When John Farnum was born in 1640, in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, his father, Ralph Farnham I, was 37 and his mother, Alice, was 33. He married Rebecca Kent on 12 November 1667, in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America. They were the parents of at least 10 sons and 3 daughters. He died on 17 June 1723, in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, at the age of 83, and was buried in North Andover, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.