A younger son of William and Mary Farmer, he was born on 20 January 1714 at the Isle Gate farm in a
Shropshire 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 then under
Charles Owen, at
Warrington. In 1731 he entered the
dissenting academy run by
Philip Doddridge at Northampton; to his tutor's preaching and his reading of the sermons of
Joseph Boyse he attributed his 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 congregation at
Walthamstow, founded by Samuel Slater, a minister ejected from
St. James's, Bury St Edmunds. He at first lodged in London, only five miles away, but was then received into the family of William Snell, a
chancery solicitor, and friend of Doddridge. Farmer made an 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 explained that he was not
Calvinistic enough for Taunton, the liberal element in the congregation having seceded with
Thomas Amory. At Walthamstow was
William Coward (died 1738), a benefactor to dissenting causes.
Thomas Belsham was invited to succeed him, but declined. Farmer then prepared his treatise on
Temptation of Christ (preface dated 23 June 1761). Soon afterwards he accepted the post of afternoon preacher at
Salters' Hall, vacated by the promotion of
Francis Spilsbury to the pastorate; this was a
presbyterian congregation, but Farmer never ceased to be an independent. Except for that of
James Fordyce of Monkwell Street, his was the largest afternoon congregation among the presbyterians of London. In 1762 he was elected a trustee of
Dr. Williams's foundations; he was also elected a trustee of the
Coward Trust. About the same time he was chosen one of the preachers at the "merchants' lecture" on Tuesday mornings at Salters' Hall. Farmer resigned his Sunday lectureship at Salters' Hall in 1772; he delivered the charge at the ordination of Thomas Tayler at Carter Lane in 1778, but declined to print it; he resigned the merchants' lectureship in 1780. At the same time he resigned the pastorate at Walthamstow, but continued to preach in the morning until a successor was appointed. In 1782 he resigned his place on the Coward Trust, but was re-elected later. His health was then failing, and he usually wintered at
Bath. He overcame two severe attacks of
kidney stone, but in 1785 was threatened with blindness (his father had been blind for six years before his death). An operation restored to him the use of his eyes, and his last days were devoted to study. He died on 5 February 1787, and was buried in the
parish churchyard at Walthamstow, in the same grave with his friend Snell. He never married. His elder brother, John, a strict Calvinist and a good scholar, became (30 December 1730) assistant to
Richard Rawlin at
Fetter Lane, and afterwards (28 March 1739) colleague with Edward Bentley at
Coggeshall, Essex; he published a volume of sermons (1756), and succeeded
Joseph Priestley at
Needham Market, Suffolk (1758). He became deranged; Hugh, with whom he was not on good terms, then covertly provided for his wants. ==Views==