20 Facts About Frederic Farrar

Dean Frederic William Farrar was a senior-ranking cleric of the Church of England, schoolteacher and author.

Frederic Farrar was a pallbearer at the funeral of Charles Darwin in 1882.

Frederic Farrar was a member of the Cambridge Apostles secret society.

Frederic Farrar was the Archdeacon of Westminster from 1883 to 1894, and Dean of Canterbury from 1895 until his death in 1903.

Frederic Farrar was for some years a master at Harrow School and, from 1871 to 1876, the headmaster of Marlborough College.

Frederic Farrar spent much of his career associated with Westminster Abbey.

Frederic Farrar was successively a canon there, rector of St Margaret's, and eventually archdeacon of the Abbey.

Frederic Farrar was an eloquent preacher and a voluminous author, his writings including stories of school life, such as Eric, or, Little by Little and St Winifred's about life in a boys' boarding school in late Victorian England, and two historical romances.

Frederic Farrar was a classics scholar and a comparative philologist, who applied Charles Darwin's ideas of branching descent to the relationships between languages, engaging in a protracted debate with the anti-Darwinian linguist Max Muller.

On Darwin's nomination, Frederic Farrar was elected to the Royal Society in 1866 for his philological work.

When Darwin died in 1882, the then Canon Frederic Farrar helped get the church's permission for him to be buried in Westminster Abbey and preached the sermon at his funeral.

Frederic Farrar contributed, first as Canon Farrar then as Archdeacon Farrar, two volumes to the commentary series The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, on the Gospel according to St Luke and on the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Frederic Farrar's works were translated into many languages, especially Life of Christ.

Frederic Farrar originated the term "abominable fancy" for the longstanding Christian idea that the eternal punishment of the damned would entertain the saved.

Frederic Farrar published Eternal Hope in 1878 and Mercy and Judgment in 1881, both of which defend his position on hell at length.

Frederic Farrar was accused of universalism, but he denies this belief with great certainty.

Frederic Farrar dismisses any accusation from those who would say otherwise.

Frederic Farrar allowed his third daughter, Maud, to become engaged to Henry Montgomery at 14 and marry at 16, the marriage taking place in 1881.

The then Canon Frederic Farrar was Rector of St Margaret's, Westminster at the time, and Montgomery was the curate.

Dean Frederic Farrar died on 22 March 1903 and was buried in the cloister of the Canterbury Cathedral.