Francis Patrick McFarland (April 16, 1819 – October 2, 1874) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Hartford from 1858 until his death in 1874.

His parents, John McFarland and Mary McKeever, emigrated to the United States from Armagh in Ireland.

While teaching at St. John's, he also made missionary journeys to remote parts of the diocese, frequently visiting the sick in Stamford, Connecticut.

He left St. John's to serve as an assistant pastor at the Church of St. Joseph in the Greenwich Village section of New York City.

The diocese in 1846 then assigned McFarland to conduct missionary work out of St. Mary's Church in Watertown in the North Country region of New York State.

He was consecrated at St. Patrick's Church in Providence, Rhode Island on March 14, 1858, by Archbishop Hughes; the sermon was delivered by Bishop McCloskey.[3].

After the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, he encouraged Catholics to actively support the federal government.

The Vatican erected the Diocese of Providence in 1872 and McFarland decided to remain as bishop in Hartford.

He visited Aiken, South Carolina, a popular winter resort and then Richlands, Virginia, in efforts to rebuild his strength.

[4] After the cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1958, McFarland's remains were re-interred with those of other bishops in Mount Saint Benedict Cemetery in Bloomfield, Connecticut.