90Occupation-Farmer
91Records of Charles' birth and his antecedents have not been discovered ,
but it is reasonable to assume that they lived in Norfolk for many
generations.
Research by Patrick Palgrave-Moore in Sep-Oct 1985, undertaken at my
behest, found the record of son Frederick's birth, but not of Charles' -
there are 700 parishes in Norfolk - and he found marriage records of
Fairweathers in Marham, Holkham, Wells (all villages in Northern
Norfolk) as well as Shipdham not far from Swaffham.
According to the memoirs (edited by William Gerard Don, MD) of a
certain Alexander Fairweather of Menmuir Parish, Forfarshire (now
Angus, the area around Dundee, Scotland, where there are many
Fairweathers), the name Fairweather is derived from old Norse/Danish
words, "faar" or "foer" meaning sheep, and "wedder" meaning a class of
sheep. The original spelling was "Faarvedder". The eastern counties of
England were invaded by the Danes in the 9th. century. Some
Fairweathers may well have been driven north when the Normans
conquered England in 1066, but more likely they migrated in the train of
Norman nobles in the 12th. and 13th. centuries to the fertile Dundee area.
However the name is still fairly common in Norfolk and Suffolk.
In the 350 years of known Fairweathers, none appears to have achieved
any great distinction, but neither were there any blackguards. Charles
moved to C. Wexford, Ireland with young family to work on estate of Lord
Carew c. 1834.
91Charles was born in 1802/03 probably at or near Swaffham, then an important market town in Norfolk, England. Certainly his son Frederick was christened there in 1826. Probably Ellen Angel, his wife-to-be, also was born in that area but records of her and Charles’ birth have not yet been discovered. It is possible that Fairweathers and Angels lived in the area for hundreds of years. The International Genealogical Index (IGI) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints does not yet cover parish records in Norfolk.
Early spellings of the name “Fairweather” including Fareweather, Fairweder, Farrweder (1248, Norfolk), Fayrewether, Farewedder, Phaire wedder (Scotland) etc. “One with a bright and sunny disposition”, surmises the “A Dictionary of English Surnames” (Reaney and Wilson) regarding the origin of the name. But according to the memoirs (written in the 1800’s) of one Alexander Fairweather of Menmuir Parish, Forfarshire (now Argus, the Dundee area of Scotland), the name was originally “Faarvedder”, believed to be occupation-related and derived from two old Danish words, “faar” or “foer” meaning sheep and “wedder”, a class of sheep. It will be recalled that the Danes overran East Anglia (Norfolk/Suffolk) in the 9th century and stayed. Migration of Fairweathers to the Dundee area of Scotland could have occurred in the train of Norman nobles who were given grants of land in that fertile area in the 12th and 13th centuries.
“Angel” is listed as a Suffolk name in the above Dictionary (there is a 1221 reference), derived from the Latin “angelus”, a messenger or angel.
Charles was evidently a farmer or farm laborer, not a craftsman.
In the early 1830’s, Charles moved with Ellen and children Charles (1824), Frederick (1826), Francis (1828) and Susan (1830), to County Wexford, Ireland, to work on the Castleboro Estate of Lord Carew, possibly as gamekeeper, although in his son Frederick’s obituary he was referred to as a tennant farmer on that Estate, and a map provided by Sir Patrick Fairweather shows an area near Forrestaltown where Charles and Ellen had their farm. The next seven children, Henry Howell (1835), John (1837), Edward (1840), Sophia (1842), Margaret (1844), Isaac (1847) and Harriet (1849) were born in Ireland.
Lord Carew was presumably descended from George Carew (1555-1629), Earl of Totnes and Baron Carew of Clopton, who fought in the Irish wars and was appointed Lord president of Munster (south-west Ireland comprising the counties of Cork, Waterford, Kerr, Limerick, Tipperary and Clare - Wexford and Carlow were not included) where he ruthlessly suppressed the Irish rebellion.
Castleboro Estate is now non existant. During the unrest as Ireland tried to break free from England (the Irish Free State was declared in December 1921, but unrest continued for some time thereafter), the castle itself was burnt to the ground in 1921/22 leaving only a shell. Later the land was sold off in several lots.