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Worcester, and read it, to use his own language, "with more avidity than any girl ever read a novel."

"By law he derived his salary only from the fees paid by parties. These were not sufficient to pay his board when on his circuits. He made an arrangement at first for his landlord at Amherst, where he held one of his courts, to take the amount of his fees for his board, but after three terms his landlord declined to continue the arrangement. No lawyer practised in the court during the war, the two tories having either left the country or refusing to recognize the authority of the court, and the whig considering it not quite safe to appear there even under a protest. The court dealt out substantial justice between man and man without much regard to general rules or the establishment of a uniform and consistent system of jurisprudence. By the end of the war Judge Farrar had made himself as good a lawyer as any who were likely to practise in his court.

"In 1791 he was promoted to the Supreme Bench as associate Justice, and in 1802 was appointed Chief Justice, but he declined and procured the appointment and acceptance of Judge Smith who did so much to elevate the Judiciary of New Hampshire to the high standard it has since generally sustained.

"In 1816, at the age of 69, Judge Farrar retired from public life and has lived upon his farm in New Ipswich, till within a few years, when he went to reside with his daughter in Hollis, N. H. His descendants are not numerous, only fifteen being now alive, all but two of whom, with other members of the family were present on the occasion of his centennial anniversary. Judge Farrar formerly of Exeter, N. H., now of Boston, is a son, and Samuel Farrar, Esq. of Andover and Prof. John Farrar of Cambridge, are his nephews. He is a remarkable instance of the preservation of physical and mental vigor to so good an old age; no faculty having failed him except sight, and that but partially, for until about two years since he could read print of common type. To a good constitution, kept good by temperate habits, early rising, a practice still continued, riding on horse-back, and an equanimity as unvarying as the climate of Italy he owes the wholeness of body and mind that is the admiration of all who have seen him."

MEMOIR

OF THE

FARRAR FAMILY.

BY A MEMBER OF THE N. E. HIST. GEN. SOCIETY.

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THE name of Farrar is said to have been derived from the Latin and French word signifying Iron, and was, doubtless, first used to designate a locality, where that metal was found. As a family name, it was first known in England from Gualkeline or Walkeline de Ferrariis, a Norman of distinction, attached to William, Duke of Normandy, before the invasion of 1066. From him all of the name in England and America have descended. Henry de Ferrars, his son, is on the Roll of Battle Abbey, (a list of the principal commanders and companions in arms of William the Conqueror,) and was the first of the family who settled in England, which he did immediately after the Conquest. When the general survey of the realm, recorded in Domesday Book, was made by order of King William I. in the 14th year of his reign, this Henry de Ferrars was one of the Commissioners appointed for that great service. "That he was a person of much eminency, both for knowledge and integrity, there is no doubt; otherwise it is not likely he would have been entrusted in so high and weighty an employment." He bore for his arms, Argent, six horse shoes pierced, sable."-See 1, Sir Wm. Dugdale's Baronage-6, Collins' Peerage.

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Agreeable to the spirit of the times, the motto adopted in one branch of the family was, "In Ferrum pro libertate ruebant.”

The family afterwards became very numerous in England, and different branches of it were settled in many different counties. See Peckard's Life of Ferrar.

Great diversities are observed in spelling the name, both in this country and in England, by different branches of the family, and often by different individuals of the same branch, and not unfrequently at different times, by the same individual. The vowels are either or both of them sometimes changed to e, and the last to o. The final r is sometimes changed to h or w, followed by s, or even omitted. But in all these and other varieties of spelling, the Horse-Shoe, as the predominating emblem in the coat of arms, evinces the identity of the race. In this country, at the present time, the name is is most commonly spelt as at the head of this article. The several emigrants to this country during the early part of the 17th century, do not appear to have recognized any relationship, and it is not known that any two of them came from the same county in England.

I.

The first of the family, whose name is connected with this country, was NICHOLAS FERRAR, the East and West India merchant of London. He descended from the Yorkshire line of the family, and was a near relative of that pious and resolute martyr, Dr. Robert Farrar, Bishop of St. David's, who sealed the truth of the Protestant Religion with his blood, in the reign of Queen Mary, March 30, 1555.-See Fox's Acts and Monuments and Peckard's Life of Ferrar...

