Family and Education

b. c.1609, 1st s. of Thomas Farrington of Chichester by Dorothy, da. of Henry Payne of Chichester. educ. Brasenose, Oxf. matric. 30 June 1626, aged 17; G. Inn 1633. m. lic. 9 June 1638, Anne, da. of John May of Rawmere, 2s. 3da. suc. fa. 1654.1

Offices Held

J.p. Suss. July 1660-80; commr. for sewers W. Suss. Oct. 1660, assessment, Suss. 1661-4, 1679-d., Chichester 1663-4; sheriff, Suss. 1666-7.2

Biography

Farrington was descended from a Lancashire family that had been settled for three generations in Chichester, where his father was four times mayor. He took no known part in the Civil War, but led an attempt to rescue three Royalists in the city in 1647. An antiquary and a friend of Selden, he was involved in a double return for Chichester at the general election of 1660 but was seated on the merits of the election. He was appointed to no committees and did not speak. He is not known to have stood in 1661, but later in the year obtained a letter from the King to one of the prebendaries, desiring that two leases should be renewed to him on the grounds of his constant loyalty. But he opposed the courtier Baptist May at the Midhurst by-election of 1670, though they were closely connected by marriage. A strong Protestant, he was noted for his severities during the Popish Plot hysteria, which earned him an unopposed return for Chichester at the second general election of 1679, and removal from the commission of the peace. He was appointed to the committee of elections and privileges in the second Exclusion Parliament, but was given leave to go into the country for his health on 1 Dec. 1680, and was buried at St. Peter the Great, Chichester on 18 Dec. He died intestate.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / B. M. Crook

Notes

• 1. Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. lxxxix), 44.
• 2. C181/7/58.
• 3. VCH Suss. iii. 88; Stanford, Suss. in the Gt. Civil War, 127; CSP Dom. 1661-2, p. 135; Bodl. Tanner 149, f. 23; Wood, Athenae, iii. 1274; Add. 5699, f. 181v.