Karen has showed me a scan of the 1915 notarised document drawn up by Alexander Franklin, which basically sets out his son Stanley’s tree up to Stanley’s grandparents. There is no doubt that Geo Thomas Franklin was stated by his son to be “a native of Stotfold, Beds.”
This is too precise to be something he is likely to have fabricated. Karen, do all the other details in the document stand scrutiny?
There are no Franklins in Stotfold in 1841 and no references to Franklin in Stotfold parish register earlier than this date, so if Alexander’s statement is correct his father must have arrived in Stotfold shortly after this. Even if the whole family were Baptists/non-conformists which is what Thomas professed to be in Canada in 1881, and were missing altogether from the parish register they would still have been included in the 1841 census in Stotfold.
The 1851 census in Stotfold shows numerous Franklins, with John and Sarah the oldest, with a number of their children, some married with their own families, others living with them:
- Henry Franklin b Langford 1816, son of John & Sarah married in Biggleswade in 1841 and settled in Stotfold by 1842/3 where he had his first child (1861 census)
- Joseph Franklin, chr 1825 Langford, son of John Franklin married in Stotfold in 1846
It looks as though John and Sarah Franklin and their family moved to Stotfold from nearby Langford around 1842.
John Franklin married Sarah Pear on 14 Jun 1815 at Langford (IGI) which was not long after his discharge age 35 (??) from the 40th Foot Regiment in 1814 with which he had served since 1805 (
http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk )
He was described on the 1851 census as a Chelsea Pensioner ie ex regular soldier.
This extended family were the only Franklins in Stotfold in the period 1842-1861, so if Alexander’s sworn statement is to be believed it must be from this family that his father came.
There is only one Thomas in the family, whose age is only a year or so adrift from his age in the 1881 Canadian census. However this Thomas married Phillis Underlin in Stotfold on 4 Feb 1849, and they had four children, in 1850, 1851, 1855 and 1858.
Thomas does not appear on the 1861 census with his family, although Phillis is described as married and head of the family. By inference Thomas was not living with Phillis, if the married description is accurate (as opposed to widow).
It might be useful to see if there are any Stotfold parish chest references to this family, which might explain Thomas’ non appearance in 1861, if these records have survived.
I have tried to find out who was living at the two addresses shown on Thomas’s marriage cert in 1861, but so far without success. However in 1851 6 Robert St appears to have been the Caledonian Hotel (numbers stop at 5 which is then followed by the hotel) so it doesn’t seem as though Pimlico was his normal abode.
If Thomas hadn’t been married I don’t think we would have had many doubts about picking him on the evidence to hand. Just about everything fits, or thereabouts. Apart from the minor detail of his wife Phillis!
The other problem is that I can’t find him or his father in 1841. They weren’t in Biggleswade workhouse or in Langford or Stotfold. His mother Sarah 45, Henry 25, James 11 and Sarah 8 were living in Langford, along with a Lucy Franklin 20 living elsewhere in the village. Could Thomas, as Cathy has suggested, have been a soldier like his father? Was he old enough at 13/14 to have enlisted by 1841? I can’t find out the minimum enlistment age at that period.
It may be a case of waiting for Ancestry.com to index the 1841 and 1851 censuses to look for the missing people – finding Alice Healy/Cousins in 1851 might be helpful. 1851 may be indexed as early as the end of this year.
But I doubt if you can ever prove categorically that Thomas who married Alice was the same Thomas born in Langford who lived and married in Stotfold. But there’s a fair amount of circumstantial evidence.
Regards
David
