 1801. His father, Jorge Farragut, a sailor of Span-
ish descent, had immigrated to the United States and
served in the Revolutionary War; he went on the serve
in the War of 1812 before his death in 1817. Through
circumstances still unclear, the Farragut family became
friends with Commander David Porter of the United
States Navy, and Porter offered to take the young James
into his care and sponsor him in a naval career. The Far-
raguts accepted, and on 17 December 1810, at the age
of 9^1 ⁄ 2 , Farragut was appointed a midshipman, posted to
Porter’s ship. This was common in navies of the time,
and such boys were taught mathematics, navigation, and
other academic subjects while learning the practical as-
pects of seamanship, signaling, and boat handling. It was
at about this time that Farragut changed his first name
from James to David, as a compliment to his guardian.
Porter’s ship, the USS Essex, sailed to join a squad-
ron in the West Indies at the start of the War of 1812 but
was then sent south to round Cape Horn and cruise the
Pacific. Several British prizes were taken in the Pacific, FARRAgut, DAviD glASgow