William Smyth was Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield from 1493 to 1496 and then Bishop of Lincoln until his death. He held political offices, the most important being Lord President of the Council of Wales and the Marches. He became very wealthy and was a benefactor of a number of institutions. He was a co-founder of Brasenose College, Oxford and endowed a grammar school in the village of his birth in Lancashire.

Farnworth is an area of the town of Widnes in North West England. A village between Prescot and Penketh, it is an electoral ward in the Borough of Halton with a population in 2004 of 6,300.