mitted to return to their own country in the Favourite. After arriving in September, Farmer, on being acquitted of all blame for the loss of the Swift, was appointed to the Tamar sloop, and a few months later, January 1771, was promoted to post rank.
In August 1773 he was appointed to the Seahorse frigate, and sailed for the East Indies, having among his petty officers Thomas Troubridge, a master's mate, and Horatio Nelson, a midshipman. On returning to England after an uneventful commission, Farmer was appointed in March 1778 to the Quebec frigate of thirty-two guns, in which he was employed during the year in convoy service in the North Sea. In 1779 he was stationed chiefly at Guernsey as a guard for the Channel Islands, and to gain intelligence. It was thus that as early as 18 June he sent over news that the French fleet had sailed from Brest, that the Spanish fleet had sailed from Cadiz, and that there were at Havre great preparations for an invading force. On 6 July he wrote that he had driven on shore and destroyed a convoy of forty-nine small vessels, with a 20-gun frigate and several armed vessels; but that the Quebec herself had struck heavily on the rocks, and he had been obliged to throw his guns overboard. This necessitated his going to Portsmouth for repairs, and when these were finished, as there were no 12-pounders to replace the lost guns, he had to be supplied with 9-pounders, which were taken from another frigate not ready for sea. With this reduced armament, off Ushant, on 6 Oct., the Quebec met the French 18-pounder frigate Surveillante of 40 guns and nearly double the number of men. A sharp action ensued; after about three hours and a half both ships were dismasted; but the Quebec's sails falling over the guns caught fire, and the frigate was speedily in a blaze. There was little wind and a great swell; the Surveillante, completely disabled, was at some little distance; the Rambler cutter was to leeward, and also dismasted; and the French cutter Expédition, which had been engaged with the Rambler, had sought safety in flight. It was thus impossible to help the burning frigate, which after some four or five hours blew up. Sixty-six only out of about 195 that were on board were picked up by the boats of the Surveillante, of the Rambler, and of a Russian vessel that came on the scene; the rest, including Captain Farmer, perished. Farmer had been previously wounded, and his conduct both in the action and during the fire was so highly spoken of that, at the special request of the board of admiralty, a baronetcy was conferred on his eldest son, then a lad of seventeen years of age; a pension of 200l. a year to his widow, Rebecca, the daughter of Captain William Fleming of the royal navy; and of 25l. per annum to each of eight children, and a ninth not yet born (Admiralty Minute, 15 Oct. 1779), in order, as the board wrote, to ‘excite an emulation in other officers to distinguish themselves in the same manner, and render Captain Farmer's fate rather to be envied than pitied, as it would give them reason to hope that if they should lose their lives with the same degree of stubborn gallantry, it would appear to posterity that their services had met with the approbation of their sovereign.’ His portrait by Charles Grignion is now in the possession of Mr. Henry Taylor of Curzon Park, Chester (Notes and Queries, 7th ser. iv. 273).
[Official letters and other documents in the Public Record Office; Beatson's Nav. and Mil. Mem. iv. 561, and vi. 2–16; Gent. Mag. 1779, xlix. 480, 562; Hibernian Mag. 1779, p. 601; Burke's Baronetage; information communicated by Major-general W. R. Farmar.]
FARMER, HUGH (1714–1787), independent minister and theological writer, younger son of William and Mary Farmer, was born on 20 Jan. 1714 at the Isle Gate farm in a hamlet called the Isle, within the parish of St. Chad, Shrewsbury. His mother was a daughter of Hugh Owen of Bronycludwr, Merionethshire, one of the nonconformists of 1662. Farmer was at school at Llanegryn, Merionethshire, and under Charles Owen, D.D., at Warrington. In 1731 he entered Doddridge's academy at Northampton. His paper of religious experience, on seeking admission to the communion in Doddridge's church, has been preserved. To his tutor's preaching and his reading of the sermons of Joseph Boyse [q. v.] he attributes his permanent religious impressions. On leaving the academy (1736) he became assistant to David Some of Market Harborough (d. May 1737).
Early in 1737 he took charge of a struggling cause at Walthamstow, founded by Samuel Slater, ejected from St. James's, Bury St. Edmunds. He seems at first to have lodged in London, but was soon (between 14 Feb. and 14 July) received into the family of William Snell, a chancery solicitor, and great friend of Doddridge. Farmer's ‘general acceptance’ at once led to a ‘great increase’ in the congregation. In July, Doddridge, who had been asked to find a minister for the independent congregation at Taunton, applied to Farmer, who declined the overture. He explains that he was not Calvinistic enough for Taunton, the liberal element in the congregation having seceded with Thomas Amory, D.D. (1701–1774) [q. v.]
