FRANKLAND, Sir Robert, 7th bt. (1784-1849), of Thirkleby Park, Thirsk, Yorks. and 15 Cavendish Square, London, Mdx.

The Frankland family had been landowners at Thirkleby for more than 250 years, and a Frankland had first been returned as MP for Thirsk in 1628. Both Sir Robert’s father and grandfather had sat for the borough before him.1W. Grainge, The Vale of Mowbray: A Historical and Topographical Account of Thirsk and its neighbourhood (1859), 189; HP Commons, 1754-1790, ii. 468-9. As the Frankland family owned virtually all of the qualifying burgage properties in the constituency, Thirsk’s electoral representation was firmly under their control in the pre-Reform period.2HP Commons, 1820-32, iii. 285-6. Although Thirsk’s electorate increased five-fold in 1832, Sir Robert, who had represented the constituency since 1815, was re-elected unopposed amidst a general feeling that it would be ungrateful to turn out ‘our much respected old representative’.3Daily News, 15 Feb. 1849. However, in 1834, Frankland chose to retire from politics, for reasons which were not made public, although it was later suggested that his distaste for the consequences of Reform was a factor: ‘Unhappy with the Reform Bill… he absented himself from all the divisions on that measure, and resigned his seat two years later’.4J.A.W. Gunn et al. (eds.), Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1835-1837 (1982), 197n. Even after his retirement, Thirsk was regarded by contemporaries (and by Norman Gash) as a proprietary borough under the Frankland family’s control.5Lloyd’s Weekly London Newspaper, 1 Oct. 1843; N. Gash, Politics in the age of Peel (1953), 225, 439. Frankland’s widow oversaw the return of their son-in-law, Sir William Payne Gallwey, who served from 1851 until 1880. Closer analysis, however, reveals that the Franklands’ electoral influence did not go entirely unchallenged.6HP Commons, 1832-1868, ‘Thirsk’. In addition to his electoral interests, Frankland was patron of the living of Kirby-Knowle.7S. Lewis, A topographical dictionary of England (1844), ii. 685.

Frankland had ‘made little mark in the House’ before 1832, being an occasional attender who voted with the Whigs, and the same is true of his brief service after the Reform Act.8HP Commons, 1820-32, v. 224. He voted with ministers in 1833 on the Irish coercion bill, 11 Mar., and supported Howick’s motion that no apprenticed labourer should be liable to be flogged unless convicted of conspiracy and mutiny, 29 July. He opposed radical reforms such as Tennyson’s motion for shorter Parliaments.9Cobbett’s Weekly Political Register, 4 Aug. 1833. He sat on the committee on the Caernarvon election petition in 1833.10H.J. Perry and J.W. Knapp (ed.), Cases of controverted elections in the eleventh Parliament of the United Kingdom (1833), 106. Only five days before he took the Chiltern Hundreds, he voted against Hume’s motion for a fixed and moderate duty on corn, 7 Mar. 1834.

Listed by Dod’s Parliamentary Companion as a ‘moderate Reformer’, Frankland’s political sympathies shifted after his retirement from the Commons.11Dod’s Parliamentary Companion (1833) 114. He was described by Disraeli in 1836 as ‘a Whig who has become Conservative’.12B. Disraeli to S. Disraeli, [14 Dec. 1836], in J.A.W. Gunn et al. (eds.), Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1835-1837 (1982), 197. In 1839 Sir James Graham, who was on good terms with him, suggested to the Conservative organiser Francis Bonham that so far as Thirsk’s representation was concerned, ‘I am sure Sir R[obert Frankland] Russell would support any good Conservative connected with the County who was agreeable to his neighbours’.13Sir J. Graham to F. Bonham, 2 Dec. 1839, British Library, Add. MS. 40616, fo. 142, cited in Gash, Politics in the age of Peel, 225. Prior to the 1841 election, Frankland promoted the candidature of Charles Stuart Wortley in the Conservative interest at Thirsk, although Wortley retired when a prominent local landowner, John Bell, came forward as Liberal candidate.14Hull Packet, 4 Sept. 1840; Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser, 19 June 1841.

In 1836 Frankland inherited the Buckinghamshire estate of Chequers Court from his cousin (and fellow Thirsk MP in the pre-Reform House), Robert Greenhill Russell. In accordance with Russell’s will, Frankland adopted the additional surname of Russell in 1837. Frankland did not proceed with his plans to sell the estate, which Disraeli as a prospective purchaser valued at £50,000, instead employing the architect Edward Buckton Lamb to make improvements.15HP Commons, 1820-32, v. 224. Although now an extensive landowner in Buckinghamshire, Frankland remained politically neutral at elections there.16R.W. Davis, Political change and continuity 1760-1885: a Buckinghamshire study (1972), 176. Frankland also exercised his enthusiasm for architecture in Thirsk, paying for renovations to the chancel of the parish church in 1844 in memory of his daughter, Augusta.17Grainge, Vale of Mowbray, 126. He was a keen amateur artist (particularly of hunting scenes), whose abilities were praised by Landseer.18Sir R.F. Russell, Deer stalking: ten lithographs with a MS. titlepage (1836); R.V. Tooley, English books with coloured plates 1970 to 1860 (1954), 140, 194; N. Major, Chequers (1997), 53. Frankland died in 1849 after an illness of only two days.19Grainge, Vale of Mowbray, 192. His title passed to his cousin Frederick William Frankland, and he left his estates to his wife, who had the church at Thirkleby rebuilt in his honour.20HP Commons, 1820-32, v. 225. His grandson, the Hon. Thomas de Grey (later 6th Baron Walsingham) served as Conservative MP for West Norfolk, 1865-70.21M. Stenton, Who’s Who of Members of Parliament (1976), i. 106.