The village of Clapham, in Yorkshire, lies at the foot of Ingleborough, close to a station of the Leeds and Lancaster Railway. Here the parish register between 1708 and 1730 shows that ‘Richard ffaraday’ recorded the births of ten children. He is described as of Keasden, stonemason and tiler, a ‘separatist;’ and he died in 1741. No earlier record of Faraday's family can be found.

It seems not unlikely that the birth of an eleventh child, Robert, in 1724, was never registered. Whether this Robert was the son or nephew of Richard cannot be certainly known: however, it is certain that he married Elizabeth Dean, the owner of Clapham Wood Hall.

This Hall was of some beauty, and of a style said to be almost peculiar to the district between Lancaster, Kirkby Lonsdale, and Skipton. The porch had a gableend and ornamented lintel with the initials of the builder (the proprietor); and the windows, with three or four mullions and label or string-course, had a very good effect. It was partly pulled down some twenty to an extreme, and it troubled him very much: from this consideration he strove to make all things look as well as he could, and he had some hope within a little of his death that he happen might mend, which is very natural for all people.