William M. Franklin - Franklin Family History: From 1425 England to 2018 U.S.A.

Franklin Family History

From 1425 England to 2018 U.S.A.

William M. Franklin

Franklin Family History: From 1425 England to 2018 U.S.A.

Copyright 2018 William M. Franklin

Published by Thomas-Jacob Publishing, LLC

TJPub@thomas-jacobpublishing.com

A ll rights reserved . This book may not be reproduced in its entirety in any medium or format without the express written permission of the publisher. Because this is a genealogical work that others may find helpful, brief passages (no more than 100 words) may be shared as long as a citation is used that gives proper credit to the original author.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. The author and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information.

Paperback information:

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018964313

1. Reference/Genealogy and Heraldry 2. Family and Relationships/Reference

ISBN-10: 0-9979517-7-X

ISBN-13: 978-0-9979517-7-6

Thomas-Jacob Publishing, LLC, Deltona, Florida

First Edition

First Printing: November 2018

Printed in the United States of America

Acknowledgements

F IRST, BEFORE I begin with our history, I want to thank three people who worked very hard to make this possible. First, I want to thank my first cousin, Barbara Jean Franklin, daughter of John Franklin (deceased) who spent years researching the Franklin history in America. Second, I want to thank my son, William Michael Franklin, for accepting the challenge to research our history in England and determine who our ancestors were. Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank my daughter, Dr. Melinda Rae (Franklin) Clayton for her tireless effort in bringing to us many corrections and additional information about our ancestors. Her discovery of a third Robert in the chain allows for many corrections to be made to earlier research.

Important Note Regarding Corrections

P REVIOUS RESEARCH HAS told us that there were only two Roberts in the initial years after our line of the Franklins reached American soil: Robert Franklin I and his son Robert Franklin II. In that research, Robert I was married twice, first to Sarah Puddington and then to Sarah Gott. This is incorrect. Robert I was married to Mary Puddington and remained married to her until he died in 1682. Mary died in 1705.

It was Robert II who married Sarah Gott. Robert II and Sarah had two children: Robert III and Sarah. Robert II died at about 29 years of age. Almost all that has previously been reported about Robert II actually belongs to Robert III.

Hall (1941) is one of our sources. Hall was unaware at the time of his extensive research that there were actually three direct generations of Robert instead of two. In fact, he often expressed confusion regarding conflicting information in the course of his own research of the Franklin family line. When we reference Hall in relation to events that happened to Robert III, its important to know that in his writing, he believed those events happened to Robert II.

Because one Robert was left out of earlier research, many of the dates of birth, marriage, and death we had previously accepted are now proved incorrect, and in some cases, make no sense at all.

Introduction

W HEN TRACING FAMILY history, it can be difficult to know which path to follow, particularly when that history spans hundreds of years and two different continents. The matter is made even more complicated due to the simple fact that historically, women have taken on the surname of their husbands. That, combined with the reality that for centuries women werent allowed to own land, work, or participate in government matters, can make finding detailed, documented information regarding our female ancestors quite difficult.

For these reasons, and to streamline the process as much as possible, we followed the surname Franklin from son to father all the way back to Robert Franklin, born in Skipton-upon-Craven, Yorkshire, England in 1425. Along the way, we included as much information as we could find regarding wives, daughters, careers, and public service.

Although information for the Franklin family does exist before 1425, reliable sources for information such as births, dates, and in some cases even names, become too scarce for us to form a substantial link. The family tree at that point begins to look a little bare.

The name Franklin has been spelled several different ways through the generations; Frankeleyn, Francklyn, Frankland, and Francklin, are just a few of the variations. Although the name is spelled differently on various documents over the centuries, Ill use the modern spelling here in order to be consistent and alleviate any confusion.

Furthermore, the same family names are used repeatedly throughout the generations. When the same father, son, and occasionally grandson share the same name, Ill use I, II, and III to help erase confusion.

The information here is as accurate as were able to make it. In some cases, dates of birth and death vary by a year or more, depending on the sources used. This occurred most often for the first two generations living in North America, likely because during those pre-colonial and early colonial years adequate methods for keeping such records were either not yet developed or were simply not preserved. In those cases, if we were unable to find a reliable source, we chose to use the date most frequently cited. Weve included in-text citations for sourced information as well as a bibliography at the end of the book.