Frederick Fairley

[Beckenham1]

While trawling through Ancestry I noticed many Frederick Fairley's on the net.

Does anyone know anything about the original?

I wonder if he was a preacher of some description

I started to notice when I was looking for Frederick Fairley Mitchell - born Edinburgh 28 May, 1881 and noticed a few Frederick Fairley Mitchell's. Then there seemed many names incorporating "Frederick Fairley" from at least the 1880's and onwards to the present day.

Regards

[Currie]

Hello Beckenham,

Usually, if someone has the slightest degree of fame, they’ll turn up somewhere in Google Books. However for “Frederick Fairley”, surprisingly, because the name looks fairly ‘normal’, there’s almost nothing. http://www.google.com.au/webhp?complete ... 80&bih=840

In the 19C British Library newspapers there are a couple of mentions around 1889 of a James Frederick Fairley, a steel manufacturer of Birmingham. In 1900 there’s a 16 year old Frederick Fairley from Sunderland charged with stealing a letter, and the same year a Frederick Fairley Dawson at Leeds was convicted of a murder.

If there was some sort of connection between all these individuals it doesn’t appear to have been to do with anyone whose name ever appeared in a book or newspaper.

All the best,
Alan

[SarahND]

Hi Beckenham and Alan,
Going through the censuses I have found Frederick Fairleys who are Ag Labs, brass casters, jute agents and machinists…

If you accept that the original could have been "Farley" rather than "Fairley" then there is a much wider field. In particular, there is a Rev Frederick Augustus Farley from Providence, Rhode Island who shows up frequently at just about any event in the eastern U.S. from about 1830 on, giving the "Right Hand of Fellowship" or "Concluding prayer" etc. But it's difficult to see why people in Scotland would be naming children after him...

All the best,
Sarah

[AndrewP]

Hi Beckenham,

I would recommend that you include Fairlie in your inquiries. In the days when spelling was less important, Fairley and Fairlie were regularly interchanged.

All the best,

AndrewP