Ferrar was elected treasurer—effectively deputy governor—to Sir Edwin Sandys on 23 April 1619 and went on to play a significant role in the Virginia Company. He and his brother Nicholas were instrumental in the company's management, administration and preservation in the Americas. Charles. M Gayley believed that, "these Men and their fellow patriots were already, by the charters of 1609 [and] 1618, the founders of representative government in Virginia, and by the 1620 Charter of representative government in New England as well".
