FARMER FARNESE 87 great. In Madrid he dissipated the melancholy of Philip V., became the king's chief favorite, and after his death was similarly honored by Ferdinand VI., receiving an annual salary of $10,000, on condition that he should sing only for the royal ears. He prevailed upon Ferdi- nand to organize a theatre in the palace, for which he engaged eminent artists from Italy, and of which he became the director. For 20 years he ruled the court of Spain, not only by the charms of his voice, but gradu- ally by his influence in political affairs. In 1759, on the accession of Charles III., Farinelli fell into disgrace, and three years later was ordered to leave the kingdom. He then took up his abode at Bologna, and built a splendid palace in the vicinity of the town, in which he passed the rest of his life. FARMER, Hngh, an English theologian, born in Shropshire in 1714, died in London, Feb. 5, 1787. He was educated at the academy in Northampton under Dr. Doddridge, and be- came pastor of a dissenting congregation at "Walthamstow, Essex, where he wrote several theological treatises. He removed to London in 1 761, and became afterward preacher to the con- gregation of Salters' hall, and one of the Tuesday lecturers at the same place. He published an " Inquiry into the Nature and Design of our Lord's Temptation in the Wilderness " (1761), a "Dissertation on the Miracles" (1771), an "Essay on the Demoniacs of the New Testa- ment " (1775), and a work entitled " The Gen- eral Prevalence of the Worship of Human Spir- its in the ancient Heathen Nations" (1783). He considered miracles to be absolute proofs of a divine mission. FARMER, John, an American genealogist, born in Ohelmsford, Mass., June 12, 1789, died in Concord, N. H., Aug. 13, 1838. After teach- ing school for ten years, he studied the early settlement of New England, and his " Gene- alogical Register," published in 1829, is thought to contain the names of nearly all the first European settlers in that region. A new and enlarged edition of this work, by James Sav- age of Boston, was published in 1860-'62. Mr. Farmer superintended an edition of Belknap's " History of New Hampshire," to which he added many valuable notes; and he con- tributed various papers to historical and anti- quarian societies, and to periodicals. FARMERS GENERAL, in France, financial and privileged associations which before the revo- lution of 1789 took upon lease various branches of the public revenue. This system origina- ted in the 13th century, when Philip the Fair, in consideration of certain sums paid to him, several times permitted Lombard bankers and Jews to collect the taxes. The consequent exactions, cruelties, imprisonments, and even executions, often caused popular rebellions ; yet in the reign of Louis XIII. the lessees had become a power in the state, and often trans- ferred their leases to still more unscrupulous subordinates. In 1720, under the regency, the individual leases were united in &ferme generale, which was let to a company, whose members were called fermiers generaux. Their number was originally 40, afterward increased to 60. In consideration of an annual payment of 55,- 000,000 livres, they had the privilege of levying the taxes on articles of consumption ; and on the renewal of this privilege in 1726, 80,000,- 000 livres annually were paid. In 1774 the farmers paid 135,000,000 francs for this right, and in 1789, 180,000,000, and yet made im- mense fortunes. In 1759 the contracts of the farmers general were quashed by Silhouette, but the system soon revived, as it was favor- able to the court and ministers. The constitu- ent assembly in 1790 suppressed the associa- tion. In 1794 all the farmers general then liv- ing were brought before the revolutionary tri- bunal, and condemned ; 28, including Lavoisier the chemist, were executed May 8, 1794, and the remaining three some days afterward. FARNE, Fearne, or Fern Islands, several small islands and rocks in the North sea, from 2 to 5 m. from the English coast, and nearly oppo- site Bamborough. Two lighthouses have been erected on the largest. In rough weather the passage between the isles is very dangerous, and several disastrous shipwrecks, attended with great loss of life, have occurred here. FARNESE, a family of Italian princes, who derived their name from their ancestral castle of Farneto near Orvieto, and whose genealogy is traced to the middle of the 13th century. Prominent as a soldier among the early mem- bers of the family was PIETEO, who commanded the Florentine army in their victorious battle against the Pisans at San Piero, in May, 1363, and died of the plague within a few weeks. The historical celebrity of the house dates from 1534, when Cardinal Alessandro Farnese became pope under the name of Paul III. In 1545 he erected Parma and Piacenza into a duchy for the benefit of his natural son, PIE- TRO LIJIGI, a dissolute and cruel ruler, against whom many nobles revolted in concert with Gonzaga, the imperial governor of Milan, at whose instigation he was assassinated Sept. 10, 1547. His son OTTAVIO (1520-'86) was recon- ciled with Austria through his wife, the famous Margaret of Parma, natural daughter of Charles V., and his reign of over 30 years was peace- ful and happy. He was succeeded by his son ALESSANDRO (1546-'92). He was educated by his mother, and enlisted in the service of Spain in early youth. He fought in the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571, and was sent in 1577 to the Netherlands, where in the following year he took part in the victory of Gembloux, won by Don John of Austria over the Dutch. He suc- ceeded Don John as governor of the Low Countries, and forced the Belgian provinces into submission, successively taking Maestricht, Breda, Tournay, Dunkirk, Bruges, Ypres, Ghent, and Antwerp (1579-'85), the latter city after one of the most memorable sieges re- corded in history. On his father's death in
