Robert Winslow Faires was born in North Carolina in about 1825. A resident of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, he worked at various times as a gold miner and a farmer. In 1851 he married Susannah Amanda Plummer and the couple had at least nine children together. In 1855 he signed an affidavit in support of his wife's grandmother's pension application. He died sometime after 1870.