Forms: 4–7 fermour(e, (5 farmowre), 5 farmor, 5–7 fermer, -or, 6 farmar, -our, fermar, 6– farmer. Also 6–7 Sc. FERMORER. [a. AF. fermer (Britton), F. fermier:—med.L. firmārius, f. firma: see FARM sb.2 Now usually apprehended as agent-n. f. FARM v.2 + -ER1; some mod. uses may be properly regarded as belonging to this formation and not to the older word.
In the early recorded forms the suffix -er has been replaced by -our, so that the word apparently corresponds to the synonymous med.L. firmātor, one who takes something on lease (Du Cange), agent-n. f. firmāre in sense to contract for, become responsible for.]
1. One who undertakes the collection of taxes, revenues, etc., paying a fixed sum for the proceeds.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., Prol. 358.
| Hym oughte nat be tryaunt and crewel | |
| As is a fermour, to don the harm he can. |
1420. E. E. Wills (1882), 52. Be paide off my goodeȝ that is in the Coillors or in þe fermors handes off my rent.
1491. Act 7 Hen. VII., c. 14. The Bailly fermour or receivour … for the tyme of the seid Kyng.
1569. J. Parkhurst, Injunctions. No Parson Vicar, propriatorie or fermer of any benefice, doe [etc.].
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1539/1. Thomas Smith … farmer of hir majesties customs inwards.
1641. Art. Impeachm. Bp. M. Wren, in Rushw., Hist. Coll. (1692), III. I. 354. He … sold … the profits of his Primary Visitation … and for the better benefit of the Farmer, set forth a Book.
1642. trans. Perkins’ Prof. Bk., i. § 5. 3. If a Monke or other Religious man be farmour unto the Kings Majestie, and made a sale or a bargaine of a thing concerning his farme, such sale or bargaine is good.
1659. B. Harris, trans. Parival’s The History of This Iron Age, 205. Questioning the Farmers of the Custom-house, for levying Tunnage and Poundage.
1706. Hearne, Collect., 16 Feb. The Priests and Tyth Farmers.
1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, 114. Tobacco and Lead may both of them have been sent to France during the War, by Way of Holland; yet these Commodities being under Monopolies in France, the Farmers of them took the whole Quantity they could vend at any Price.
1788. Priestley, Lect. Hist., V. lxiii. 508. Taxes are raised with the least trouble to the government by means of farmers, who advance the money as it is wanted.
1838–42. Arnold, Hist. Rome, III. xlii. 57. He [the freedman of the ancient world] might go out as a farmer of the taxes to Sicily, and acquire an immense fortune at the expense of the province.
1864. H. Ainsworth, John Law, I. v. We must proceed slowly but surely—suppress all useless expenses—retrench in every department—and adopt the most energetic measures against all contractors, speculators, farmers of revenues, and others, who have enriched themselves at the cost of the state, and compel them to disgorge their illicit gains.
b. Mining. The lessee of ‘the lot and cope of the king’ (see COPE sb.3 3).
1653. Manlove, Lead Mines, 3.
| Then one half meer at either end is due, | |
| And to the Lord or Farmers doth accrew. | |
| Ibid., 5. | |
| And see that right be done from time to time, | |
| Both to the Lord, and Farmers, on the mine. |
c. The lessee of a government monopoly.
1662. J. Davies, Voy. Ambass., 194. The King of Persia farms out the fishing of the Caspian towards the mouths of Rivers, which brings him in very considerable sums of Money, many times more than the Farmers make thereof.
† 2. gen. One who rents or has a lease of anything; a lessee. Obs.
1523. Act 14–15 Hen. VIII., c. 13. Every owner, fermer, and occupier of the said weres.
3. spec. One who rents land for the purpose of cultivation; = tenant farmer. Now chiefly as a contextual application of 5.
1487. Act 4 Hen. VII., c. 16. The Occupier and Fermer of them … to be discharged against his Lessor of the Rent.
1523. Fitzherbert, The Boke of Husbandry, § 123. Thoughe a man be but a farmer, and shall haue hys farme .xx. yeres, it is lesse coste for hym, and more profyte, to quyckeset, dyche, and hedge, than to haue his cattell goo before the herdeman.
1577. Harrison, England, II. v. (1877), I. 133. The yeomen are for the most part farmers to gentlemen.
† 4. One who cultivates land for the owner; a bailiff, steward. Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Luke xvi. 1. Ther was sum riche man, that hadde a fermour, ethir a baily.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 281. They shall haue ye kyngdome of heuen, not as baylyes or fermers, but as possessyoners.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 145. Architas … sent for his farmour, vnto whome hee sayde, if I [etc.].
1580. Baret, Alv., F 146. Fermer, or gouernour of a ferme, villicus.
5. One who cultivates a farm, whether as tenant or owner; one who ‘farms’ land, or makes agriculture his occupation.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, Ded.
| Ioue-loued wittes may write of what they will, | |
| But meaner Theams beseeme a Farmers quill. |
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. (1843), 40/2. Many gentlemen and farmers, had … good farms … of their own inheritance.
1666. Wood, Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), II. 86. Many fermers broke; clapt up in prison becasue they cannot pay their rent, corne being soe cheap.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., II. 18 July. I eat like a farmer, sleep from mid-night till eight in the morning without interruption, and enjoy a constant tide of spirits, equally distant from inanition and excess.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 15. The general experience of farmers had long before convinced the unprejudiced of the truth of the same opinion, and that manures were absolutely consumed in the process of vegetation.
1849. Cobden, Speeches, 2. We have often, gentlemen, met in this hall to advocate a cause which has brought upon us the charge of being the farmers’ enemies; and now we come forward in another character—we appear here as the farmers’ friends.
b. dial. The eldest son of the occupier of a farm.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, s.v. One labourer would ask another, ‘Did my master set out that job?’ And would be answered, ‘No, my master didn’t, but the farmer did.’
6. One who undertakes to perform (a specified work or service) at a fixed price.
1865. Morn. Star, 26 June. It might be the interest of the farmer [of the permanent way] to starve the repairs … as much as possible.
b. One who undertakes the charge of children for a fixed sum. Usually baby-farmer.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist (1850), 83/1. ‘It’s very much blotted, sir,’ said the farmer of infants.
1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses Lond., iii. 45. It is to the ‘farmers’’ interest and profit to keep down their expenditure in the nursery at as low an ebb as is consistent with the bare existence of its luckless inhabitants. Ibid., iii. 57. Anyone however ignorant, and brutal, and given to slipping down stairs, may start as a baby-farmer, with liberty to do as she pleases with the helpless creatures placed in her charge.
7. slang. a. An alderman.
1848. Duncombe, Sinks of Lond., Gloss.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. (Farmer).
b. A hare (Kent).
8. Comb. a. Simple attributive, as farmer-commonwealth, -proprietary. b. Similative, as farmer-like, farmer-looking adjs.
1851. Literary Gaz., 27 Dec., 924/3. His burly form and uncouth, farmer-looking appearance.
1868. Bright, in Star, 14 March. Would it not be possible … to establish to some extent … a farmer proprietary throughout the country?
1874. Green, Short Hist., i. 3. Each little-farmer-commonwealth was girt in by its own border.
1891. Daily News, 10 Sept., 2/1. A field whose profusion of weeds would have sorely exercised the farmer-like soul of Mr. Poyser.
