[As one of this name has very justly been styled "The Father of Genealogy in New England," and has left behind him an enduring monument of his labors in this department of literature, it is deemed highly proper to commence our Genealogical Series with that of his family. It will be viewed, we doubt not, with great interest, by all lovers of such subjects, and more especially as the Memoir is from his own pen; that is to say, as to facts, it is entirely the same as that, which was published by the distinguished Genealogist himself; but the plan of it here presented, is new, and is probably preferable to any other hitherto adopted. Indeed there does not appear to have been any general fixed plan for the exhibition of Genealogies. The following method, the result of much reflection, is now offered for the consideration of those who may engage in preparing Genealogical Memoirs. ED.]

Explanation of the Plan.

As the plan laid down may not be apparent at first view, the following explanation may be deemed necessary. The Arabic numbers running through the whole Genealogy, are to show not only the number of every individual descended from the same ancestor, but by the aid of them, the connection of every person is seen at a glance, and the ancestors or descendants may be traced, backward or forward, with the greatest ease and facility. One number set under another, or two numbers set against the same individual, show, in all cases, that such individual has descendants, and the lower number indicates the place in the series where the descendants are to be found; remembering that the Roman numerals are only employed to show the number of children belonging to the same particular family. For example, (13) VIII. OLIVER,3 shows, that this person is No. 18 in the regular Arabic series, and that following (59), onward, his family will be found; the VIII is sufficiently obvious. The at the end of the name, denotes the individual to be of the 3rd generation from the first in the series, and so of all other numbers in a similar situation; i. e., all those placed like an exponent at the end of names, show the generation. All names of persons having descendants, are necessarily repeated, in their order, but are not renumbered. Thus JOHN3 (10) is repeated after 18, the (10) showing his original place in the series.

From what is said above it is thought the plan will be perfectly apparent on the most cursory perusal. The names of persons descended in the female line are printed in the ordinary Roman letter, to distinguish them from those of the male line, always printed in small capitals.

By this system of deducing or displaying descents, any corrections or additions may be made without disfiguring the appearance of the work, as for instance, (63) IV. SARAH, whose family is indicated to be given at (126); it will appear that other individuals were found belonging to her family after the work was made up, therefore a new entry is made of her at (164), and yet all is perfectly clear.

Although it is highly desirable, that individuals and families should succeed each other in the regular order of their generations, it is not always possible to make a genealogical memoir so; for it is apparent that in numerous instances, especially among the early families, we are obliged to pass over individuals, not knowing whether they had descendants; and when a long memoir is made up it is often found that many so passed over, had children. These therefore cannot have their proper place in the memoir without great labor, requiring a new draft of nearly the whole work. By the plan now presented we avoid the difficulty, in its most objectionable feature, by placing all such at the end of the memoir

whenever we find them, with the same numerical references, &c., as employed throughout. Thus, in the following genealogy we have several placed in this manner for illustration; as for example, (110) III. CHARLOTTE falls into the series, with her descendants at (174), while (83) I. EDWARDS does not fall in till (176), and so of a few others.

In preparing this memoir the reader must remember, that the author published it in 1828, and hence, that the present tense often used by him, has reference to the date of publication. We make this note to avoid too frequent interpolations in brackets. Mr. Farmer had printed in 1813, sundry Family Records of different branches of the family, and in 1824, he issued an Appendix to it. This with the other part made about 30 pages in 18mo. These contained a good deal not found in his last work. All three are here incorporated into a regular and continuous genealogy. The copies of the first two printed works which I have used, have many manuscript additions and corrections in the author's own hand. The title-page of the Memoir runs thus:

A GENEALOGICAL MEMOIR OF THE FAMILY BY THE NAME OF FARMER, WHO SETTLED AT BILLERICA, MS. HINGHAM, FARMER & BROWN, PRinters, 1823.

[The following Dedication is upon the back of the title-page.]

TO JEDIDIAH FARMER, The following Memoir of our Ancestors, collected from various authentic sources, and with considerable enquiry and investigation, is offered to you as a token of fraternal regard and affection, by your affectionate brother, JOHN FARMER.

Concord, N. H., January 28, 1828.

MEMOIR.

The surname of FARMER is one of considerable antiquity, and is one of those names derived from occupations or professions, which, next to local names, or those derived from the names of places, are the most numerous. * It comes from the Saxon term Fearme or Feorme, which signifies food or provision. † But. some think it derived from Firma, which signifies a place enclosed or shut in; and some contend for its French etymology from the word Ferme.

