FRANCKLYN, Sir John (1600-1648), of Dollis Hill, Willesden, Mdx.

In his will of 1585, Francklyn’s grandfather had described himself as a yeoman, but there is no doubt that he was a man of substance, and by the time of the death of his father in 1615 the family owned extensive landed interests in Middlesex and seven other counties.28HP Commons 1604-29 iv. 311; Herts. RO, DE/B242/68287. Francklyn was admitted as fellow-commoner of Peterhouse in 1614, knighted later in the same year, and entered Gray’s Inn in 1615.29Al. Cant.; Shaw, Knights of Eng. i. 154; G. Inn Admiss. i. 138. He was well connected in his home county of Middlesex, being first cousin to Sir William Roberts*, whose family were the prominent landowners around Willesden, while his sister married Sir John Smythe II† in 1617, with a marriage portion of £4,000.30VCH Mdx. v. 118; Chamberlain Letters, ed. McClure, ii. 62; Lysons, Environs iii. 622. Sir John Francklyn stood for the seat of Middlesex in 1624, with the support of his uncle, Edward Roberts†, but was unsuccessful. He went on to secure the seat in 1625, and was also a candidate, with the backing of the 1st duke of Buckingham, at Rye. In 1626 and 1628 he represented the Wiltshire seat of Wootton Bassett, on the interest of his new father-in-law, George Purefoy, but made little impact on the proceedings of the House.31HP Commons 1604-1629.

During the 1630s Francklyn was closely involved in the affairs of Middlesex, which he had served as a justice of the peace since 1625 and where he then received a number of local appointments. In September 1630 he was nominated commissioner for distraint of knighthood and in November (when the former post was confirmed) he was also named as the magistrate responsible for managing the grain trade in the county.32CSP Dom. 1629-31, p. 342; E178/7163, m. 5; APC 1630-1, p. 130. In May 1637 he was appointed as a commissioner to re-introduce an old statute for all adult males to learn archery, an activity in which he had long had an interest.33CSP Dom. 1637, p. 66; Add. 6316, f. 30. By the end of the decade, however, Francklyn had become less cooperative, and in April 1639 he did not answer a privy council letter requesting contributions to the king’s campaign against the Scots.34Rushworth, Hist. Collns. iii. 914. He was re-elected for Middlesex in April 1640, leaving no trace on the records of the session. Thereafter, his lack of sympathy towards the regime became more obvious. In the summer he was a collector of coat and conduct money, but performed his duties at best half-heartedly, declining to collect the small sums levied on the poor, and in July requesting to be excused from this service altogether on grounds of ill health.35CSP Dom. 1640, p. 543.

Francklyn was again returned for Middlesex in the autumn of 1640. From the very beginning of the session, he showed a deep concern with religious issues, especially the need to suppress Catholicism. On 9 November 1640 he was appointed to the committee on recusancy, with powers to discover papists in London and to disarm them.36CJ ii. 24b. In the spring of 1641 he shared the fear of many MPs that Parliament itself was threatened, and this may have prompted him to lend £500 to the Houses, on security, at the beginning of March.37D’Ewes (N), 435. He took the Protestation 3 May.38CJ ii. 128b, 129b, 133a. In the next few weeks, Francklyn was involved in investigations into the nefarious activities of papists in Middlesex and beyond. On 4 May he was ordered to instruct the Middlesex justices of the peace about measures against Catholics; on 8 May he was named to a committee on a bill repeal previous laws concerning recusants; and on 12 May he was one of those appointed to search Lady Shelly’s house and to question her servants.39CJ ii. 134b, 139a, 144a; Harl. 163, f. 197v; Harl. 477, f. 61v. On 14 May he was named to a committee to consider information on ‘dangerous words’ spoken by Catholics and to summon recusants who remained in London despite the royal proclamation.40CJ ii. 147a. On 26 May he was ordered to tender the oaths of supremacy and allegiance on Catholic courtiers, including Sir Kenelm Digby and Sir John Wynter, and this was confirmed by letters patent of 31 May.41CJ ii. 158a; Harl. 163, f. 249. On 24 June Francklyn was appointed with Laurence Whitaker* to arrange for the seizure of houses belonging to suspected priests; on 2 July he was appointed as a commissioner for enquiring after money owed by recusants; and on 13 July he and Sir Gilbert Gerard* were instructed, in their capacity as Middlesex magistrates, to search the house of one Mrs Mills, believed to harbour priests and Jesuits, and to confiscate ‘Mass stuff’.42CJ ii. 184a, 197a, 208b; Harl. 479, f. 57.

