FARMER, he who tenants a farm, or is lessee thereof; and generally every lessee for life, years, or at will, is called farmer. As this word implies no mystery, except it be that of husbandry, husbandman is the proper addition for a farmer.

Farmer, Hugh, an English clergyman and a man of otters, belonging to the protestant nonconformists, was descended from people of respectability in North Wales, and first drew breath at Shrewsbury, in the year 1714. Dr Charles Owen was for some time his tutor; but previous-y to the period when he was under that master, he had been at a school in Llanegrin. His parents from the first having designed him for the ministry, he was in 1730 sent to prosecute his studies under Dr Doddridge at Northampton. Here, by the rectitude of his conduct and wonderful proficiency, he gained the esteem of that excellent person, who always spoke of him in the most respectful terms. Having completed his academical studies, Mr 31 1 ner be came the chaplain of William Coward, Esq. of althamstow, in the county of Essex, and was at the same time chosen minister of a dissenting congregation m that village. But notwithstanding the gratitude with '' nch Mr Coward deserves to be remembered by many θ r his charitable institutions, he had certain peculiarities 0 ^ em po r which rendered him a very disagreeable companion. His doors were shut at an uncommonly early hour of the night, and neither visitor nor resident could afterwards obtain admission. Mr Farmer having one evening been detained a little beyond that hour, found the doors shut against him, and was under the necessity of applying to a Mr William Snell, solicitor, a man of eminence, and possessed of many excellent qualifications. In the family of this gentleman he remained for about thirty years, living in the greatest friendship and intimacy. Here also he gradually prepared those valuable treatises^and dissertations which were afterwards given to the public, and which acquired him so much celebrity as a man of letters. He likewise continued to discharge the duties of his ministerial function to the people of Walthamstow.

When a day of thanksgiving was appointed for the suppression of the rebellion in 1745, Mr Farmer preached a sermon on that occasion, which was published the following year. His next work was of much greater importance, being entitled, An Inquiry into the Nature and Design of our Lord’s Temptation in the Wilderness. In this production it was the design of Mr Farmer to prove that the whole was transacted in vision, the different stages of which were intended to point out to him the difficulties and duties of his subsequent ministry. The originality of thought and profound erudition which this work displayed, soon obtained for it a very extensive circulation, and called forth the exertions of those who were of an opposite opinion. It received one reply under the title of Christ’s Temptations real Facts, which possessed considerable merit, but was much inferior to Mr Farmer’s in energy of expression, depth of thinking, and force of argument. But the most masterly, perhaps, of all Mr Farmer’s literary productions was his Dissertation on Miracles, designed to show that they are arguments of a divine interposition, and absolute proofs of the mission and doctrine of a prophet; a work which was first published in the year 1771. But as great talents are frequently envied, so this work of Mr Farmer was declared by some to have been chiefly borrowed from Lemoine’s treatise on the same subject; slander which he refuted in a very able and satisfactory manner. In the year 1775 he published his celebrated Essay on the Demoniacs of the New Testament, which may be considered as the completion of the design he had in view by his dissertation on miracles. The hypothesis which he adopted had formerly been defended with great ability by Mede, Sykes, Lardner, and others; but it was reserved for the critical acuteness of Mr Farmer to free it from those difficulties with which it was surrounded, and to place the subject in a much clearer light. His essay on demoniacs was successively attacked by Dr Worthington and Mr Fell, both of them men of considerable erudition, but much inferior in ability to their antagonist.

Mr Farmer having continued for several years the sole pastor of the congregation at Walthamstow, an able colleague was appointed him in 1761, in consequence of which he became the afternoon preacher to the congregation of Salter’s Hall, in the city of London, and soon afterwards the Tuesday lecturer at the same place. But he resigned his ministerial employments as he advanced in years, a circumstance which the people committed to his charge very much regretted. In the year 1785 an affection in his eyes nearly deprived him of sight, but by means of a surgical operation he was for some time enabled to resume his studies. Mortality is, however, the inevitable lot of all men, and in 1787 the growing infirmities of Mr Farmer brought him to the grave, in the seventy-third year of his age.

Farmer, Picliard, D. D. a scholar and critic of considerable eminence, was the son of a hosier at Leicester, at which place he was born in the year 1735. Here he [7:9:488]received the rudiments of his education, and afterwards became a student at Cambridge, and pensioner of Emanuel College. He was considered as a young man well acquainted with books, much esteemed among his friends, and looked upon as possessed of lively parts, even before he had acquired any extraordinary reputation as a scholar. He was made bachelor of arts in 1757, and master of arts in 1760. Several years after this period, having been for some time a curate, he took the degree of bachelor in divinity, and became a preacher at Whitehall. Besides the attention he paid to the Greek and Roman authors, he prosecuted the study of books in his own language, printed in black letter, and thus laid the foundation of a work which added more to his literary reputation than any other performance. This was an Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare, which he published in 1766. Men of letters had long turned their attention to the learning of Shakspeare, in order to ascertain its real extent. It could not be questioned that he was acquainted with the history and mythology of the ancients, but it was still a matter of dispute from what sources that acquaintance had been derived. To obviate this difficulty, Mr Farmer’s knowledge of books enabled him to demonstrate, that translations of the far greater part of the classical authors were to be met with in the time of our distinguished dramatist; and as he showed that Shakspeare had even copied the blunders and errors of these translations, he made it manifest beyond the possibility of a rational doubt, that he was wholly incapable of consulting the originals. This essay passed through three editions in a very short time, and was much admired for the sprightliness of its composition, whilst the readers of it were in general persuaded that he had fully established his point This performance brought him into notice, and became extremely favourable to his professional advancement. By the influence of Bishop Hurd, he procured the chancellorship and a prebend in the cathedral of Lichfield; and in 1775 he was elected master of Emanuel College, and took the degree of doctor in divinity. He was soon afterwards appointed principal librarian to the university, and served in turn the office of vice-chancellor. He was made prebendary of Canterbury by Lord North, at that time prime minister, and Mr Pitt twice offered him a bishopric; but the constraints and solemnity of the episcopal character were not congenial to his natural temper, on which account he declined the offer, and having resigned his office as prebendary, he accepted of a residentiaryship of St Paul’s. This obliged him to reside three months annually in London, which he spent with equal pleasure and advantage in the society of literary men. From nature z he inherited a fund of good humour, and was of such an obliging turn, that he buried party spirit in the satisfaction which he found in the performance of beneficent actions. Though in general an enemy to reforms of every kind, and anxious to preserve things as they were, both in church and state, he was nevertheless instrumental in amending the police of Cambridge, especially as it related to the paving and lighting of the streets. At his instigation also, monumental sculpture was admitted into the cathedral of St Paul’s, and will continue to exhibit a striking proof of national gratitude, as well as serve to cover the nakedness of the walls.It was at one time the intention of Dr Farmer to publish a history of the town and antiquities of Leicester; but either his independent circumstances, or a degree of native indolence, made him relinquish the design, and the few materials which he had collected were therefore <nven to Mr John Nichols, at that time engaged in an elaborate work on the same subject. After a painful illness of some length, Dr Farmer died at Emanuel College in the month of September 1797, in the sixty-second year of his age. Dr Parr wrote an epitaph for his tombstone, in which we find the following testimony to his worth: Vir faceiu s e ţ dulcis, festique sermonis, Greece et Latine doctus, in expli. canda veterum Anglorum poesi subtilis et elegans.