Thomas Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer

The Right Honourable
The Lord Farrer
The Right Honourable The Lord Farrer
Personal details
Born	24 June 1819; London, England
Died	11 October 1899 (aged 80); Abinger Hall, Abinger Hammer, Surrey
Political party	Liberal Party
Spouse	Elizabeth Butcher (died 1908)
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge

Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer (24 June 1819 – 11 October 1899), was an English civil servant and statistician.

Background and early life[edit]

Farrer was the son of Thomas Farrer, a solicitor in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Born in London, he was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1840. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1844, but retired from practice in the course of a few years.^[1]

Career in the civil service[edit]

He entered the public service in 1850 as secretary to the naval department (renamed the marine department in 1853) of the Board of Trade. In 1865 he was promoted to be one of the joint secretaries of the Board of Trade, and in 1867 became permanent secretary.^[1]

His tenure of the office of permanent secretary, which he held for upwards of twenty years, was marked by many reforms and an energetic administration. Not only was he an advanced Liberal in politics, but an uncompromising advocate of free trade of the strictest school. He was created a baronet for his services at the Board of Trade in 1883,^[2] and in 1886 he retired from office. During the same year he published a work entitled Free Trade versus Fair Trade, in which he dealt with an economic controversy then greatly agitating the public mind. He had already, in 1883, written a volume on The State in its Relation to Trade.^[1]

In 1889 he was co-opted by the Progressives as an alderman of the London County Council, of which he became vice-chairman in 1890. His efficiency and ability in this capacity were warmly recognized; but in the course of time divergences arose between his personal views and those of many of his colleagues. The tendency towards socialistic legislation which became apparent was quite at variance with his principles of individual enterprise and responsibility. He consequently resigned his position.^[1]

In the 1893 Birthday Honours, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Farrer, of Abinger, in the County of Surrey.^[3] From this time forward he devoted much of his energy and leisure to advocating his views at the Cobden Club, the Political Economy Club, on the platform, and in the press. His efforts were especially directed against the opinions of the Fair Trade League, and upon this and other economic controversies he wrote able, clear, and uncompromising letters, which left no doubt that he still adhered to the doctrines of free trade as advocated by its earliest exponents. In 1898 he published his Studies in Currency.^[1]

He was President of the Royal Statistical Society from 1894 to 1896.^[4]

Marriage and issue[edit]

Farrer married twice, first in 1854 to Frances Erskine (1825–1870), daughter of the historian and orientalist William Erskine (1773–1852) and his wife, Maitland Mackintosh, daughter of Sir James Mackintosh by his first wife. They bore the following children:

Hon. Emma Cecilia "Ida" Farrer (1854–1946), married Horace Darwin, son of Charles Darwin
Hon. Thomas Cecil Farrer (1859–1940), married Evelyn Spring Rice, daughter of Hon. Charles Spring Rice
Claude Erskine Farrer (1862–1890)^[5]
Hon. Noel Maitland Farrer (1867–1929)

Frances died on 15 May 1870. Farrer remarried in 1873 to his former wife's half-cousin, Katherine Euphemia Wedgwood (1839–1931), daughter of Hensleigh Wedgwood of the Wedgwood pottery family and his wife Fanny Mackintosh.

Death[edit]

Farrer died at Abinger Hall, Dorking, in 1899 and was buried at Brookwood Cemetery. He was succeeded in the title by his eldest son Thomas Cecil Farrer (1859–1940).^[1]

References[edit]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Farrer, Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st Baron". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 189.
^ "No. 25278". The London Gazette. 16 October 1883. p. 4917.
^ "No. 26415". The London Gazette. 23 June 1893. p. 3570.
^ "Royal Statistical Society Presidents". Royal Statistical Society. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
^ "Claude Erskine Farrer (FRR882CE)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

External links[edit]

Party political offices
New political party	Leader of the Progressive Party 1889–1890	Succeeded by James Stuart
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron Farrer 1893–1899	Succeeded by Thomas Farrer
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baronet (of Abinger) 1883–1899	Succeeded by Thomas Farrer

[EB1911-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Farrer, Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st Baron". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 189.

[2] "No. 25278". The London Gazette. 16 October 1883. p. 4917.

[3] "No. 26415". The London Gazette. 23 June 1893. p. 3570.

[4] "Royal Statistical Society Presidents". Royal Statistical Society. Retrieved 6 August 2010.

