Franklin, which had formerly been the name of a particular order of individuals.[1]
This petty eſtate would not have ſuſſiced for their ſubſiſtence, had they not added the trade of blackſmith, which was perpetuated in the family down to my uncle's time, the eldeſt ſon having been uniformly brought up to this employment: a cuſtom which both he and my father obſerved with reſpect to their eldeſt ſons.
In the reſearches I made at Eaton, I found no account of their births, marriages, and deaths, earlier than the year 1555; the pariſh regiſter not extending farther back than that period.
- ↑ As a proof that Franklin was anciently the common name of an order or rank in England, ſee Judge Forteſcue, De laudibus legum Anglæ, written about the year 1412, in which is the following paſſage, to ſhew that good juries might eaſily be formed in any part of England:
"Regio etiam illa, ita reſperſa reſertaque eſt poſſeſſoribus terrarum et agrorum, quod in ea, villula tam parva reperiri non poterit, in qua non eſt miles, armiger, vel pater-familias, qualis ibidem franklin vulgariter nuncupatur, magnis ditatus poſſeſſionibus, nec non libere tenentes et alii valecti plurimi, fuis patrimoniis ſuſſicientes, ad faciendum juratum, in forma prænotata."
"Moreover the ſame country is ſo filled and repleniſhed with landed menne, that therein ſo ſmall a thorpe cannot be found wherein dwelleth not a knight, an eſquire, or ſuch a houſeholder as is there commonly called a franklin, enriched with great poſſeſſions; and alſo other freeholders and many yeomen, able for their livelihoodes to make a jury in form aforementioned."
Old Translation.Chancer too calls his country gentleman a franklin, and after deſcribing his good houſekeeping, thus characteriſes him:
This worthy franklin bore a purſe of ſilk,
Fix'd to his girdle, white as morning milk.
Knight of the ſhire, firſt juſtice at th' aſſize,
To help the poor, the doubtful to adviſe.
In all employments, generous, juſt he prov'd,
Renown'd for courteſy, by all belov'd.
