f 248 col 2 (3 April) (In the wardrobe)
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a chest which Barbara keeps two trunckes in the open presse a base violin & the singing bookes./
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f 248v, col 1 (In Thomas Fairfax's chamber)
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The white damask chare, a litle red chaire, an orpharion, five pictures, a standing cubberd, a great chest a cabinet 2. long cushions, the flat box & cyprus coffer, two window curtains & an iron rod for them...
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col 2 (In the great chamber)
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A drawing table, a rownd table a livery cubberd and a litle table all having carpetes of greene cloth, a couch chare & 2 other high chares covered with greene cloth, a frame on which stands a paire of virgenalls...
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Barbara Dickinson was Fairfax's housekeeper. The orpharion is a wire-strung instrument tuned like a lute. It was popular as a mode of self-accompaniment and references to its existence in private homes are common (Ian Harwood and Lyle Nordstrom (rev), 'Orpharion,' Grove Music Online, accessed 28 December 2020). Lady Margaret Hoby (qv) played the orpharion.
Record title: Household Inventory of Sir Thomas Fairfax
Repository: West Yorkshire Archive Service
Shelfmark: WYL1352/D1/5
Repository location: Wakefield
Sir Thomas Fairfax II (c 1575–1636) divided his time between his primary residence at Gilling Castle and a secondary home at Walton, two miles east of Wetherby. Though Fairfax himself conformed, his wife Catherine Constable (d. 1626) was a life-long recusant, and it is probably for this reason that Fairfax was not a member of the High Commission, nor was he ever appointed knight of the shire. He was MP for Boroughbridge in 1601 (HPO, 'Fairfax, Thomas II,' accessed 31 December 2020). See also the Introduction.
1590–1624; English; paper; 295 leaves; 410mm x 270mm; contemporary foliation 1–295 (ff 8–12, 82–240, 252–5 blank, 271–2 stubs, 2 unfoliated leaves 305mm x 20 bound in between ff 272–3); heavily damaged by woodworm; contemporary leather on wood binding, remains of gilt emblem on front cover with initials 'W F.'