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Author: Farmer, Richard

Biography:

FARMER, Richard (1765?-1814: WBIS)

Not to be confused with the eighteenth-century editor of Shakespeare Richard Farmer (1735-97), Richard Farmer of Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, identified himself on his title-pages as a linen-draper. The family was well established in Stow. Richard's father, also Richard, ran the business before him; his mother's name is not known. In 1810 he married Sophia Robbins in Gloucester; there do not appear to have been children, and he died four years later. When he published Part One of his "epic" The Soldiershe was hoping for a positive response but the critics were crushing and no more appeared. (The British Critic called it "an attack against grammar, common sense, and good taste.") Nothing daunted, in 1808 he brought out a chemical analysis of mineral waters recently discovered at Stow. At the time of his death the local papers carried the usual notices about his will but no record has been found of his burial-place. (Watkins; findmypast.com 8 Jul. 2021; British Critic [1802] 418; Gloucester Journal 15 Aug. 1814; Oxford Journal 20 Aug. 2021)

 

Other Names:

  • R. Farmer
 

Books written (1):

London/ Cambridge/ Shipston: Lackington, Allen, and Co., and Crosby and Letterman/ B. Flower and Co./ printed by T. Smith, 1802