This was an Irish peerage and did not entitle him to a seat in the English House of Lords (although it did entitle him to a seat in the Irish House of Lords).
A Roman Catholic, he actively canvassed the local gentry in the cause of James II.
He was suspicious, as he told Sir John Reresby, of the activities of the Earls of Danby and Devonshire in Yorkshire, saying "it could be for no good end that [they] were come down to the country"; and indeed they were plotting the Glorious Revolution.
Lord Fairfax of Emley died in July 1711.
He had no sons and was succeeded in the title by his nephew, Charles.