Alongside this obsession with the threat posed by Catholicism, Francklyn was committed to reforming the established church. On 19 December 1640 he was named to a committee to consider petitions for the provision of preaching ministers, which was also charged with deciding how to remove scandalous ministers from their livings.43CJ ii. 54b. Perhaps in connection with this, on 1 January 1641 he was also named to the Committee of Petitions.44CJ ii. 61b. Francklyn was named to committees on bills to reform abuses in ecclesiastical courts (27 Apr.) and to settle an impropriate rectory in Staffordshire (28 Apr.).45CJ ii. 128b, 129b. He was named to two committees to make St Paul’s Covent Garden into a separate parish (25 May) and to divide the parish of St Andrew’s, Holborn (17 June).46CJ ii. 156a, 177b. On 2 July he was named to the committee on a bill to confirm the statues of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, famed for its puritan leanings.47CJ ii. 197a.

The summer of 1641 saw a cooling of tensions between the king and his Parliament, and this was reflected in Francklyn’s activity in the Commons, which became more measured. On 14 July he was added to a committee to consider what parliamentary business needed to be conducted before 10 August – the date set for the king’s departure for Scotland.48CJ ii. 211a. The next day he was appointed to a committee to draft a bill for regulating the trained bands and supplies of arms and ammunition.49CJ ii. 212b. On 30 August he was named to a committee to consider a petition from Hertfordshire, and, in the only sign of his former concern for popish sedition, on the same day the Lords appointed him as one of the responsible for disarming Catholics in Middlesex.50CJ ii. 276a; LJ iv. 385b. On 9 September he was named to the Recess Committee, to manage affairs while Parliament adjourned.51CJ ii. 288b.

News of the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion, which reached Westminster on 1 November, reignited Francklyn’s anti-Catholic fervour. On 3 November he and Gerard were sent to the Tower to question those who visited the Queen’s confessor, Father Phillips, and to tender the oath of allegiance to them.52CJ ii. 304b; D’Ewes (C), 76, 79. A few days later he was ordered to search the houses of the 5th earl of Worcester and Sir Basil Brooke for persons suspected of high treason, including priests.53CJ ii. 317a; D’Ewes (C), 148. The vulnerability of Parliament to plots by Catholics and others remained a concern. Francklyn had been appointed to committees concerning guards at the end of October and beginning of November, and on 17 November he was instructed to appoint guards for the safety of the Commons.54CJ ii. 294a, 303a, 318a. Others were also taking the initiative, and on 13 December Francklyn was appointed by the House to examine the Middlesex magistrate, George Long, who had been imprisoned in the Tower for sending an armed guard to Westminster on the warrant of the lord keeper.55CJ ii. 340a. This appears to have been a misunderstanding, rather than something more sinister, as on 21 December Francklyn himself presented Long’s petition for forgiveness to the House.56D’Ewes (C), 326.

The attempt to arrest the Five Members and the departure of the king soon afterwards, did little to allay tensions in January 1642. In the immediate aftermath, Francklyn redoubled his efforts to prevent any conspiracy against Parliament. On 12 January he was ordered to arrange for the search of Sir James Hamilton’s house, and when nothing was found he was named, the following day, to a committee to process similar allegations – a body that would evolve into the Committee for Examinations.57CJ ii. 375a-b; PJ i. 43, 49, 56n. A week later he was named to a committee to consider an order for disarming recusants, and on 27 January he was again instructed to search the house of Sir Basil Brooke and examine his servants.58CJ ii. 387a, 398b; PJ i. 188, 192. Francklyn was also prepared to fund Parliament’s activities, both in England and Ireland. On 1 February he agreed to continue his loan to Parliament, now increased to £1,000, on condition that it be returned on a month’s notice, and on 18 February an order was drawn up for its repayment.59CJ ii. 408b, 440a. He also contributed £600 to the Irish Adventure in March. During the spring and summer of 1642, Francklyn continued to support Parliament’s firm stance against the king. On 16 April he was appointed to a committee to consider those who had refused to subscribe to the Protestation across the country; on 23 April he was ordered to issue warrants for the arrest of priests and suspicious persons named by Sir Walter Erle*; and on 6 May he was appointed to a committee of both Houses to consider a report concerning the prince of Wales and his governor, the royalist 1st marquess of Hertford.60CJ ii. 530a, 539b, 562a. Francklyn asserted his personal commitment to the parliamentary cause on 10 June with an offer to bring in four horses and maintain them at his own expense.61N. and Q. (ser. 1), xii. 338. In response to this and other provocations, in July the king removed him from the Middlesex commission of the peace.62C231/5, p. 533. Francklyn was unrepentant. On 17 July he was appointed to a committee to receive information about preparations for war made in Yorkshire and to consider how to prevent them; and in July and August he was named to two committees on Ireland, to consider the state of the province of Munster and the plight of Protestant refugees.63CJ ii. 630a, 673b, 713a.

