Life
Farmer was admitted to St John's College, Cambridge, in 1672, and migrated to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1675. [2] 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. [1] As Farmer was not a member of the college, and was widely believed to be a secret Roman Catholic, his appointment was rejected by the Fellows of the College. [3] 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 River Thames near Oxford than attending to academic duties. [3] 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 Catholicism and absolutism.
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The aims of the college, as specified by its statutes, are the promotion of education, religion, learning and research. It is one of the larger Oxbridge colleges in terms of student numbers. For 2018, St. John’s was ranked 9th of 29 colleges in the Tompkins Table with over 30% of its students earning First-class honours.
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. With around 600 undergraduates, 300 graduates, and over 180 fellows, it is the largest college in either of the Oxbridge universities by number of undergraduates. In terms of total student numbers, it is second only to Homerton College, Cambridge.
The Monmouth Rebellion, also known as the Pitchfork Rebellion, the Revolt of the West or the West Country rebellion, was an attempt to overthrow James II. Prince James, Duke of York, had become King of England, Scotland, and Ireland upon the death of his elder brother Charles II on 6 February 1685. James II was a Roman Catholic and some Protestants under his rule opposed his kingship. James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II, claimed to be rightful heir to the throne and attempted to displace James II.
One of those providing evidence against Farmer was William Levett, Doctor of Divinity and Principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford (and later Dean of Bristol). 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." [4]
The Dean of Bristol is the head of the Chapter of the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, Bristol, England. The current Dean is the Very Reverend David Hoyle, whose nomination was approved by Elizabeth II on 22 December 2009 and who was installed at the cathedral on 29 May 2010.
Henry Hammond was an English churchman, who supported the Royalist cause during the English Civil War.
Obadiah Walker was an English academic and Master of University College, Oxford from 1676 to 1688.
Robert Charnock was an English academic and Jacobite conspirator.
Samuel Parker was an English churchman, of strong Erastian views and a fierce opponent of Dissenters. His political position is often compared with that of Thomas Hobbes, but there are also clear differences; he was also called in his time a Latitudinarian, but this is not something on which modern scholars are agreed. During the reign of King James II he served as Bishop of Oxford, and was considered by James to be a moderate in his attitude to Catholics.
Bonaventure Giffard (1642–1734) was a Roman Catholic bishop who served as the Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District of England from 1687 to 1703 and Vicar Apostolic of the London District of England from 1703 to 1734.
Sir Robert Wright was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench 1687–89.
Baptist Levinz, sometimes Baptiste or Baptist Levinge, was an Anglican churchman. He is known as a bishop and also for the part he played in the dramatic election at Magdalen College, Oxford.
Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet, and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of William the Conqueror's Norman lords.
Dr. Henry Levett (1668–1725) was an early English physician who wrote a pioneering tract on the treatment of smallpox and served as chief physician at London Charterhouse.
The Very Rev. Dr. William Levett was the Oxford-educated personal chaplain to Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, whom he accompanied into exile in France, then became the rector of two parishes, and subsequently Principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford and the Dean of Bristol.
William Levett, Esq., was a long serving courtier to King Charles I of England. Levett accompanied the King during his flight from Parliamentary forces, including his escape from Hampton Court palace, and eventually to his imprisonment in Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, and finally to the scaffold on which he was executed. Following the King's death, Levett wrote a letter claiming that he had witnessed the King writing the so-called Eikon Basilike during his imprisonment, an allegation that produced a flurry of new claims about the disputed manuscript and flamed a growing movement to rehabilitate the image of the executed monarch.
Sir Richard Levett, Sheriff, Alderman and Lord Mayor of London, was one of the first directors of the Bank of England, an adventurer with the London East India Company and the proprietor of the trading firm Sir Richard Levett & Company. He had homes at Kew and in London's Cripplegate, close by the Haberdashers Hall. A pioneering British merchant and politician, he counted among his friends and acquaintances Samuel Pepys, Robert Blackborne, John Houblon, physician to the Royal Family and son-in-law Sir Edward Hulse, Lord Mayor Sir William Gore, his brother-in-law Chief Justice Sir John Holt, Robert Hooke, Sir Owen Buckingham, Sir Charles Eyre and others.
John Hough was an English bishop. He is best known for the confrontation over his election as President at Magdalen College, Oxford that took place at the end of the reign of James II of England.
Henry Clerke was an English academic and physician, President of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1672.
Henry Fairfax (1634–1702) was an English clergyman and academic, Dean of Norwich after the Glorious Revolution.
Gilbert Ironside the younger was an English churchman and academic, Warden of Wadham College, Oxford from 1667, Bishop of Bristol and Bishop of Hereford.
Jeremy Nigel Morris is a British historian, Church of England priest and academic. He specialises in church history. Since 2014, he has been Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Previously, he was Dean of Trinity Hall from 2001 to 2010, and Dean of the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge from 2010 to 2014.
Arthur Augustus Tilley was an academic of the University of Cambridge. An Old Etonian, his first subject at Cambridge was Classics, after which he began a career as a barrister. He returned to his old college to teach Classics, going on to specialise in French literature and becoming both a literary critic and a historian.
Nathaniel Johnston M.D. was an English physician, political theorist and antiquary.
