Farrar was born in Bombay, India, and educated at King William's College on the Isle of Man, King's College London and Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he won the Chancellor's Gold Medal for poetry in 1852. He was for some years a master at Harrow School and, from 1871 to 1876, the headmaster of Marlborough College. Farrar spent much of his career associated with Westminster Abbey. He was successively a canon there, rector of St Margaret's, archdeacon of the Abbey. He later served as Dean of Canterbury; and chaplain in ordinary, i.e. attached to the Royal Household. He 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. 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 Müller. While Farrar was never convinced by the evidence for evolution in biology, he had no theological objections to the idea and urged that it be considered on purely scientific grounds. On Darwin's nomination, Farrar was elected to the Royal Society in 1866 for his philological work. When Darwin died in 1882, Farrar helped get the church's permission for him to be buried in Westminster Abbey and preached the sermon at his funeral. Farrar's religious writings included Life of Christ, which had great popularity, and Life of St. Paul. His works were translated into many languages, especially Life of Christ. Farrar believed that some could be saved after death. He originated the term "abominable fancy" for the longstanding Christian idea that the eternal punishment of the damned would entertain the saved. Farrar published Eternal Hope in 1878 and Mercy and Judgment in 1881, both of which defend his position on hell at length. Farrar was accused of universalism, but he denies this belief with great certainty. In 1877 Farrar in an introduction to five sermons he wrote, in the preface he attacks the idea that he holds to universalism. He also dismisses any accusation from those who would say otherwise. He says, "I dare not lay down any dogma of Universalism, partly because it is impossible for us to estimate the hardening effect obstinate persistence in evil, and the power of the human will to resist the love of God." In April 1882, he was one of ten pallbearers at the funeral of Charles Darwin in Westminster Abbey; the others were: The Duke of Devonshire, The Duke of Argyll, The Earl of Derby, Mr. J. Russell Lowell, Mr. W. Spottiswoode, Sir Joseph Hooker, Mr. A. R. Wallace, Professor Huxley, and Sir John Lubbock.
Family
On 1 August 1860 at St Leonard's Church, Exeter, he married Lucy Mary Cardew; they had five sons and five daughters:
Reginald Anstruther Farrar
Evelyn Lucy Farrar
Hilda Cardew Farrar
Maud Farrar
Eric Maurice Farrar
Sibyl Farrar
Cyril Lytton Farrar
Lilian Farrar
Frederic Percival Farrar
Ivor Granville Farrar
The first eight were born at Harrow; the last two were born at Marlborough. The second daughter, Hilda, was married in 1881 to John Stafford Northcote, vicar of St Andrew's, Westminster. He was the third son of Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh and their son Henry succeeded as third Earl in 1927. Farrar allowed his third daughter, Maud, to become engaged toHenry Montgomery at 14 and marry at 16. Farrar was then archdeacon of St Margaret's and Montgomery was the curate; Montgomery went on to become Bishop of Tasmania. Their children included the World War II hero "Monty", Field MarshalThe 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein. Farrar's son Reginald published his biography in 1902. Farrar died on 22 March 1903, and was buried in the cloister of the Canterbury Cathedral. Farrar has a street named after him – Dean Farrar Street in Westminster, London. There is also a memorial to him at the church of St Margaret's, Westminster by the sculptor Nathaniel Hitch.
