Farley was appointed Deputy Chamberlain of the Exchequer in 1736 and became responsible for the public records held in the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey.
[1] First among these was Domesday Book, of which Farley became custodian, granting visiting antiquaries access to make transcripts for a fee.
Following a Parliamentary order in 1767, Farley was appointed co-editor of the Domesday printing project in 1770, alongside Charles Morton of the British Museum.
In his Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, the printer John Nichols remarked that Morton and Farley’s relationship was characterised by rivalry and mistrust.
Farley, whom Nichols called "of all men the properest person for so important a trust", due to his "long and intimate acquaintance with the original record", evidently considered himself best fitted to produce the landmark work.