Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Farish, William
FARISH, WILLIAM (1759–1837), Jacksonian professor at Cambridge, born in 1759, was the son of a clergyman at Carlisle. He was educated in the Carlisle grammar school, and entered as a sizar of Magdalene College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1778, being senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman; was elected fellow and appointed tutor of his college, and commenced M.A. in 1781. He was taxer in 1783 and proctor in 1792. In 1794 he was chosen professor of chemistry, and first sought to apply that science to the arts and manufactures, and to combine with its study the practical adjuncts of mechanics and engineering. In 1800 he was collated to the church of St. Giles, Cambridge. He became Jacksonian professor of natural and experimental philosophy in 1813, in succession to the Rev. Francis John Hyde Wollaston. In 1820 he took the degree of B.D., and in 1836 he was instituted to the rectory of Little Stonham, Suffolk, where he died on 12 Jan. 1837.
His only publications are: 1. ‘A Plan of a Course of Lectures on Arts and Manufactures, more particularly such as relate to Chemistry,’ Cambridge, 1796, 8vo, and again 1803 and 1821. 2. ‘Report of the Formation of the Cambridge Auxiliary Bible Society,’ 1812.
[Addit. MS. 19167, f. 242 b; Gent. Mag. new ser. vii. 433; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Graduati Cantabr. (1873), pp. 136, 490, 493; Biog. Dict. of Living Authors, p. 112.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.120
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 208 | i | 38 | Farish, William: before In 1794 insert He was proctor in 1792. |