FERRAND, Antoine François Claude, born at Paris in 1751; died in 1825. He first proposed to himself the bar as a profession, but in the disputes between the parliament of Paris and the court he was, in the fashion of that day, sent into exile, and consoled himself by writing tragedies and farces. The government, however, found means to attach him to their interests, and we find him drawing up documents for them a little before the outburst of the Revolution. When it did break out, he emigrated. He returned in 1801. Whatever had been his early leanings, his political bias was now in favour of absolute power. He published a book which he called "L'esprit de l'histoire," which, with some alterations by the police, was allowed to be circulated in Paris. A work of De Rulhière's on the partition of Poland, which he translated, was suppressed by the government. Another translation appeared, in which Ferrand was accused of having falsified the original. Ferrand successively supported or was employed by Bonaparte and the Bourbons. In 1815 he was at the head of the post-office. He was displaced by Lavallette on Bonaparte's reappearance, but on the return of the Bourbons was reappointed. He was made a peer of France; and on the reorganization of the Institute in 1816, was named member of the Academy—J. A., D.
FERRAND, Louis, was born at Toulon in the year 1645. He studied in the college of his native town, and afterwards at Lyons. A lawyer by profession, he devoted himself greatly to theological and biblical literature, and is best known by his labours in these departments. He published a paraphrase of the seven penitential psalms when he was scarcely nineteen, which was favourably received. His principal writings are—"Reflections on the Christian Religion, with explanations of the prophecies of Jacob and Daniel relating to the Advent of the Messiah;" "Commentary on the Psalms," in Latin; "the Psalter," in Latin and French; "a Collection of Dissertations on the Bible," and some tracts of a controversial nature. He died in the year 1699.—J. B. J.
FERRAND, Marie Louis, a French general, was born at Besançon in 1753, and died in 1808. He fought as a volunteer in the American war of independence, and after his return served in the French army. Raised to the rank of general of brigade, he was sent out with an expedition to St. Domingo, where he saw a good deal of fighting with the blacks, and of which he subsequently became governor. When the war broke out between France and Spain he did all he could, but in vain, to prevent a conflict in the West Indian seas. He shot himself on the failure of his attempt to suppress an insurrection stirred up by the Spanish governor of Porto-Rico.—R. M., A.
FERRAND DE LA CAUSSADE, Jean Henri Becays, a French general, was born in 1736, and died in 1805. He served in the French army in the Netherlands, was made major-commandant of Valenciennes, and once with nine thousand men held that town for three months against an allied army of one hundred and fifty thousand. When Bonaparte became first consul, he made Ferrand prefect of the Meuse-Inférieure. Two years afterwards the infirmities of age forced him to retire, when he went to reside on his estate near Paris.—R. M., A.
FERRAND. See Fernand, Charles.
FERRANDUS, Fulgentius, an early christian writer, was an African by birth, and the friend of Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspa. There are few particulars of his history known, except that he was for some time an exile in Sardinia, that he was a deacon in the church of Carthage, and that he died in 551. The most valuable of the works of Ferrandus is an abridgment of the ecclesiastical canons, being a collection under distinct heads of the decisions of the great councils of Ancyra, Laodicea, Nice, Antioch, Gangra, and Sardica. His other works are an epistle to Count Reginus on the duties and trials of a christian engaged in military affairs; an epistle to Anatolius, and another to Severus Scholasticus on the sufferings of Christ; an epistle to Anatolius and Pelagius on the authority of councils; and a life of St. Fulgentius.—J. B. J.
