At this time he was a friend of Lord Macduff, who succeeded as sixth Earl Fife in 1879, and when that nobleman sold much of his Scottish estates he invested the proceeds in Scott's bank.

It seemed that he had given large sums of the money to the coalition leader David Lloyd George, whose trading in honours had prompted the Conservative rebellion.

Lord Farquhar died at his London home, 7 Grosvenor Square, on 30 August 1923, and was buried at Bromley Hill cemetery in Kent on 11 September following.

In his will he left many large legacies to his friends, including members of the Royal Family, but although his estate was assessed for probate at £400,000 the entire sum was taken up by debts, leaving nothing and revealing that Farquhar had been an undisclosed bankrupt.

Lord Farquhar's success in business as well as society has been attributed not only to his shrewdness with making money, but also to his ability to use his "physical charms" to get ahead.

He was very generous with his hospitality at his London house and at Castle Rising, his country place in Norfolk, but nevertheless, and perhaps because of the wealth and honours he accumulated, he remained an unpopular figure.

Burke's Peerage describes him as "a cavalier financier and conduit for subscriptions to party political funds (both Conservative and Lloyd George Liberal) by aspirates to titles; as the full extent of his irregular business dealings became apparent after his death he was considered lucky to have escaped prosecution for fraud while alive.