Fairfax's father, also named Thomas,[1] was presumably a supporter of the House of York in the Wars of the Roses.
[2] The elder Thomas Fairfax married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Sherburne of Lancashire.
[3] Their son, the younger Thomas Fairfax, was the eldest of nine children; his brothers' names were Richard, Robert and John, and his sisters were Jane, Elizabeth, Isabel, Anne and Dorothy.
The younger Fairfax's wife was Agnes (or Anne) Gascoigne,[1] daughter of Lady Margaret Percy, the daughter of Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland and through him, a great great grandson of Edward III.
[2][4] Agnes was 3rd cousins with Margaret Tudor, wife of James IV, and daughter of Elizabeth of York and Henry VII of England.