With the outbreak of civil war, Francklyn was increasingly involved in military affairs in London and Middlesex. In early November, with fears in London of a royalist attack on the City, he was appointed to three committees concerning the provision of food and arms in and around the capital.64CJ ii. 829a, 846a, 647b. On 5 November he was ordered to secure the artillery pieces kept at the Military Yard in Westminster and, with Sir William Roberts, to search the home of Middlesex justice of the peace Sir Edward Spencer* for arms.65CJ ii. 836b. In December Francklyn was named to a committee investigating the ‘indirect means’ used by malignants to procure signatures to a petition in London, and at the end of the month he gave £50 for the maintenance of the army.66CJ ii. 884b; Add. 18777, f. 109v. His concern for local security continued in the first half of 1643. On 5 January the Commons ordered that certain prisoners in Middlesex were to be released on examination by Francklyn and Gerard; on 12 January he was named to a committee to consider how to vindicate the actions of both Parliament and City in the face of criticisms by the king; and in early February Francklyn was ordered to remove the cannons at the Military Yard into his safe keeping.67CJ ii. 915a, 925a, 961b. In February and March, Francklyn was appointed to the assessment and sequestration commissions in Middlesex, and in May he was made commissioner for levying money in the county.68A. and O.; LJ vi. 29a. On 14 June he was given responsibility for making sure all parishes in Middlesex had the printed ‘narrative’ of Edmund Waller’s* plot before the official day of thanksgiving for its failure, and few days later he was named to a committee to report on the unruly behaviour of a troop stationed at Paddington.69CJ iii. 130a, 135a.

During 1643, Francklyn was again involved in religious affairs. He was appointed to the Committee for Plundered Ministers on 9 January.70CJ ii. 920a. On 23 March he was appointed to a committee to sequester the profits of St Giles-in-the-Fields and replace Dr William Heywood with a more suitable minister.71LJ v. 665a. Later in the year, Francklyn wrote to the godly Sir Thomas Barrington* asking his favour to a Mr Powell, presumably a minister, ‘who hath formerly lived with me in my house’ and was now at Willingham in Essex.72Eg. 2647, f. 315. Religious scruples perhaps underlay his reluctance to subscribe the oath and covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant. In response to the first, Francklyn asked for more time to consider it, before agreeing to take it, two days later, on 8 June.73CJ iii. 118b, 120b; Harl. 164, f. 399. He hesitated again, this time for a whole week, before taking the Solemn League and Covenant on 10 October.74CJ iii. 262a, 271b; HMC 7th Rep. 445.

Despite his earlier parochialism, from the autumn of 1643, Francklyn was gradually drawn into national affairs, and especially the supply of the army of Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex whose treasurer at war was Francklyn’s old friend, Sir Gilbert Gerard. On 12 October he was named, with Gerard and others, to a committee to consult the lord general on how to arrange for a regular supply of money and arms to the main field army, and on 13 November he joined Gerard in being appointed to a committee to remove obstructions to the collection of the assessment and to deal with the problem of free quarter in the counties around London, and the resulting non-payment of taxes.75CJ iii. 274a, 309b. In February 1644 he was appointed to investigate ‘insolences’ committed by soldiers quartered in Hertfordshire, and in March he was named to a committee to reconcile conflicting ordinances concerning payments to the garrison of Uxbridge and the defences around London, both funded from the Middlesex assessments.76CJ iii. 405a, 434a. Such local concerns now formed part of a bigger picture: in April Francklyn was named to committees concerning the reduction of south Wales, and the reinforcement of the garrisons of Gloucester, Windsor and Aylesbury.77CJ iii. 455b, 457a. On 30 April he was appointed to a committee to consider the sequestration ordinance, and how abuses might be prevented.78CJ iii. 473b. In May he and Gerard were among the London and Middlesex MPs who received complaints from carters supplying the army, and in early June he was named to a committee to consider how to pay the forces now in Oxfordshire.79CJ iii. 500b, 520b.