[5] "Claude Erskine Farrer (FRR882CE)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

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v t e Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society
19th century	1834–1836 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1836–1838 Sir Charles Lemon, Bt 1838–1840 The Earl FitzWilliam 1840–1842 Viscount Sandon 1842–1843 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1843–1845 Lord Ashley 1845–1847 The Lord Monteagle of Brandon 1847–1849 The Earl FitzWilliam 1849–1851 The Earl of Harrowby 1851–1853 The Lord Overstone 1853–1855 The Earl FitzWilliam 1855–1857 The Earl of Harrowby 1857–1859 Lord Stanley 1859–1861 Lord John Russell 1861–1863 Sir John Pakington, Bt 1863–1865 William Henry Sykes 1865–1867 The Lord Houghton 1867–1869 William Ewart Gladstone 1869–1871 William Newmarch 1871–1873 William Farr 1873–1875 William Guy 1875–1877 James Heywood 1877–1879 George Shaw-Lefevre 1879–1880 Thomas Brassey 1880–1882 James Caird 1882–1884 Robert Giffen 1884–1886 Rawson W. Rawson 1886–1888 George Goschen 1888–1890 Thomas Graham Balfour 1890–1892 Frederic J. Mouat 1892–1894 Charles Booth 1894–1896 The Lord Farrer 1896–1897 John Biddulph Martin 1897 Alfred Edmund Bateman 1897–1899 Leonard Courtney 1899–1900 Henry Fowler 1900–1902 The Lord Avebury
20th century	1902–1904 Patrick George Craigie 1904–1905 Sir Francis Powell, Bt 1905–1906 The Earl of Onslow 1906–1907 Richard Martin 1907–1909 Sir Charles Dilke, Bt 1909–1910 Jervoise Athelstane Baines 1910–1912 Lord George Hamilton 1912–1914 Francis Ysidro Edgeworth 1914–1915 The Lord Welby 1915–1916 Lord George Hamilton 1916–1918 Bernard Mallet, Registrar General 1918–1920 Herbert Samuel 1920–1922 R. Henry Rew 1922–1924 The Lord Emmott 1924–1926 Udny Yule 1926–1928 The Viscount D'Abernon 1928–1930 A. William Flux 1930–1932 Sir Josiah Stamp 1932–1934 The Lord Meston 1934–1936 Major Greenwood 1936–1938 The Lord Kennet 1938–1940 Arthur Lyon Bowley 1940–1941 Henry William Macrosty 1941 Hector Leak 1941–1943 William Beveridge 1943–1945 Ernest Charles Snow 1945–1947 The Lord Woolton 1947–1949 David Heron 1949–1950 Sir Geoffrey Heyworth 1950–1952 Austin Bradford Hill 1952–1954 Ronald Fisher 1954–1955 The Lord Piercy 1955–1957 Egon Pearson 1957–1959 Harry Campion 1959–1960 Hugh Beaver 1960–1962 Maurice Kendall 1962–1964 Joseph Oscar Irwin 1964–1965 Sir Paul Chambers 1965–1966 L. H. C. Tippett 1966–1967 M. S. Bartlett 1967–1968 Frank Yates 1968–1969 Arthur Cockfield 1969–1970 R. G. D. Allen 1970–1971 Bernard Benjamin 1971–1972 George Alfred Barnard 1972–1973 Harold Wilson 1973–1974 D. J. Finney 1974–1975 Henry Daniels 1975–1977 Stella Cunliffe 1977–1978 Henry Wynn 1978–1980 Sir Claus Moser 1980–1982 David Cox 1982–1984 Peter Armitage 1984–1985 Walter Bodmer 1985–1986 John Nelder 1986–1987 James Durbin 1987–1989 John Kingman 1989–1991 Peter G. Moore 1991–1993 T. M. F. Smith 1993–1995 D. J. Bartholomew 1995–1997 Adrian Smith 1997–1999 Robert Nicholas Curnow 1999–2001 Denise Lievesley
21st century	2001–2003 Peter Green 2003–2005 Andy Grieve 2005–2007 Tim Holt 2008–2009 David Hand 2010–2010 Bernard Silverman (resigned Feb 2010; replaced pro tem by David Hand) 2011–2012 Valerie Isham 2013–2014 John Pullinger 2014–2016 Peter Diggle 2017–2018 David Spiegelhalter 2019– Deborah Ashby
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