The FARMERS, so far as my researches will enable me to conjecture, were of Saxon origin, and, in the reign of Edward IV., King of England, were seated in Northamptonshire, where they remain to the present day. They resided at Easton-Neston about 1480. Anne, the daughter of Richard Farmer, Esq., of that place, married, before 1545, William Lucy, and their son, Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, knighted by Queen Elizabeth, in 1565, was the knight and magistrate whose name is associated with some of the early events of the life of Shakspeare. William Farmer, created Lord Leinster in 1692, the ancestor of the present earl of Pomfret, resided at Easton-Neston. Jasper Farmer, one of this family, is said to be the ancestor of the Farmers in the State of Pennsylvania.

From Northamptonshire they seem to have spread over several of the contiguous counties before the middle of the sixteenth century; being found in Leicestershire as early as 1490, in Warwickshire in 1545, and in Shropshire at nearly the same period.

Sir William Dugdale, in his Antiquities of Warwickshire, mentions Richard Farmer and his wife, and John their son, and Maud his wife,

* See Camden's Remains, 4to, London, 1603.

† Skinner's Etymologicon Linguæ Anglicana. Spelman's Glossarium Archæologicum.

to whom, and the heirs male of the said John, the place or parish of Merston-Boteler in that county, was granted by the King's Letters Patent, dated November 23, 1545. He also names Rev. Thomas Farmer, minister of the parish of Austrey in 1542, and Rev. John Farmer, incumbent of the church in Bagington, 1552, and Rev. Richard, of the parish of Ashowe.

R. Farmer, Esq., of Kennington Common, near London, informs me, that his ancestors as far back as he had been able to trace them, belonged to Oldbury, near Bridgenorth, in Shropshire, and that their names were Edward. Thomas Farmer, Esq., one of the Managers of the British and Foreign Bible Society, is of this family. Rev. Hugh Farmer, the learned author of the Dissertation on Miracles, and other theological works, was of Shropshire, and was born at a place called Isle Gate, belonging to a small hamlet almost surrounded by the river Severn, a few miles from Shrewsbury.†

The branch of the family traced in the following pages was formerly seated in Leicestershire, on the borders of Warwickshire; and, about 1500, were living in the village of Ratcliffe-Cuiley, near Witherly. Of those who resided there at that period, I am unable to speak with any degree of certainty, having the advantage of no records, or family memorials. The late Rev. Richard Farmer, D. D., of Cambridge, England, made some collections of a genealogical nature, and from these it would seem, that the most remote ancestor, whom he had traced, was EDWARD, who is mentioned by Anthony Wood in his Athenæ Oxonienses, and in his Fasti Oxonienses, as being the Chancellor of the Cathedral church in Salisbury, in 1531; which office he sustained until his death in 1538.

JOHN FARMER is the next ancestor of whom I have any account, and of whom I have nothing more than the fact found among Rev. Dr. Farmer's MSS., that he was living at Ansley in Warwickshire in 1604. Between him and Edward of Salisbury, there were probably two or three generations, whose names cannot be given with much confidence, although it is presumed from Guillim's Heraldry, that the name of one was Bartholomew.

There has been a considerable number of the name in England, and several of them of the Warwickshire branch of the family, who have been employed in public life, or have been known by their writings. The following list of them has been collected from various

Sources:

ANTHONY, who was appointed in 1687, by James II., President of Magdalen College; but, being a papist, and there being other objections against his character, he was superseded by Bishop Parker.

EDWARD. "In the year 1529, in the beginning of February, Edward Lee became Chancellor of the church of Salisbury by the resignation of Thomas Winter, and was succeeded in that dignity by EDWARD FARMER, in December, 1531."§

GEORGE, Esq., who was Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas in 1663. ||

*MS. Letter. See Appendix.

† Dodson's Memoirs.

Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ii. 618.-Burnet's Own Times, ii. 699.-Salmon's Geog. Gram.Hume-Goldsmith, &c.

Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses.

Gillim's Heraldry, 310.

HATTON, Who was Major of Prince Charles' regiment, and was killed by Culham Bridge, near Abingdon, Jan. 11, 1645.*

HUGH, already mentioned, who was born 1714, died 1787, a. 73. Memoirs of his Life and Writings were published in 1805, by Michael Dodson, Esq., London, in an octavo volume of 160 pages.

JACOB, who published a "True Relation of the State of Ireland," London, 1642, octavo.

JAMES, who was minister of Leire, in Leicestershire, and was ejected in 1660.†

JOHN, who was a madrigaller, and who published a work noticed by Dr. Rees, issued in 1591, London, octavo.

JOHN, Esq., who was Governor of the island of Barbadoes.‡

JOHN, who was a clergyman, and published twenty sermons. London, 1744, octavo.

