Jonathan Fairbanks
Encyclopedia
Heptonstall
Heptonstall is a small village and civil parish within the Calderdale borough of West Yorkshire, England. The population of Heptonstall, including the hamlets of Colden and Slack, is 1,448. The town of Hebden Bridge lies directly to the southeast...
, Halifax
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Halifax is a minster town, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It has an urban area population of 82,056 in the 2001 Census. It is well-known as a centre of England's woollen manufacture from the 15th century onward, originally dealing through the Halifax Piece...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
who immigrated to New England in 1633. Around 1637 Fairbanks built the Fairbanks House in Dedham, Massachusetts
Dedham, Massachusetts
Dedham is a town in and the county seat of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,729 at the 2010 census. It is located on Boston's southwest border. On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest by Westwood and on the southeast by...
which is today the oldest surviving wood framed house in North America.
Settlement in New England
Jonathan Fairbanks arrived in Boston, Massachusetts with his family in 1633. Fairbanks' wife's name was Grace Lee. The Fairbanks family remained in Boston about three years, before settling in Dedham, as one of the earliest settler families. Jonathan Fairbanks signed the Covenant when the town was founded and named.Conversion to Christianity
Jonathan Fairbanks had "long stood off from the church upon some scruples about public profession of faith and the covenant, yet after divers loving conferences..., [In 1646] he made such a declaration of his faith and conversion to God and profession of subjection to the ordinances of Christ in the church that he was readily and gladly received by the whole church." Fairbanks became a member of the First Church in Dedham, which espoused a Reformed theology (Calvinist) in the seventeenth century.Jonathan Fairbanks died in Dedham, December 5, 1668. Grace Fairbanks died 28th 10 mo. 1673, or 19: 3: 1676. Fairbanks was buried in the Old Village Cemetery.
As was common at the time Jonathan used several spellings of his surname: Fairbanke, Fairebanke, Fayerbanke, and on his will Fairbanck. His sons and grandsons began spelling the name Fairbank or Fairbanks.