Thomas Farnham (1743-93)
Despite active service from early in the American Revolutionary War, Farnham had to wait until its end to be promoted to post captain, by which time he was approaching his 40th year. He was one of the lucky officers to be given a ship in the years of peace but died at an early age just months after the beginning of the French Revolutionary War.
Farnham was born on 30 October 1743, the sixth son of Edward Farnham of Quorndon (now called Quorn), Leicestershire, and of his wife Esther Lake. Four of his brothers predeceased him, whilst one of his sisters became the Countess of Denbigh.
Approaching his 28th birthday, Farnham was commissioned lieutenant on 3 October 1771, and after a period on half pay, in early 1776 was appointed to establish a rendezvous in Leith to raise men for the navy. He served as sixth lieutenant aboard Vice-Admiral Lord Howe’s flagship Eagle 64, Captain Henry Duncan, in North American waters during the early stages of the Revolutionary War in 1776-7.
Having commissioned the purchased brig Diligent in August 1777, he commanded her in North American waters for several years, being engaged against the rebels in the Hudson River and later off New York in the spring of 1778. During this time, he captured (often with other British warships) half a dozen American merchant ships, as well as ferrying dispatches and collecting cattle from Rhode Island for the fleet.
Aged 35, on 3 April 1779 he was promoted commander by Rear-Admiral James Gambier. Remaining in North America with the sloop Nautilus 16, he earned Commodore Sir George Collier’s praise for his destruction of enemy vessels during that officer’s Penobscot expedition in August, at a loss of one man killed, three wounded and one missing. When the Nautilus was paid off at New York in June 1780, Farnham went on half-pay.
In July 1781, following representations to Lord Sandwich at the Admiralty by his brother-in-law Lord Denbigh and his friend, the author Joseph Cradock , Farnham was appointed to the sloop Kite 10, which he fitted out at Portsmouth, and which in October brought dispatches home from Gibraltar. He later commanded the Alexander 74 in an acting capacity for Captain Lord Longford in Rear-Admiral Kempenfelt’s brilliant action with the Comte de Guichen on 12 December. Though posted captain on 27 March 1782 of the Thames 32 (for purposes of rank only), he could not obtain a ship and was placed on half-pay.
In March 1783 Farnham recommissioned the frigate Winchelsea 32 at Portsmouth sailing towards the end of May with dispatches for Gibraltar. She then went out to Newfoundland where she served each summer for the next three years. Returning to Portsmouth from St. Johns via Lisbon in late December, she entered the harbour to be refitted before setting out for the colony again in mid-May 1784. Coming home in the autumn, a December 1784 court martial saw one of the Winchelsea’s lieutenants, the future Captain Thomas Affleck, dismissed the ship for ‘ill-using’ the carpenter. After a further stint in Portsmouth Harbour, the Winchelsea sailed to Newfoundland for the last time in April 1785, and after returning home at the beginning of November she was paid off in December.
Meanwhile in June 1784, Farnham had succeeded his elder brother, a clergyman, in the ownership of the family’s estate and residence of Quorn Hall at Quorndon in Leicestershire.
In May 1790, during the Spanish Armament, he recommissioned the Niger 32 at Woolwich, which by July was in the Downs, and during August was with the fleet at Spithead before going out on a cruise. Sailing from Portsmouth on 24 September with sealed orders to be opened off Ushant, the Niger soon returned to the Hampshire port. She then departed on 22 October with money for the Plymouth dockyard workers, and Farnham left her shortly afterwards.
Having never married, Captain Farnham died on 24 November 1793 after what was described as a ‘lingering illness’, and he was buried in St Bartholomew’s churchyard in Quorn.