Nicholas Farnham

Who was Nicholas Farnham?

Nicholas Farnham was a medieval Bishop of Durham.

Farnham was probably a native of Farnham, Surrey. He studied at Oxford University before moving on to study at Paris and Bologna. At Paris he first studied theology, but later moved to medicine. He taught at the University of Bologna as a teacher of medicine before moving to England. He was at Paris when the riots of 1229 drove many teachers out of Paris. Farnham came to England because of King Henry III's offers of teaching chairs at Oxford to those displaced by the riots.

Farnham was a royal physician before he became confessor to the king and queen in 1237. In 1239, the cathedral chapter of Coventry elected him Bishop of Coventry, but Farnham refused the office. He was elected to the see of Durham on 2 January 1241 and at first he wanted to decline the office, but Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln persuaded him to accept. Farnham was consecrated as bishop on either 26 May or 9 June 1241.

While bishop, Farnham continued to work for the king. In 1241 he was mediating with King Alexander II of Scotland, and in 1242 he was involved in the negotiatons over the marriage of King Henry's daughter Margaret to the future Alexander III of Scotland. As a bishop, he became embroiled in a dispute with a dependency of St Alban's Priory, which was finally settled in 1248 in the priory's favor. The set of constitutions, or laws, he issued for the clergy of his diocese were heavily based on his predecessor's constitutions as well as Grosseteste's for Lincoln.