friend Isaac Reed remarks that ‘as the master of his college he was easy and accessible, cultivating the friendship of the fellows and inferior members by every mark of kindness and attention; and this conduct was rewarded in the manner he most wished, by the harmony which prevailed in the society, and by an entire exemption from those feuds and animosities which too often tore to pieces and disgraced other colleges. In his office of residentiary of St. Paul's, if he was not the first mover, he was certainly the most strenuous advocate for promoting the art of sculpture, by the introduction of statuary into the metropolitan cathedral: and many of the regulations on the subject were suggested by him, and adopted in consequence of his recommendation.’
His library, which was particularly rich in scarce tracts and old English literature, was sold in London in 1798. The catalogue extends to 379 pages, and the separate books number 8,155. The library is supposed to have cost him less than 500l. It sold for 2,210l., independently of his pictures.
A scurrilous pamphlet, entitled ‘The Battle between Dr. Farmer and Peter Musgrave, the Cambridge Taylor, in Hudibrastic verse,’ appeared at London in 1792, 8vo. Several printed books with manuscript notes by Farmer are preserved in the British Museum.
[Memoir by George Dyer in Annual Necrology for 1797–8, p. 390; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 618; Boswell's Johnson; Bromley's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, p. 360; Cole's MS. 54, pp. 32, 33; Dibdin's Bibliomania (1811), p. 565; European Mag. xxxvii. 116; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, 3873, 3874; Gent. Mag. vol. lxvii. pt. ii. pp. 545, 805, 888, 1068, vol. lxviii. pt. i. p. 517, pt. ii. p. 720; Georgian Era, iii. 553; Gleig's Supplement to third edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, i. 641; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), i. 58, 586, ii. 382, iii. 611, 630, 702; Literary Memoirs of Living Authors, i. 183; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), pp. 780, 2317; Marshall's Cat. of Five Hundred Celebrated Authors; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. iv. 379, 407, 428, 2nd ser. x. 41; Seward's Biographiana, ii. 578–98; Shuckburgh's Essay on Farmer, printed with the Life of Laurence Chaderton, 1884; Smith's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, p. 55.]
FARMER, THOMAS (fl. 1685), composer, was originally one ‘of a company of musitians in London and played in the waytes’ (Wood, MS. Notes, Bodleian). He took the degree of Mus. B. at Cambridge in 1684, before which time he had contributed songs to Playford's ‘Choice Ayres, Songs, and Dialogues’ (2nd edit. 1675). One of these is described as ‘in the Citizen turn'd Gentleman.’ This was the sub-title of Ravenscroft's ‘Mammouchi,’ produced 1675. ‘Apollo's Banquet’ contains ‘Mr. Farmer's Magot,’ for violin. His instrumental compositions are entirely for strings, in three or four parts. He wrote the ‘tunes’ in ‘The Princess of Cleve,’ which appear in a set of manuscript parts dated December (16)82, owned by Thomas Fuller (Add. MS. 29283–5). Fuller possessed three other compositions in three parts by him (ib. 31429), and various overtures are contained in Add. MS. 24889. He contributed songs to ‘The Theater of Musick,’ 1685–7, and to D'Urfey's third collection, 1685. In 1686 appeared his own collection of airs in four parts, under the title of ‘A Consort of Musick,’ containing thirty-three lessons. A ‘Second Consort,’ containing eleven lessons, appeared in 1690. The date of his death is fixed only by the fact that Purcell wrote an elegy upon him to words by Nahum Tate, published in ‘Orpheus Britannicus,’ ii. 35, and beginning ‘Young Thyrsis' fate ye hills and groves deplore.’ This establishes the fact that Farmer died before November 1695, and it may be inferred that he died young. Hawkins says that his house was in Martlet Court, Bow Street, Covent Garden.
[Grove's Dict. i. 507; Imp. Dict. of Univ. Biog., art. ‘Farmer;’ authorities and compositions as above; Hawkins's Hist. (1853), p. 768.]
FARMERY, JOHN, M.D. (d. 1590), physician, a native of Lincolnshire, matriculated as a pensioner of King's College, Cambridge, in November 1561 (B.A. 1564–5, M.A. 1568). He seems to have practised medicine in London, as an empiric, with powerful patrons. The College of Physicians was induced to license him on 4 Feb. 1586–7, and admitted him a candidate 22 Feb. following, and fellow 28 Feb. 1588–9, with an injunction to proceed M.D. within two years. In September 1589 he graduated M.D. at Leyden, after receiving letters testimonial from the London college. In 1589 also he was directed by the college to draw up, with Drs. Atslowe, Browne, and Preest, the formulæ of syrups, juleps, and decoctions, for the ‘Pharmacopœia.’ He died in the spring of 1590. In his will (P. C. C. 23, Drury), dated 15 March and proved 7 April 1590, he described himself as living in ‘Alderbert strete’ in the parish of St. Mary Aldermanbury, and desired to be buried in his parish church. By his wife, Anne, he had two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. His widow afterwards married (license dated 26 Feb. 1592–3) Edward Lister, M.D. (d. 1620), and was buried in the church of St. Mary Aldermanbury, 11 Dec. 1613. Farmery was a Roman catholic. His friend
