Family and Education

b. c.1644, 2nd s. of John Farrington. m. (1) lic. 28 Feb. 1671, aged 27, Elizabeth, da. of William Marlott of Itchingfield, 3s. d.v.p.; (2) lic. 24 May 1687, Elizabeth, da. and h. of John Peachey of Eartham, s.p. cr. Bt. 17 Dec. 1697.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Suss. 1679-80, 1690, inquiry into recusancy fines 1687, j.p. May 1688-?d., sheriff 1696-7; capt. of militia ft. Chichester by 1697-d.2

Biography

Although a younger son, Farrington seems to have inherited considerable property in and around Chichester, perhaps because his elder brother (knighted in 1681) was loyal to the Court. He himself adhered to the country party like his father, whom he succeeded as Member for the city, and he was described by the Presbyterian Morrice as a ‘fanatic’, like his colleague John Braman, who was also his first wife’s step-father. He left no trace on the records of the second and third Exclusion Parliaments, but was recommended for re-election by the local Whigs. His house was searched for arms without result in November 1681. He was also suspected, with better cause, of allowing the house to be used for a conventicle. When an informer was set upon and killed by his coachman Davis in 1682, Farrington was tried for murder on his own brother’s information, but acquitted, despite the efforts of Jeffreys for the prosecution. With Braman, he organized the welcome for the Duke of Monmouth on his visit to Chichester in February 1683, and his house was again searched. In 1684 Davis was condemned for highway robbery in Hampshire, but despite several reprieves seems to have confessed nothing material against his former master before the fact.3

Farrington was arrested on the eve of Monmouth’s invasion in 1685, but no proceedings followed. He probably became a Whig collaborator, and the King’s electoral agents expected him to be elected for Chichester in 1688. But he did not regain his seat for another ten years, and held it only intermittently. He continued to vote consistently with the Whigs till his death on 7 Aug. 1719.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: B. M. Crook

Notes

• 1. Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. lxxxix) 44; J. Comber, Suss. Genealogies, Horsham, 220; PCC 7, 183 Browning.
• 2. Cal. Treas. Bks. viii. 1696; Eg. 1626, f. 41.
• 3. R. Morrice, Entering Bk. 1, pp. 424-5; 2, pp. 20, 28, 49, 52; CSP Dom. 1680-1, pp. 472, 473, 585; 1682, p. 545; Jan.-June 1683, pp. 58, 70, 358; 1683-4, pp. 303, 314; Luttrell, i. 228, 230, 237.
• 4. CSP Dom. 1685, p. 157; D. R. Lacey, Dissent and Parl. Pols. 394.