JOHN, who published the "History of the Town and Abbey of Waltham in Essex, England." London, 1735, octavo.

JOHN, who was a surgeon, and published "Select Cases in Surgery, collected in St. Bartholomew's Hospital." 1757, in quarto.

PRISCILLA, whose Life was published in 1796, by her grand-son, Charles Lloyd.§

RICHARD, who was a Baptist minister, and who is noticed by Neal in his History of the Puritans.

RICHARD, who published a sermon on Luke xxi: 34. London, 1629, quarto.

RICHARD, D. D., who published "An Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare." London, 1766.

RALPH, who was minister of St. Nicholas in Somersetshire, and was ejected in 1660. He published the "Mysteries of Godliness and Ungodliness, discovered from the writings of the Quakers." London, 1655, quarto. Il

S, Esq., who was a member of Parliament, 1818.¶

THOMAS, who was born August 20, 1771, nephew of Dr. Richard, Rector of Aspley-Guise in Bedfordshire.

THOMAS, who was a printer, and published a work called "Plain Truth, &c." London, 1763, quarto.

WILLIAM, who wrote an Almanac for Ireland, printed at Dublin, 1587, supposed to have been the first printed in that country.**

WILLIAM, of Magdalen College, who was a Baronet, and was created Master of Arts in 1667.it

[Thus far we have but the links of a broken chain, which must necessarily be the results usually of attempts of this nature. What follows is without any lost link between those named and a common ancestor.]

(1) JOHN,' of Ansley, who m. Isabella Barbage of Great Packington, in Warwickshire, is the first ancestor of whom I have the means of giving any account, supported by original documents and family memorials in my possession. Ansley, the place of his residence, is a small village in the northerly part of the county of Warwick, situated

Guillim's Heraldry. 186. † Calamy, Ejected Ministers, ii. 437. Douglass' Summary, i. 135.

See Monthly Review.

Calamy, ii 609.

London Magazine, xli. 269. ** Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica. tt Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses.

(2) I. (9)

(3) II.

(4) III. (10)

about ten miles from the city of Coventry, four from Atherstone, which borders on Leicestershire, and five from Nuneaton, a considerable market town, and has a popu lation of 541. In this place, and near Ansley Hall,* the seat of the Ludfords, he owned houses and lands, which passed to his posterity through several generations, and may still be owned by his descendants. Of his family I have procured some facts, which will be given. He died before the year 1669, and Isabella, his widow, came with some of her children to New England, a few years after this period, and m. Elder Thomas Wiswall of Cambridge Village, now Newton, who d. Dec. 6, 1683. She d. at Billerica, May 21, 1686, at an advanced age.

The children of this John Farmer were, JOHN2 of Ansley, who had the paternal estate. He d. before 1700, and his widow m. Richard Lucas of Ansley. MARY, who m. William Pollard of the city of Coventry, and d. before 1701. Their eldest son, Thomas, came to New England, m. Sarah Farmer, his cousin, settled in Billerica, d. April 4, 1724, leaving 10 sons. EDWARD, who was b. about 1640, (probably the second son,) m. Mary who was b. about 1641. He came to New England between 1670 and 1673,† fixed his residence at Billerica, and was admitted to town rights and privileges in that place, Jan. 11, 1673. He afterwards lived a year or two at Woburn, and one of his children was born there. In Billerica he was chosen to several of the most important town offices, and was employed in public service, until he was quite advanced in life. He had 8 children, 4 sons and 4 daughters. To his youngest son, Oliver, he gave the farm on which he resided, which is still in possession of one of his descendants. On this farm have resided 6 successive generations, in the space of 154 years. He died at Billerica, May 27,1727, a. about 87. Mary his wife d. March 26, 1716, a. 77. The male descendants of Edward Farmer, of the patronymic name, have nearly all been agriculturists, and no one among them has attained any considerable civil or literary distinction. In the female line of descent there have been several of liberal education, and others who have been honored with civil office.

The house of EDWARD FARMER, (which stood until after 1728,) was fortified as a garrison for a number of years. While occupied as such, the following incident

At this place is the Hermitage, in which is the well known inscription written by Thomas Warton, D. D., beginning with,

"Beneath this stony roof reclined,

I soothe to peace my pensive mind."

From a deposition, taken July 21, 1691, before Richard Hopkins, relating to the last will and testament of Mr. John Farmer of Ansley, signed by EDWARD FARMER, Son of the said John, it appears that EDWARD, the deponent, was an inhabitant of Ansley at that time. It is, however, evident, that within a few years after, he had become settled in New England. The birth of his eldest son, in 1671, is inserted in the Records of Billerica, although it is doubtful whether he settled there before 1673.