Francklyn’s involvement in Essex’s army, and his association with Gerard, developed in the summer of 1644. When in June the governor of Uxbridge wished to alert Parliament to the danger of the king’s army advancing eastwards into Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, he wrote to Francklyn and Gerard.80Harl. 166, f. 76. On 28 June Francklyn was appointed, alongside Gerard, to a committee to consider the recruitment of Sir William Waller’s* army and the payment of the forces under Essex.81CJ iii. 544b. Francklyn was also involved in moves to increase the funding available to Essex in his march into the south west: on 5 July he was named with Gerard and the recorder of London, John Glynne*, to a committee on an ordinance for raising an excise tax on meat in London and Westminster; and on 19 August he was one of four MPs (including Gerard) ordered to meet the assessment collectors to urge them to bring in money more quickly.82CJ iii. 551b, 597a. On the latter day Francklyn and Gerard were ordered by the Committee of Both Kingdoms to certify what troops were billeted in London.83CSP Dom. 1644, p. 433.

The humiliating defeat of Essex at Lostwithiel in early September 1644 left his allies at Westminster in disarray. Francklyn was not named to any committees until 30 September, when he was appointed to a committee of five to provide for wives and widows of soldiers maimed or slain in the recent conflict.84CJ iii. 645b. There were also new fears of a royalist attack on London. On 5 October Francklyn was named with other MPs for London, Middlesex, Westminster and Southwark, to a committee to raise money for a ‘brigade to be sent forth’; and on 25 October, after the indecisive second battle of Newbury, he was appointed with Gerard, Glynne and others to a committee on an ordinance for money to maintain the fortifications around the capital.85CJ iii. 654b, 676a. In the same month, Francklyn was named to committees to consider petitions to Parliament, including those of the army officers in London, and to raise money for provisions for the army.86CJ iii. 649b, 666b, 669b, 681b. An alternative to further warfare was also being explored. On 15 October Francklyn was named, alongside a number of Essex’s friends, including Gerard, Holles and Sir Philip Stapilton, to a committee to consider peace propositions demanded by the City of London, and on 16 December he was chosen, with Gerard, Holles, Stapilton, Glynne and other moderate MPs, to sit on a committee to consider the king’s answer to requests for peace.87CJ iii. 665a, 725b. Francklyn went on to play a minor role in facilitating the Uxbridge Treaty negotiation in the new year of 1645, and as a member of the Committee for Examinations he granted safe conduct passes to the king’s commissioners.88TSP i. 63-4.

Despite his links with those around the earl of Essex, Francklyn was not opposed to the creation of the New Model Army in the early months of 1645. On 17 February he was named to a committee to consider recruiting soldiers for the new army; on 27 May he was appointed to a committee on the ordinance to raise money for its campaign against Oxford; on 5 June he was appointed to another committee to negotiate a loan for the Naseby campaign.89CJ iv. 51a, 155b, 164a. The king clearly saw Francklyn as an implacable opponent, as on 20 May he issued a commission for the seizure of his lands, as he was now deemed outlawed and indicted for high treason.90Docquets of Letters Patent ed. Black, 270-1. Despite this, it is clear that Francklyn’s main allegiance was still to his friends in Middlesex and the old army. On 10 February Francklyn and Gerard had been instructed by the Commons to enquire into horses recruited in Middlesex; on 28 February the Committee of Both Kingdoms ordered Francklyn to arrange for recruits from Middlesex to be sent to the garrison at Windsor; and on 9 April he was appointed by the Lords to administer a charitable collection for those inhabitants of the county whose houses had been destroyed in a recent fire.91CJ iv. 45b; CSP Dom. 1644-5, p. 327; LJ vii. 313a. From July, he was also involved in a committee to settle an establishment for the Windsor garrison, which was a remnant of the old army.92CJ iv. 198a, 399a. The plight of the Windsor garrison perhaps encouraged Francklyn to seek to secure fair treatment for all those who had served Parliament in earlier years. On 5 May he was named to the committee on an ordinance to pay money owed to old soldiers and the widows of those killed; on 5 July he was appointed to a committee to consider arrears due to widows of English and Scottish soldiers; and on 30 September he and Gerard were added to a committee on reformado officers and the wives and widows of artillerymen.93CJ iv. 132a, 197a, 295a. He continued to seek justice for the casualties of war in the following winter, and on 26 January 1646 was named to a committee to examine the accounts of officers’ widows, and to distribute £4,000 among them.94CJ iv. 455a. He signed a warrant of the committee for officers, soldiers and widows in October, and in December was involved in efforts to get funding for the relief of widows from the excise treasurers.95Add. 5497, f. 150; CJ iv. 738b.