FERRAR, Nicolas, was the third son of Nicolas Ferrar, a merchant adventurer of London, by Mary, daughter of Laurence Wodenoth, Esq, of Savington Hall, Cheshire. He was born on the 23d February, 1592, in the parish of St. Mary Stayning, Mark Lane, London. At four years old he went to school. At five he read perfectly, and could repeat accurately and becomingly a chapter in the bible. At six he was sent to the parish school of Euborn in Berkshire; and at thirteen, was a proficient in Greek, Latin, arithmetic, short-hand, and vocal and instrumental music. At this period he was sent to Clare Hall, Cambridge, where, in 1610, he proceeded B.A., and was the same year elected medical fellow. Two years after, on account of his health, he was advised to travel, and the university admitted him to the degree of M.A. before the usual time. He travelled in the retinue of the Princess Elizabeth, with the Elector Palatine, her husband, with whom he visited Middelburg, the Hague, and Amsterdam. Afterwards he went to Hamburg, and other cities of Germany, especially Leipzig, where he increased his literary and scientific stores, perfected himself in the German language, and acquired that extensive general information which astonished men of all pursuits with the accuracy and variety of his knowledge. He visited many of the German courts, among the rest that of the emperor; and then betook himself to Venice and Padua, in which latter city he made himself master of the Italian tongue. He visited Rome for ten days, and then passed to Spain by way of Marseilles. He reached Madrid before his father supposed he would be there; and, fearing that his money would not hold out, he resolved to start for St. Sebastian on foot, and thence sail for England. He arrived in safety in the year 1618, after six years' absence; and seasonably, for his family were connected with the Virginia Company, which was now imperilled by the intrigues of Spain at the English court. He was offered about this time the professorship of geometry in Gresham college, but declined it, desiring to devote himself for the present to the defence of the company, which was, however, eventually suppressed. But Ferrar had the opportunity of exposing the whole affair abundantly in the house of commons, of which he was elected member in 1624. This year saw the termination of his public life. His many escapes and severe illnesses had deepened his serious impressions, and he resolved at once to begin a course of life which he seems to have long before meditated, and purchased the lordship of Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire. A large mansion was forthwith put in repair, and a neighbouring church restored. Hither he resorted with his relatives, consisting of forty persons. He took deacon's orders, and, though offered valuable preferment in the church, said it was never his intention to rise. Mrs. Ferrar restored the tithes and glebe lands to the church. The mansion was distributed into apartments, oratories, and schoolrooms. A round of devotion was maintained day and night. The whole book of Psalms was recited in the house every day. Part of the family were sisters of charity; and all were occupied in works of mercy and self-denial. Ferrar produced several valuable treatises and scripture harmonies. He wrote chiefly for the benefit of the society which he had established, and was engaged in composing contemplations on death when he felt the contemplated event to be fast overtaking him. He officiated for the last time on the 2nd of November, 1637. His parting words to his brother have "something like prophetic strain"—"Sad times are coming on; very sad times, indeed; you will live to see them. And when you shall see the true worship of God brought to nought and suppressed, then look, and fear that desolation is nigh at hand." On the 1st of December, after receiving the holy communion, surrounded by his family, precisely as the clock struck one, Ferrar expired amid the devotions which he commonly celebrated at that hour. His dying words were emphatically fulfilled. The ruffian soldiers of the parliament plundered Gidding house and church, broke up the organ, carried off or destroyed all the plate, furniture, and provisions, and burnt the voluminous works of the founder—H. T.
FERRAR or FARRAR, Robert, the martyred bishop of St. David's, was born in Halifax parish, Yorkshire. When a youth, he became a canon regular of the order of St. Austin, and after some residence at Cambridge was admitted into St. Mary's college, Oxford, the nursery for canons of that order. Following the example of Archbishop Cranmer, whose chaplain he was for some time, he took to himself a wife. He was chosen prior of Nostel, or St. Oswald's monastery, in Yorkshire, and on its dissolution in 1540, received an annual pension of £100. He was consecrated bishop of St. David's in September, 1548. The bishop, finding that a systematic spoliation of the cathedral was in progress, set himself to check it, and accordingly ordered a commission. The form was unfortunately left to the chancellor, and appeared in the old papal style without sufficient acknowledgment of the king's supremacy. This blunder his
