In 1796, his family removed to Dansville, then a settlement in the Town of Sparta, in Ontario County, now a village in the Town of North Dansville in Livingston County.
In 1807, Faulkner went to Painted Post to study medicine.
He was also a Justice of the Peace, Town Clerk, and for 26 years Postmaster of Dansville.
Faulkner was Supervisor of the Town of North Dansville from 1815 to 1821, and a member of the New York State Assembly (Livingston Co.) in 1825 and 1826.
In 1835, he was appointed an associate judge of the Livingston County Court.