Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/453

This page needs to be proofread.

FRANKLIN him, perished one by one in their journey southward. He had reached the rank of rear admiral. In 1860 parliament voted 2,000 for a statue of Franklin, to be erected in Lon- don. See Oapt. F. L. McOlintock, " Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Frank- lin " (London and Boston, 1860) ; Capt. S. Os- born, " The Career, Last Voyage, and Fate of Sir John Franklin" (London, 1860); also the works of Kane, Richardson, Inglefield, &c. II. Eleanor Ann, an English poetess, first wife of the preceding, born in July, 1795. Her father, William Porden, was the architect of Eaton hall, and of other noted buildings. Al- most unassisted she taught herself Greek and Latin when only 11 or 12 years old. She soon acquired several other languages, and a general knowledge of all the principal sciences, espe- cially of botany, chemistry, and geology. At the age of 15 she began to write, and in her 17th year she produced a poem in 6 cantos, " The Veils, or the Triumphs of Constancy," which attracted considerable attention on its publication in 1815. Her next publication, " The Arctic Expedition, a Poem" (1818), led to her acquaintance with Capt. Franklin, and to their marriage in August, 1823. In 1822 her longest and best poem, " Cceur de Lion, or the Third Crusade," in 16 cantos, was published.* She died of consumption, Feb. 22, 1825, the day after her husband sailed on his second ex- pedition to the Arctic shores. Her poems, with the exception of "Coeur de Lion," were collected and published in London in 1827. HI. Lady Jane, second wife of Sir John Frank- lin, distinguished for the devoted perseverance with which she labored for the rescue of her husband, and for the discovery of his fate, born about 1805. She was the second daughter of John Griffin, and is of French Huguenot de- scent on her mother's side. While in Tasmania she paid out of her private purse a bounty of 10 shillings each for the destruction of a dan- gerous species of serpent, which in consequence was soon exterminated. She expended nearly all her fortune in the search for her husband, but she has not ceased, since the certain news of his death, to be constantly identified with philanthropic and scientific plans, having been a promoter of many of the most useful public charities in England, while taking a keen in- terest in all schemes of foreign exploration. In February, 1872, she bought Franklin house, in Lincolnshire, intending to collect there the relics of Sir John's expeditions. FRANKLIN, William, the last royal governor of New Jersey, an illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin, born in Philadelphia in 1729, died in England, Nov. 17, 1813. It is not known who his mother was. About a year after his birth his father married, took the child into his house, and brought him up as his son. In childhood he was remarkably fond of books, and of an adventurous disposition. During the French war (1744-'8) he obtained a commis- sion in the Pennsylvania forces, with which he served in one or two campaigns on the Canadian frontier, and rose to be captain before he was of age. From 1754 to 1756 he was comptroller of the general post office, and during part of the same period was clerk of the provincial assembly. In 1757 he accompanied his father to London, where he was admitted to the bar in 1758. In 1762 he was appointed governor of New Jersey, to which province he returned the next year. In the revolutionary contest he remained loyal to Great Britain, and some of his letters containing strong expressions of tory sentiments having been intercepted, a guard * was put over him in January, 1776, to prevent his escape from Perth Amboy. He gave his parole that he would not leave the province, but in June he issued a proclamation as gover- nor of New Jersey summoning a meeting of the abrogated legislative assembly. For this he was arrested by order of the provincial con- gress of New Jersey and removed to Burling- ton. He was soon after sent to Connecticut, where he was strictly guarded for upward of two years, till in November, 1778, he was ex- changed for Mr. McKinley, president of Dela- ware, who had fallen into the hands of the enemy. Gov. Franklin after his liberation re- mained in New York till August, 1782, when he sailed for England, in which country he con- tinued to reside till his death. The English government granted him 1,800 in remunera- tion of his losses, and a pension of 800 per annum. William Franklin's adhesion to the royal cause led to an estrangement between him and his father, which continued after the revolutionary contest was over. Dr. Franklin bequeathed to William his lands in Nova Scotia, and released him from all debts that his execu- tors might find to be due from him, and added this clause : " The part he acted against me in the late war, which is of public notoriety, will account for my leaving him no more of an estate he endeavored to deprive me of." FRANKLIN, William Bnel, an American soldier, born in York, Penn., Feb. 27, 1823. He gradu- ated first in his class at West Point in 1843, and was stationed on the survey of the northern lakes. In the summer of 1845 he accompanied an expedition to the South pass of the Rocky mountains under command of Brig. Gen. Kear- ny, and in the following year was engaged in the survey of Ossabaw sound, Georgia. He served on the staff of Gen. Taylor at the bat- tle of Buena Vista, and was bre vetted first lieu- tenant for his part in it. In June, 1848, he was ordered to West Point as assistant pro- fessor of natural and experimental philosophy ; and in February, 1852, he was appointed pro- fessor of natural and experimental philosophy and civil engineering at the New York city free academy. During the next eight years he was continually employed as consulting engineer and inspector on various public works, par- ticularly harbors and lighthouses, having been engineer secretary of the lighthouse board, and superintendent of the capitol extension and