Our Faircloth /Fairclough family apparently had its origins in extreme northwestern England in Lancashire or Lancaster County, a county bordering the Irish Sea. Lancashire is the home of Liverpool, an ancient major seaport and for several centuries one of the largest cities in England. A Faircloth served as Lord Mayor of Liverpool during the 1500's.

Among the first books printed on the origins and meanings of British family (surname) names was one which said that the family name Fairclough / Faircloth / Faircliff meant "a dweller in a fair hollow". In the late 1800's an English "authority" on the origins of British family names printed a book on the subject and it instantly became the "bible" for generations to come. This writer, like most, could only do so much; they concentrated mostly upon those families that ranked among the British nobility or those which had achieved social prominence because of wealth. The "common" folk--the vast majority of Englishmen--got scant mention and even less serious research. Later historians tended to rely upon this early work with only a few exceptions. A few even went so far as to say Faircloth was an "occupational" name derived from the occupation of either making or selling nice cloth.

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