Anthony Farmer (born 1657Jerome Bertram
‘Farmer, Anthony (b. 1657)’
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, 2004, accessed 7 September 2008) was an

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nominated by King James II to the office of President of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1687.

Life

Farmer was admitted to St John's College, Cambridge, in 1672, and migrated to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, in 1675. After he volunteered for the king's cause in the Monmouth Rebellion, James II nominated him for the Magdalen Presidency in his mandate of 5 April 1687. As Farmer was not a member of the college, and was widely believed to be a secret

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, his appointment was rejected by the Fellows of the College.Macaulay, Thomas Babington, ''The History of England from the Accession of James II'', Vol II, p. 287 Farmer's appointment and subsequent rejection escalated tension between the King and the Anglican establishment, and was one event among many that led to the Glorious Revolution in 1688. Farmer was also said to be a lascivious drunk and womaniser who preferred to be down at the local taverns along the

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near

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than attending to academic duties. Quite apart from his political leanings, it was a bad character that most appalled the academics led by Dr Henry Fairfax, who chose Dr John Hough as President of the College, during the row at the Fifth Commission of Ecclesial Causes in 1687. By contrast, Hough was a weighty academic, an Anglican, and popular with the Fellows, who traditionally chose the new appointees. Hough was, moreover, an opponent of

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and absolutism. One of those providing evidence against Farmer was William Levett, Doctor of Divinity and Principal of

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, Oxford (and later

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). In his testimony against Farmer, Levett disparaged Farmer's character and temperament, which Levett said caused Farmer to withdraw from one college and be transferred to another. "Frequent complaints were brought to me by some of the masters," stated Levett, "that he raised quarrels and differences among them; that he often occasioned disturbances, and was of a troublesome and unpeaceable humour."A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors, Vol. XII, T.B. Howell, printed by T.C. Hansard, London, 1816
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Notes

1657 births Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford English Roman Catholics 17th-century English people 18th-century English people Year of death unknown {{England-bio-stub