Marginalia & Mischief: Farrer Doodles

Item: Latin textbooks owned by 19th-century Farrer family members.

What is it? Schoolbooks containing sketches and doodles by a future partner of the firm.

Why it matters: A light-hearted but touching glimpse into the early lives of the family behind the partnership - and a rare humanising moment in the archive.

Background

Boredom, ink, and heritage

For decades, a bookcase in the Peacock Room held a remarkable collection of 18th- and 19th-century volumes - not legal texts, but family books, once owned by generations of the Farrer family.

Among them were Latin schoolbooks, used by young Farrers in their student days. Flicking through their pages revealed something unexpected: sketches and idle doodles, drawn in the margins by schoolboys who clearly found Caesar and Cicero less than thrilling.

Frederick Willis Farrer: Lawyer in the making

One such textbook appears to have belonged to Frederick Willis Farrer (1829–1909). Though he may have spent his school days daydreaming in Latin class, he went on to become a partner in Farrer & Co, continuing the family’s extraordinary legal lineage.

Frederick was part of a six-generation, father-to-son succession of Farrers in the firm - a continuity that lasted until the retirement of his great-grandson, Mark Farrer, in 1999, the last Farrer to serve as a partner.

Why it matters

These playful annotations may seem trivial, but they offer a rare, personal connection to the family behind the firm’s long history. They remind us that behind every name in the archives was a personality - sometimes studious, sometimes distracted - whose life and work helped shape the legacy we inherit.

Farrer & Co, 66 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3LH, United Kingdom

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