Hugh, the well-known author of the Essay on Demoniacs, was an English Dissenting minister. He was born in 1714, in the neighbourhood of Shrewsbury, and after receiving a good elementary education, became finally the pupil of the celebrated Dr Doddridge at Northampton. On completing his studies, he was appointed to a charge at Walthamstow in Essex, officiating at the same time as chaplain to a wealthy gentleman in the neighbourhood, whose house he lived. This residence he afterwards exchanged for the more hospitable dwelling of a less aristocratic parishioner, under whose roof he remained for thirty years, thinking out and composing those valuable treatises which afterwards gained him so much distinction. His first work of importance was published in 1761, under the title of An Inquiry into the Nature and Design of our Lord's Temptation in the Wilderness; and was designed to prove that the whole of that memorable transaction took place only in vision, and was intended to prefigure the labours and offices of our Lord's future ministry. The originality of the idea, and the great learning with which it was maintained, secured for it a wide and speedy circulation. In 1765 a second edition of it appeared considerably enlarged, in which the objections started against the first edition were answered; and the several subsequent editions were all calculated to strengthen the author's position. In 1771 appeared his Dissertation on Miracles, designed to show that they are Arguments of a Divine Interposition, and absolute proofs of the Mission and Doctrine of a Prophet." This is the author's most valuable contribution to theological science. The clamour raised against the author, of having borrowed from a treatise on the same subject by Lemoine, was silenced by himself in his Examination of the essay of that divine. Farmer's next publication, and the one by which he is best known, though it can hardly claim to be his ablest work, was his Essay on the Demoniacs of the New Testament, which may be regarded as a sort of sequel to his treatise on Miracles. The propositions maintained in this volume were attacked with considerable ability but very moderate success by Dr Worthington, a learned clergyman of the English Church, and afterwards by Mr Fell, a Dissenter. Farmer's last work of importance was published in 1783, under the title of "The General Prevalence of the Worship of Human Spirits in the Ancient Heathen Nations, asserted and proved." In 1761, Farmer removed to London, where he continued to officiate to the congregation of Salter's Hall till his death in 1787.

Farmer, Richard, D.D., author of the Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare, was born at Leicester in 1735. He was educated first at the free grammar-school of his native town, and afterwards at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, of which in 1760 he became classical tutor and in 1775 master. In that latter year also he was appointed vice-chancellor, and three years afterwards chief librarian of the university. In 1780 he was appointed to a prebendal stall in Lichfield, and shortly afterwards prebendary of Canterbury; but after holding this office for a few years, he exchanged it in 1788 for that of a canon residentiary of St Paul's. As none of these offices required constant residence, Dr Farmer spent most of his time at Cambridge, owing among other things it is said to a disappointment in early love which disinclined him to the active business of the world; and there, after a long and painful illness, he died in 1797. A monument erected in his honour bears an inscription by Dr Parr, who describes him as Vir facetus, et dulcis festivae sermonis, Graecae et Latinae doctor, in explicanda veterum Anglicorum poesi subtiles et elegantis. The latter portion of this epitaph has reference to Dr Farmer's only work, his Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare, in which the critic proves that the great poet's knowledge of the ancient classics was derived not from the originals, but from translations of which he copied even the blunders. In proving this point, Dr Farmer incidentally illustrates so well the text of Shakespeare, that no other English criticism on the great dramatist, save the widely dissimilar Lectures of Coleridge, and occasional digressive comments interspersed throughout the works of Thomas Carlyle, Mrs Jameson, Mrs Clarke, and other authors of our own day, can compare with his in value.

In politics Dr Farmer was a confirmed Tory; and though an obstinate enemy to change of most kinds, he effected great improvements in the sanitary condition of Cambridge. He greatly enjoyed social recreation, and is said to have had more of the spirit of a boon-companion than of a clergyman. He was twice offered a bishopric by Mr Pitt, and on both occasions he declined the honour which would have debarred him from visiting the theatre, which, it seems, he regularly attended when any work of his favourite author was announced.