FARRAND, Robert (1792-1855), of 4 Catherine Court, Tower Hill, London

Like his father (before his temporary disgrace in 1783), the bastard Farrand was a corn factor. Although his business does not appear under his own name in the London trade directories until 1830, at 4 Catherine Court, he was corresponding from Fen Court, Fenchurch Street in 1823 and had long been active in the Swaffham area of Norfolk, where his father had acquired an estate. HP Commons, 1790-1820, iii. 94-96, 729; Add. 38744, f. 245; Constable Corresp. ed. R.B. Beckett, i. 181, 208, 249; ii. 278. At the general election of 1820 he again contested the venal borough of Hedon, where his father (who had died the previous year) had successfully put him up on his own interest in 1818, and was returned in second place. Unlike his legitimate half-brother Albany Savile, he never joined Brooks’s, but he continued to vote generally with the Whig opposition to the Liverpool ministry on most major issues, especially those involving retrenchment, economy and tax reductions, in the 1820 Parliament, at least until 1824, when his attendance seems to have fallen away. Session of Parl. 1825, p. 463. He voted for parliamentary reform, 20 Feb., 24 Apr. 1823, 26 Feb. 1824. On the Catholic question he changed sides, voting for relief, 28 Feb. 1821, but against Canning’s bill to relieve Catholic peers, 30 Apr. 1822, and relief in general, 1 Mar., 21 Apr., 10 May 1825, despite having voted against the bill to suppress the Catholic Association, 15 Feb. 1825. His only known vote with government in this period was against repeal of the additional malt duty, 3 Apr. 1821. On 2 May 1825 he moved an unsuccessful amendment to allow corn to be removed from bond free of duty. He was named to the select committee on law merchant, 15 May 1823, and on 13 June gave evidence to the effect that a change in the regulations governing contracts with factors was desirable. He assisted John Smith* with the bill which he introduced on 18 June and corresponded with Lord Redesdale about the measure, which became law on 18 July 1823. PP (1823), iv. 44-46; Add. 38744, f. 244; CJ, lxxviii. 404, 479. No trace of parliamentary activity has been found for 1826. At the general election that summer he was defeated at Hedon by two men backed by the Tory corporation and petitioned in vain; he later claimed in the House, 22 July 1831, that his vote for reform had cost him his seat. Hull Advertiser, 2 June 1826; G.R. Park, Hist. Hedon, 188-9.

Farrand secured an unopposed return for Hedon at the general election of 1830, apparently with corporation approval. Hull Rockingham, 7 Aug. 1830. The Wellington ministry listed him among their ‘foes’ and he divided against them when they were brought down on the civil list, 15 Nov. 1830. Yet he voted against the second reading of the Grey ministry’s reform bill, 22 Mar. 1831. On the 28th he presented and endorsed East Riding petitions praying for more representatives. He divided for Gascoyne’s wrecking amendment, 19 Apr. 1831. At the ensuing general election he was returned unopposed for Hedon, which faced disfranchisement, with the full backing of the corporation. Hull Advertiser, 29 Apr. 1831. He voted against the second reading of the reintroduced reform bill, 6 July, and at least once for the adjournment, 12 July 1831. On the motion to disfranchise Hedon, 22 July, he argued that it deserved to be united with the hundred of Holderness to return one Member and complained of the East Riding’s unfair treatment. He voted against the passage of the bill, 21 Sept., the second reading of the revised bill, 17 Dec. 1831, the enfranchisement of Tower Hamlets, 28 Feb, and the third reading, 22 Mar. 1832. His only other known votes were against government on the Russian-Dutch loan, 26 Jan., 12 July 1832.

At the 1832 general election Farrand offered as a Conservative for Stafford, but withdrew before the poll. Beaten there in 1835, he was successful in 1837. By then he was in possession of the Holme Hale estate, where he built a mansion house. His London business moved to 26 Mark Lane in about 1839; it was styled Farrand, Young and White from 1850. He died in February 1855, and his personalty was sworn under £3,000. IR26/2028/101.