Of the Thomas Richards alias Fermor family connections to Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, one may be composer and musician, John Farmer.[1]
Although his pedigree is unknown, John may have been descended from Thomas Richards alias Fermor,[2] with a 27 March 1584 entry in the register of Merton College for a “John Farmer, Leic[estershire], [from] a gen[erous] f[amily], [age]18.”[3] John was still “in youth,” according to a eulogistic poem in Divers and Sundry Ways of Two Parts in one … upon one Plainsong, a collection of canons printed in 1591 and, like all of his canons, dedicated to “very good Lord and Master, Edward Devere Earle of Oxenford… [and his] judgement in Musicke.” The works consist of a series of examples of three-part counterpoint in different orders and seems to have attained considerable success.
Before Bevin’s time the precepts for the composition of Canon were known to few. Tallis, Bird, Waterhouse, and Farmer were eminently skilled in this more abstruse part of musical practice.[4]
The following year, John was a major contributor to Thomas East’s The Whole Book of Psalms. He not only set all the canticles and hymns – twelve in number – he set five of the psalms to tune in which the melody, generally the tenor but as this tune was set for two trebles, counter-tenor, and bass, was given to the counter-tenor immediately above the bass. English music historian, composer, and musician Charles Burney (1726-1814) speaking of these settings says,
The counterpoint is constantly simple, of note against note, but in such correct and excellent harmony as manifests the art to have been very successfully cultivated in England at that time.[5]
By February 1595 Farmer was in Dublin, having been appointed organist and master of the choristers at Christ Church Cathedral, succeeding Thomas Bateson, until 10 August 1596 when he became their vicar-choral. An unauthorized absence led to a reprimand in 1597, and he was ordered to return by 01 August on pain of dismissal.
1595. Feb. 10.— Yt ls ordered ye said daie by the Deane and Chapter that Mr. John Fermer shall have as Mr. of the children & organist for this yeare flfteene pounds Currant money of England ffrom Candelmas daie last (vizt.) of the Vicars 10s. and of Mr. Deane 20s. and of every Dignitie 10s. ster. and the rest the Proctor of the Church is to make upp.
1590. Aug. 10.— The said daie Robert Jordan resigned his Viccars Rownie in the Chapter house, and the same daie John Farmer was sworn Viccar Corrall in his place.
1597. July 18.— It is ordered that if Mr. John Fermer doe not return by the first of August 1597 that then all Excuses sett apart; — His place to bee voyd in this Church for depting the land without lycence.[6]
In 1598 he was presented to the living of Kilsheelan, partly in County Tipperary and partly County Waterford, although it is speculated he probably appointed a deputy to act on his behalf. By early 1599, when his The First Set of English Madrigals to Four Voices was published, he had moved to Broad Street, London. The collection consists of seventeen madrigals, sixteen of which are for four voices, and the seventeenth for eight voices. In the address, John claims to have…
…fitly linkt Musicke to Number, as each give to other their true effect, which is to make delight, a virtue so singular in the Italians, as under that ensign only they hazard their honour.[7]
One of the madrigals was titled Fair Phyllis I Saw Sitting All Alone, containing four voices and alternates between double and triple beat subdivisions.
Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone
Feeding her flock near to the mountain side.
The shepherds knew not,
they knew not whither she was gone,
But after her lover Amyntas hied,
Up and down he wandered
whilst she was missing;
When he found her,
O then they fell a-kissing
Another madrigal is the four-part mixed chorus titled You Pretty Flowers.
You pretty flowers that smile for summer’s sake,
pull in your heads before my wat’ry eyes
do turn the meadows to a standing lake,
by whose untimely floods your glory dies,
for lo, my heart resolved to moist’ning air,
feeding mine eyes, redoubles tear for tear.
Among the titles of other madrigals he wrote include, A Pretty Little Bonny lass and Take Time While Time Doth Last.
A pretty little bonny lass:
A little pretty bonny lass was walking
In midst of May before the sun ‘gan rise.
I took her by the hand and fell to talking
Of this and that, as best I could devise.
I swore I would, yet still she said I should not
Do what I would, and yet for all I could not.
Take time, while time doth last:
Take time, while time doth last,
Mark how fair fadeth fast,
beware if envy reign:
take heed of proud disdain;
hold fast, now in thy youth,
regard thy vowed truth;
lest when thou waxeth old,
friends fail and love grow cold.
In 1601 he contributed the madrigal “Fair Nymphs I Heard One Telling” to the collection The Triumphs of Oriana in honor of Queen Elizabeth.
Fair nymphs, I heard one telling,
Diana’s train are hunting in this chase.
to beautify the place,
The fawns are running,
The shepherds their pipes tuning,
To show their cunning.
The lambs amazed leave off their grazing,
And blind their eyes with gazing,
Whilst the earth’s goddess doth draw near your places,
Attended by the Muses and the Graces.
Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana
Long live fair Oriana.
Philip Farmer is the author and publisher of “Thomas Fermor and the Sons of Witney” tracing the family history from 1420 to 1685, and “Edward Farmar and the Sons of Whitemarsh” following their 1685 arrival from Ireland into Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Harlan County, Kentucky.
[1] Compiled and edited from “Thomas Fermor and the Sons of Witney” with other primary publications: 1) Brown et al, British Musical Biography (1897), p.142; and 2) Dix, “John Farmer,” Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol.2 (1906), pp.11-12.
[2] If John Farmer is a descendant of Thomas Richards alias Fermor, it is most likely he would be the son of {7} Richard Farmer, member of the Mercers Company of London, the son of John Farmer, the son of Alice ___ and Thomas Richards alias Fermor. See also Farmer, “Thomas Farmer, Jamestown Adventurer: His History, Descendants, & Ancestors,” Pioneers along Southern Trails, vol.3 (December 2009), p.6.
[3] Clark, Register of the University of Oxford, vol.2 pt.2 (1887), p.134; Ludwig, “John Farmer’s Sundry Waies: The English Origin of Michael Maier’s ‘Alchemical Fugues’,” Furnace and Fugue: A Digital Edition of Michael Maier’s “Atalanta fugiens” (1618) with Scholarly Commentary. 2020.
[4] Dix, “John Farmer,” Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol.2 (1906), p.11.
[5] Dix, “John Farmer,” Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol.2 (1906), p.12.
[6] Dix, “John Farmer,” Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol.2 (1906), p.12.
[7] Dix, “John Farmer,” Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol.2 (1906), p.11.
