Sir Anthony Farrington, 1st Baronet

Sir Anthony Farrington, 1st Baronet (1742–1823) was a general and colonel-commandant first battalion royal artillery. He served in Gibraltar and in the American War of Independence.

Life
Farrington was born on 6 February 1742, the son of lieutenant-colonel Charles Farrington and Ann born Crouche. He entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as a cadet 3 March 1754, was appointed a lieutenant fireworker in 1755, and a second lieutenant the following year. He became a lieutenant-colonel in December 1782, colonel 1791, major-general 1795, lieutenant-general 1802 and a general in 1812. He served at Gibraltar from 1759 to 63 where he was promoted to captain-lieutenant, and at New York and elsewhere in America 1764–8 where he became a captain. Returning to New York in 1773, he continued to serve in America until May 1783. He was at Boston in 1774–1776 including the Battle of Bunker's Hill, Brooklyn, Long Island, White Plains, the Battle of Brandywine, during the American War of Independence. He commanded the artillery at Plymouth in 1788–9. He was at Gibraltar in 1790–1 and there is a fortification there called Farrington's Battery that was named after him, although the spelling has now changed. He was commandant at Woolwich from 1794 to 1797, and he commanded the artillery of the expedition to The Helder, under the Duke of York, in September 1799. On his return he was shipwrecked off Yarmouth.

Farrington was appointed commandant of the field-train department in 1802, and in 1805 president of a select committee of artillery officers. In 1805 he was appointed inspector-general of artillery with the rank and style of director of the field-train department of the ordnance. In 1818 Farrington was created a baronet in recognition of his services. In 1820 the University of Oxford gave him the honorary degree of D.C.L after sixty-eight years of military service. Farrington died on 3 November 1823, at his home in Blackheath.

He married on 9 March 1766 Elizabeth Corden from New York. They had two sons and three daughters. Their eldest child, Charles Colden Farrington, born in 1770, died a captain in the 33rd foot in 1796, but he left a son, Charles Henry Farrington, who became a captain in the 31st foot, and succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his grandfather.