James Farrell came to South Australia in 1840 to assist the Colonial Chaplain, Charles Beaumont Howard. After Howard died in 1843, Farrell not only took over Howard's work but also eventually married his widow. Farrell was a fiery Irishman and for three years was the only Anglican minister in the colony and, as such, the only person licensed to conduct marriages. He was an accomplished horseman and noted scholar. If it had not been for an unfortunate incident with a lazy housemaid which resulted in Farrell being taken to court - though the case was dismissed - he would almost certainly have been made first Anglican Bishop of Adelaide. Instead, Augustus Short was sent to South Australia in 1847. The two men did not always agree on church issues, and since 1882 their two heads, carved in stone, have glared at one another across the nave of St Peter's Cathedral. Farrell died in Malvern, England in 1869 during a quest to regain his health after accidentally drinking an 'embrocation' containing lead and opium in mistake for a tonic three years earlier.