The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 39 



Abigail Farmer, after the death of her husband in 1725, married Arthur 

 Jephson of Bristol, and from this Abrahams' marriage was descended 

 John Henry Shorthouse the author of John Inglesant. The com- 

 mercial links between Bristol and Birmingham were very strong, and 

 we are inclined to think that Joseph Farmer, the father of Joseph and 

 Thomas, may have been a Bristol man. There are Joseph Farmer of 

 Gary's Lane, Bristol, who died in 1755, and his wife Sarah, who died 

 in 1722, and these may well have been the parents of our Joseph and 

 Thomas. Anyhow, we find the son Thomas of Thomas Farmer is an 

 ironmonger of Bristol, and marries there in 1743 Mary Jephson, 

 almost certainly a relative of his mother's second husband, Arthur 

 Jephson 1 . It is in Bristol, rather than Birmingham, that we must look 

 for the link between the Galtons and Farmers. Robert Galton, son of 

 John of Taunton, appears in Bristol as a " Haberdasher of small wares," 

 and there in 1734 he marries Hannah Farmer 2 ; this is the first 

 Galton-Farmer marriage. Hannah was daughter of Thomas Farmer 

 and Abigail Abrahams and sister of Thomas the ironmonger in Bristol. 

 It is quite probable that Thomas Farmer and Robert Galton both 

 dealt in Birmingham hardware, and from this basis started the 

 common mercantile interests of Galtons and Farmers in later years, 

 Bristol being then largely the port of Birmingham. Robert Galton 

 lived in King's Square, Bristol, and there his last child, Sarah, was 

 born in 1743, and she died and was buried in 1745. Shortly after 

 this he appears to have gone to Boston in New England, probably on 

 business matters, and there he died in 1746, or according to some 

 accounts in 1749. It is hardly likely that he settled there as his 

 wife and children remained in Bristol. It is possible that his mission 

 had something to do with the large consignment of slaves valued at 



the Bay of Chesapeake, near to the Ironstone Mines, where they would erect their 

 forges and furnaces. Thus Farmer seems to have been one of the pioneers in estab- 

 lishing the iron-industry of America and the Galtons' connection with the Farmers and 

 their dealings in slaves seem to point to the reason for Robert Galton's visit to New 

 England in 1743 1745. [The deed above referred to was in the possession of Messrs 

 S. and E. Coleman of White Hart Lane, Tottenham, in July, 1913, and was most kindly 

 purchased and presented to the Galton Laboratory by Mr Edmund Wheler Galton.] 



1 Tertius Galton's physician at Leamington, Dr Jephson, was probably also a 

 relative. 



- There were only four children of this marriage, three died in infancy, one only 

 survived to twenty and died then. 