Francklyn’s involvement in religious affairs during this period, although irregular, at least hints at his reluctance to embrace the new, radical agenda, promised by the New Model and its supporters. On 29 January 1645 he had been named to the committee on an ordinance to suppress sexual and moral offences.96CJ iv. 35b. Nearly a year later, on 20 January 1646, he was named to a committee on a related bill, for the better observation of the Lord’s Day.97CJ iv. 411b. The following day he was appointed to a committee to consider incorporating Whitefriars and other churches previously exempted, into the London classis system.98CJ iv. 413b. On 3 June he was nominated as a commissioner to determine the scandalous offences that would bar people from receiving communion.99CJ iv. 563a. Francklyn’s religious conservatism may have influenced his decision to work with his old associates in the Presbyterian faction at Westminster during the summer and autumn of 1646. On 11 July joined Gerard, Holles, Sir William Waller and Sir Walter Erle on a committee to investigate the publication of the ‘scandalous pamphlet’, A Remonstrance of Many Thousand Citizens, which supported John Lilburne.100CJ iv. 616a. On 1 September he acted as teller with Denzil Holles* against leaving the great seal in the hands of the existing commissioners, which included the Independent, Edmund Prideaux I*, for more than a month. The opposing tellers were two leading Independents, Sir John Evelyn of Wiltshire and Sir John Danvers.101CJ iv. 659a. In the early months of 1647, however, there are few signs that he was an active Presbyterian. He continued to be involved in the suppression of scandalous tracts, being named to three committees against such publications (3 Feb., 9 Mar. and 11 May).102CJ v. 72b, 109a, 167b. Otherwise, he appears to have involved himself only in individual cases, being named to committees on petitions from Coventry on 24 March, and from the weavers of London on 27 May.103CJ v. 187a.

From the end of May until the end of September 1647 there is no evidence that Francklyn attended the Commons. In the autumn, he was clearly involved in attempts to broker a new peace deal with the king. On 30 September was named to a committee to consider the religious propositions that should be sent to the king; on 6 October he was named to a committee on proposals to settle a Presbyterian church system; and on 30 October he was one of those chosen to reduce the various propositions into a single document.104CJ v. 321b, 327b, 346b. He was also named to committees to mollify the New Model, including those to consider how to satisfy pay arrears (22 Oct.), to settle officers’ salaries (19 Nov.), and to receive representations from the army (7 Dec.).105CJ v. 340a, 364b, 376b. As before, Francklyn’s main concern was for his local area. He was appointed to committees concerning the Tower Hamlets militia (19 Nov.), riots in Ealing (30 Dec.) and plans to increase the powers of the Westminster militia (31 Dec.).106CJ v. 363b, 410b, 413a. In the early weeks of 1648 Francklyn returned to religious questions, and was named to a committee on London tithes on 9 February and the committee on the ordinance for stricter observance of the Lord’s Day on 23 February.107CJ v. 460b. 471a. In a last flash of political controversy, on 26 February Francklyn was teller with Sir James Harrington against including a clause in favour of religious toleration in the Commons’ answer to the Scottish commissioners, with Sir Arthur Hesilrige and Sir John Danvers telling in favour.108CJ v. 472b. His last recorded appearance in the Commons was on 8 March.109CJ v. 484b.

In his will, made on 18 March, Francklyn described himself as ‘somewhat ill in body’.110PROB11/204/272. He died six days later and was buried at St Mary’s in Willesden where his wife erected a monument to his memory. The inscription declared that ‘he was never heard to swear an oath, never to speak ill of any man’ and that he ‘was wiser in the opinion of others than his own’.111Archaeologia xv. 157. Among the many relatives and friends remembered in his will were his cousin Sir William Roberts, the puritan vicar of Willesden, Edward Perkins, and his own chaplain, Dr Howell. He made provision for the poor of parishes in Bedfordshire, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Oxfordshire. Money was also bequeathed for the re-building of St Andrew’s, Holborn, to the library of All Souls College, Oxford, and to provide a stipend for a preacher to provide a weekly sermon at Willesden. His wife received a lifetime interest in his property and an annuity of £450. Provision was made for seven younger children (including portions of £2,000 for this two elder daughters and £1,000 to the youngest), and the remainder of his property was bequeathed to his eldest son Richard† who was granted a baronetcy and entered Parliament for Hertfordshire in 1661.112PROB11/204/272.