Farthings usually followed solid, traditional occupations of Ag Labs, carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, tailors, drapers, merchants, grocers, drapers, bakers, chemists, the military and so far, just one rat catcher. Others teetered towards infamy appearing in court cases; some were petty criminals but there were also bankrupts, convicts, a highwayman and a suspected bigamist. To redress the balance, there were clergymen including the Bishop of Montreal The Rev. John Cragg Farthing and a Baptist missionary who sadly together with his wife and small children was murdered during the Boxer rebellion in China in 1900.