In 1685, Major Jasper Farmar’s son, Samuel, remained in Ireland while the family moved to Pennsylvania. He would soon follow…
In an earlier blog, we explored whether Major Jasper Farmar’s son, Richard, made the trip to Pennsylvania in 1685. After examining the land deeds and other resources, Richard either remained or returned to Ireland soon after voyaging with his family. Burke’s Landed Gentry states that Richard…
“was obliged to leave Ireland in 1689, and retired with his family to Taunton Deane, in Somersetshire. He returned to Ireland in 1691…”[1]
We do know Richard’s brother, Samuel Farmar, after signing his name to his father’s will, remained in Ireland. Samuel, who was born about 1657, was a Major in the British Army who had married Lucy Wakeham in 1683.
Like his brother, the political shift in Ireland would cause Major Samuel to leave Ireland in March 1689.
On 23 April 1685, King James II[2] was coronated at Westminster Abbey. Soon his nephew, the Duke of Monmouth, led a rebellion in southern England that was easily defeated. As a result, many of the rebels were executed or condemned to indentured servitude in the West Indies, including the names of several Farmers.
As a Catholic, James passed several acts and appointed persons to office which caused him to lose favor with his Protestant subjects, including Major Samuel.
One such appointment on 05 April 1687 forced the Protestant Fellows of Magdalen College in Oxford to elect Anthony Farmer as the president in violation of their right to elect someone of their choice. Farmer was said to be a lewd womanizer and a drunk who frequented the local taverns along the River Thames and “did very often come into the college late at night, so much in drink, that he could scarce go or speak.” Other testimony stated he enticed others into “several debaucheries, both at taverns and bawdy-houses” than attending to academic duties. One witness claimed that Farmer received money to “publicly expose unto him a naked woman…”
One of those providing evidence against Farmer was William Levett, Doctor of Divinity and Principal of Magdalen Hall, whose testimony also disparaged Farmer’s character and temperament.
“Frequent complaints were brought to me by some of the masters that he raised quarrels and differences among them; that he often occasioned disturbances, and was of a troublesome and unpeaceable humour…”[3]
Anthony Farmer’s appointment and subsequent rejection escalated tension between James and the Anglican establishment, and was one of many events that led to the Glorious Revolution in 1688.
On 30 June 1688, a group of seven Protestant nobles invited William, Prince of Orange and James’ nephew, to come to England with an army. William arrived on 05 November 1688 with 18,000 troops and James was captured while trying to flee to France. William allowed James to escape on 23 December where he was received by James’ cousin, King Louis IV of France. By fleeing, Parliament declared that James had abdicated the throne and declared James’ daughter Anne as queen. Likewise, the Parliament of Scotland also declared on 11 April 1689 that James had forfeited the throne.
With the help of French troops, James landed in Ireland in March 1689, where James was still considered king. It was also where he was in favor of the predominantly Roman Catholic citizens who supported the Stuart monarchy during the wars throughout the 1640’s. They were the same wars in which Major Samuel’s father, Major Jasper Farmar, served and subsequently lost a portion of his land.
William counterattacked with English, Scottish, Dutch, and Danish troops to defeat James at the Battle of the Boyne on 01 July 1690, where James fled back to France. In late 1690, William’s forces occupied the ports of Cork and Kinsale during the First Siege of Limerick. After the Second Siege of Limerick and the subsequent Treaty of Limerick signed on 03 October 1691, Major Samuel’s brother, Richard, returned from England to his estates in Ireland.
Major Samuel immigrated to America where he purchased several large and valuable estates in Virginia[4]. He married again in 1704 to Mary Wilkinson, daughter of Cuthbert Wilkinson, Esq.
From the marriage of Major Samuel and Mary came the following children:
Samuel Farmar, “Merchant of Norfolk” (1707-1780)
Dr. Richard Farmar (1709-1791)
Robert Farmar (1711-1758). Robert was an officer in the Royal Navy and was killed in action off Dunkirk on board the Augusta.[5]
According to Burke’s Landed Gentry…
“Samuel, major in the army, who purchased several valuable estates in Virginia, which were lost by his children, in consequence of their adherence to the royal cause in the American war.”[6]
The estates were lost by his children? To be continued…
Philip Farmer is the author and publisher of “Edward Farmar and the Sons of Whitemarsh,” a 500-page, 155-year biographical history of the Farmer family’s immigration from Ireland into Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Harlan County, Kentucky.
“Very well written and researched…”
Ms. L. King
“I love your work… Very interesting!“
Ms. B. H. Baker
“Amazing research!“
Ms. J. Shipley
[1] Burke, Sir John Bernard. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland (1858), p.368.
[2] James was the Duke of York and the proprietor of New York when William Penn was made proprietor of Pennsylvania.
[3] Howell, T.B. A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors, vol. 12 (1816), p.13.
[4] Burke, Landed Gentry in Ireland, p.217; Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland (1858), p.368.
[5] Cook, Lewis D. “Farmar of Ardevalaine, County Tipperary, Ireland and of Whitemarsh, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.” The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, vol. 21, no. 2 (1959) p.108-109..
[6] Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland (1858), p.368.