Nicholas was born in 1546, and, at the time of his death, April 1620, and for several years before, was a distinguished member of the Virginia Company, which held its Courts at his house. He married Mary Wodenoth, who survived him, and died at Little Gedding in Huntingtonshire, 1635. Their children were: Susannah, who married Thomas Collett, Esq. and had eighteen children; John, born 1590; Erasmus, born 1591; Nicholas, born Feb. 22, 1593; Richard, born 1596, and William, who went to Virginia. John and Nicholas, were successively Deputy Governors or Treasurers of the Virginia

Company, from 1618 till they lost their charter, under the arbitrary proceedings of King James, and while Sir Edwin Sandys and the Earl of Southampton were Governors. Nicholas was afterwards a member of Parliament in 1624, and soon after, with his mother, his brother John, his sister Collett and their families, went into religious retirement at Little Gedding; of which establishment Dr. Peckard, who married a descendant of the family, has given an interesting account in his Life of the younger Nicholas. See also 1 British Topography 437; Hearne's Caii Vindicia 702, 812; Christian Magazine, 1761; 4 Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography; 1 Bancroft's Hist. 220.

William was the only one of the sons who actually came to this country. He was a barrister, educated at one of the Inns of Court, and probably settled in Virginia before his father's death, for we learn from Smith's History of Virginia, vol. 2, p. 75, that at the great massacre of March 22, 1621, ten persons were killed at his house. When Sir John Yardely was appointed Governor of the Colony in 1625, and Sir John Harvey in 1627, William Farrar was named in the Commission as one of their Council.-1 Hazzard's Collections, 230, 234.

Robert Farrar came to Virginia in 1635.-N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg. vol. 3, p. 389. Many of the name and of high respectability are now in Virginia and the other Southern States.

II.

The first of the name found in New England was JOHN FARROW' of Hingham, Mass. He came from Hingham, in Norfolk County, England, with his wife Frances, and one child, in 1635. Most of the inhabitants of the town came from the same place, bringing with them their minister, and all their institutions. Mr. F. was the carpenter. Their children were: 1. Mary, born in England before 1635, married Samuel Stowell, Oct. 25, 1649; 2. John, born June 6, 1639, married 1st, Mary Hilliard, Aug. 14, 1664; 2d, Frances, Nov. 16, 1691; 3. Remember, baptized Aug. 1642, married Henry Ward, Feb. 1660; 4. Hannah, baptized April 9, 1648, marGarnet; 5. Nathan, born Sept. 17, 1654, married

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ried Johanna

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[See Lincoln's Hist. of Hingham.

JOHN,' died July 7, 1687, "very old." His will is dated March 28th, and proved August 17th, the same year. It was signed in his bed with "his mark," and mentions his wife and all his children except Hannah; also his grand-daughter Mary, wife of his grand-son, John Garnet, and his grandchildren, Frances and Nathan Ward. His wife survived him,

and died January 28, 1688.

Second Generation.

JOHN FARROW lived in Hingham; married 1st, Mary Hilliard, Aug. 14, 1664, who died Sept. 13, 1689, married 2d, Frances Nov. 16, 1691. He died Jan. 27, 1715-16. Children: 1. Mary, born Oct. 25, 1665, married ———— Beverly; 2. Hannah, born Dec. 8, 1667, married Joseph Joselin, of Abington, March 17, 1687; 3. Abigail, born Jan. 27. 1670, married Tower; 4. John, born Dec. 8, 1672, married Persis Holbrook, daughter of Capt. William H. of Scituate, 1696; 5. Easter, born June 28, 1675, m. Beal; 6. William, b. Nov. 17, 1677, married Patience, dau. of Ibrook Tower, Jan. 31, 1700-1, had dau. Patience Jan. 7, 1701-2; he died Dec. 23, 1702; 7. Priscilla, born 1679, unmarried in 1707; 8. Remember, born Feb. 3, 1682, married Terry ; 9. Sarah, born Aug. 29, 1685, married James Studley of Scituate, 1717.

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The will of John, dated Feb. 10, 1707-8, was proved April 9, 1716. It mentions his wife Frances, and all his children except Hannah and William, and gives legacics to his grand-daughter, Mary Joselin, who was born May 24, 1695, and to his grand-daughter, Patience Farrow.

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NATHAN FARRO,' married 1st, Mary Garnet, Dec. 5, 1683, who died Feb. 27, 1709-10; 2. Johanna, widow of Thomas Whiton, March 23, 1710-11. Children 1. Francis, born Dec. 16, 1684, died Jan. 29, 1688-9; 2. Christian born Oct. 13, 1686; 3. Jonathan, born June 20, 1689, married Johanna ; 4. Benjamin, born 1692, married Leah Whiton, Dec. 14, 1715, lived in Hingham and Scituate, 1720; 5. Nathan, born April 29, 1695. The wife and children are all named in the will, which is dated Oct. 7, 1715, and proved Oct. 14, 1718. The Inventory amounted to £129 11s. It appears by the town records that he died Oct. 18, 1715.

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