OLD PLYMOUTH . UK
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WHO WAS WHO IN OLD PLYMOUTH

Mrs ANN FARLEY (1820-1901)

When Mr Samuel Farley, a baker born at Coldharbour, Berry Pomery, Devon, married Miss Ann Steer at the Ancient Parish Church of Saint Andrew the Apostle, East Allington, near Kingsbridge, Devon, on October 1st 1846, little could he or she have known that she would make the Farley name famous.  But although their surname was to appear on the packaging, the well-known children's biscuit was not their creation.

The census taken on Sunday March 30th 1851 shows him and Ann living and working in the village of Abbotskerswell, Newton Abbot, Devon.  His mother, also Mrs Ann Farley, then in her sixties, was with them on census night, as were their first two children, Sarah Ann Farley, born 1848, and Samuel Farley junior, born 1850, both born at Abbotskerswell. A second daughter, Emma Farley, was born there in 1852.

Business in Abbotskerswell was probably a bit on the quiet side so to improve his earnings he moved  into Plymouth where, in 1857, he had his bakery at number 90 Cambridge Street.  Sometime around 1862 he moved the business to number 5 Briton Side (sic).  That was the address given when Cornelius Steer Farley was baptized at the Anglican Church of Charles, Plymouth, on October 8th 1862.

Cornelius Steer Farley, aged just13 months, died at number 5 Briton Side and was buried at the Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Cemetery, Plymouth, on September 10th 1863.  Sarah Ann Farley, aged just 20 years, died at Briton Side, and was buried at the Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Cemetery on December 16th 1867.  Samuel Farley, aged just 17 years, died at Briton Side, Plymouth, and was buried at the Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Cemetery on February 24th 1868.  Emma Farley, aged just 16 years, died at Briton Side and was buried at the Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Cemetery on February 25th 1869.

Mr Samuel Farley went into his bakehouse just after 5am on Thursday July 14th 1870 and just after 7am was assisting with mixing when he complained of feeling, collapsed to the ground, groaned and died.  He was only 49 years of age.  An inquest held by Coroner Brian at the Guildhall the following day gave the verdict that he had died of natural causes.  Mrs Farley continued the business with the help of their eldest son, Mr James Steer Farley.

Thus when the census was taken on Sunday April 2nd 1871 Mrs Farley was a widow, living at number 5 Briton Side with the surviving members of her family: 16-years-old James Steer Farley, 11-years-old Miss Ellen Sophia Farley and 6-years-old Edwin Elliott Farley, the latter two attending school.  How she must have cherished those three children but her life was about to change in a big, big way.

Also living in Plymouth in 1871 was a general practitioner by the name of Doctor William Penn Hele Eales, then aged 61.  It was he who asked Mrs Farley manufacture a special infant cereal biscuit that he had devised.  Although the Farley company always claimed this occurred in 1880, in fact Mr Eales died on Thursday May 16th 1878 while visiting his son-in-law at 143 Camden Road, London, so it must have happened anything up to a decade earlier.  Apparently similar biscuits were made by other bakers in the Town but they were pure white whereas those made by the Farleys were golden brown.

By the time of the 1881 census, taken on Sunday April 3rd 1881, number 5 Briton Side had become number 5 Exeter Street.  James Steer Farley was assisting his mother in the bakery but Edwin Elliott Farley had become a pupil teacher.  Later that year, on June 6th 1881, Mr James Steer Farley married Miss Emily Wyatt at Holy Trinity Church.  That wedding was followed on October 12th 1881 by the marriage of Miss Ellen Sophia Farley and Mr Herbert Morley, of 59 Gibbon Street, a Post Office clerk, at Plymouth's Charles Church.

In 1887 the premises in which the Farley's did their baking was rebuilt and became number 7 Exeter Street.  It still exists, as pictured below, and has a stone engraved "S.J.P. 1887". 

The premises in Exeter Street that once housed the Farley's bakery.
The lane on the left was Tabernacle Lane.
©  the late Gilbert Corran.

Mr James Steer Farley must have emigrated as he was not included in the census taken on Sunday April 5th 1891.  Instead the business was being run by Mrs Farley with the help of number ywo son, 16-years-old Edwin Elliott Farley and an 18-years-old relative from Falmouth, Cornwall, by the name of Miss Ernestine Jane Morley, whom Mr Edwin Elliott Farley (1864-1949) married at Plymouth's Charles Church on September 9th 1891.  She was the daughter of Mr John Morley, of Hull, a chief engineer in the Royal Naval Reserve.  All three of them were listed as bakers and confectioners.  In addition to baking their own bread and cakes, they used to take in cakes mixed by others at home in their own tins and also cooked Sunday roast dinners, both for two pennies a time.

Mrs Ann Farley retired sometime after 1891 - she was in her seventies after all - and left the business in the hands of Mr Edwin Elliott Farley (1864-1949).  She passed away on Tuesday September 17th 1901 at the grand age of 81 years.