Richard Smith, M.D., was ‘supraveisor’ of his will. He is conjectured (Cooper, Athenæ Cant. ii. 98) to have been the author of ‘A Methode of Measuringe and Surveyinge of Land; published by J. F., practitioner in physick,’ licensed to Thomas Woodcocke 13 Oct. 1589 (Arber, Registers, ii. 249). A book, ‘Perpetuall and kindelie pronosticacons of the change of tymes, taken out of old and newe aucthors,’ ‘to be printed in Italian, Frenche, and Englishe,’ and licensed to John Wolfe 7 Jan. 1590–1 (ib. ii. 269 b), has also been attributed to Farmery. Ames (Typogr. Antiq. ed. Herbert, p. 1177) wrongly describes the latter work as ‘Perpetuall Prognostication of the—Weather—by I. F.’ It is very doubtful if Farmery was concerned with it.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabrigienses, ii. 98; Munk's Coll. of Phys. i. 96–7, 98, 104; Chester's London Marriage Licenses (Foster), p. 848; information kindly supplied by Mr. Gordon Goodwin.]
FARNABY, GILES (fl. 1598), composer, was of the family of Farnaby of Truro, and is said to have been related to Thomas Farnaby, the schoolmaster [q. v.] He took the degree of Mus.B. at Oxford on 7 July 1592, having at that time studied the faculty of music for twelve years (Wood, MS. Notes, Bodleian). He harmonised nine tunes for the ‘Whole Book of Psalms’ published in this year by Thomas East. Six years afterwards appeared his only published work, ‘Canzonets to Foure Voyces, with a Song of eight parts. Compiled by Giles Farnaby, Bachilar of Musicke. London. Printed by Peter Short, dwelling on Bradstreet Hill at the signe of the Star, mdxcviii.’ The set of part books was dedicated to ‘the Right Worshipfull Maister Ferdinando Heaburn, Governor of her Maiesties Privie Chamber.’ Commendatory verses by Anto. Holborne, John Dowland, R. Alison, and Hu. Holland are prefixed. The first canzonet, ‘My lady's collored cheeks,’ has been edited by Mr. T. Oliphant, as ‘A nosegay of spring flowers,’ and No. 20, ‘Construe my meaning,’ by Mr. W. B. Squire. The latter is especially interesting on account of the boldness of its chromatic treatment. No. 4, ‘Daphne on the Rainebowe,’ was arranged by the composer for the virginals. It appears, together with forty-seven other compositions for the same instrument, and two settings by Farnaby of works by Robert Johnson, in the book known as ‘Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book’ in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. The style of the pieces is very florid, resembling that of Bull. Three consecutive pieces are called ‘Farnaby's Dream,’ ‘His Rest,’ and ‘His Humour.’ Four compositions by a son of Giles Farnaby, named Richard, are contained in the same volume. Nothing more is known of his biography. Add. MS. 29427 contains two single parts of an anthem for six voices, ‘O my sonne Absolon.’
[Grove's Dict. i. 507, iv. 308–10; Burney's Hist. iii. 112; Wood's Athenæ Oxon., Fasti, ii. 257, MS. Notes in Bodleian.]
FARNABY, THOMAS (1575?–1647), schoolmaster and classical scholar, was son of Thomas Farnaby, a London carpenter, by Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Foxcroft of Batley, Yorkshire. His grandfather was at one time mayor of Truro, and his great-grandfather, according to his own account, was an Italian musician. Born about 1575, he matriculated at Merton College, Oxford, on 26 June 1590. He became a postmaster there, and servitor to Thomas French, ‘a learned fellow of that house.’ Falling under the influence of the jesuits, he abruptly left the university, and studied at a jesuit college in Spain, where he clearly received a very sound classical education. But, dissatisfied with his position, and ‘being minded to take a ramble,’ he ‘went with Sir Fr. Drake and Sir John Hawkins in their last voyage, being in some esteem with the former.’ At a later date he fought in the Low Countries, and about 1596 landed in Cornwall in great distress. For a time his poverty ‘made him stoop so low as to be an abcdarian, and several were taught their hornbooks by him.’ Under the name of Bainrafe—an anagram of Farnabie—he settled at Martock, Somersetshire, and taught in the grammar school there. His capacity as a teacher soon declared itself, and, removing to London, he opened a school in Goldsmiths' Rents, or Goldsmiths' Alley, behind Redcross Street, Cripplegate. His pupils soon numbered three hundred, and were for the most part sons of noblemen and ‘other generous youths.’ He had boarders as well as day scholars; held his classes in a large ‘garden-house;’ and joined several houses and gardens together to meet the needs of his establishment. He only had three ushers at work with him. In 1630 William Burton (1609–1657) [q. v.], a well-known antiquary, was one of his assistants. Sir John Bramston the younger [q. v.], with his brothers, Mountfort and Francis, were among his boarders, and Sir John has described the school in his autobiography (Camd. Soc. p. 101). Sir Richard Fanshawe, Alexander Gill, and Henry Birkhead were also Farnaby's pupils. Before 1629 Farnaby's fame as a schoolmaster and classical scholar was known to all the scholars of Europe (cf. Barlæi Epistolæ, p. 292), and from 1630 to
