Child(ren):
Not confirmed that this is the correct John Farmer of Hitchin. 1580-1620 The earliest reference to a member of the Farmer family in the Hitchin registers is the baptism in 1594 of Hanna, the daughter of John Farmer. This is very likely the same John Farmer, whose daughters were baptised in Walden St Paul (some 5 miles from Hitchin): 18.6.1580 Issabell, daughter of John Farmer 27.1.1582 Elizabeth, daughter of John Farmer 2.4.1586 Jane, daughter of John Farmer 19.9.1591 Agnes, daughter of John Farmer It´s interesting that marriages are recorded in Hitchin for 3 of these names: 20.7.1606 Eliz Farmer & William Tristram 2.5.1611 Joane Farmer & Thomas Feilde 6.8.1618 Agnes Farmer & Mathewe Hanscombe
The Hitchin baptismal register records the baptism in 1618 of Matthewe, the son of ``John Farmer iu´´, in other words, John Farmer, junior. There are 4 further baptisms for children of John Farmer between 1619 and 1626. Meanwhile the burial of a John Farmer is recorded in 1623. It's quite possible, then, that between 1591 and 1594 a John Farmer moved with his family from Walden St Paul to Hitchin. Three of his daughters than married in Hitchin, and his son, John Farmer junior, married and started his own family in 1618. John the father died in 1623.
Unfortunately, there appears to be no record of a baptism for John Farmer, junior. 1620 - 1750 Until the mid 18th century, few children were born to successive generations and, of those children, few survived infancy. (The huge numbers of burials in Hitchin in 1641 and from 1664 to 1675 suggest frequent epidemics.)
For upwards of 130 years, this line was perilously close to extinction. 1750 onwards Thomas Farmer, the GGG grandson of the original John Farmer, junior, had 9 children between 1761 and 1781. Of Thomas' male offspring, John remained in Hitchin to set up a grain business; James moved to Biggleswade as a shopkeeper while a number of his descendants established small businesses in Luton; Thomas moved to Mitcham and worked as a gardener; and William appears to have disappeared entirely. By the 1880s the last of the Farmers had left Hitchin, and branches of the family had moved to most parts of England, as well as to Australia and the USA.
P003251 - son of Nicholas FARMER [not confirmed that this is the correct John FARMER]