Franklin Family

The Franklin dynasty in Steeple Morden was relatively short lived, although influential.

John Franklin was born 20 November 1840 at Alconbury Weston, Huntingdonshire to John & Ann Franklin. John senior was variously described as a publican and agricultural labourer. John junior was living at home with his parents at the time of the Census in 1841, 1851 and 1861. The 1861 Census was taken 7 April 1861 and by 16 October 1862 he was recorded as farm labourer resident at Guilden Morden, as on that day he married Mary Ann Theobalds of Steeple Morden, at the Independent Congregational Chapel at Guilden Morden.

He had married relatively well, as Mary Ann’s father William Theobalds of Brook End, Steeple Morden was by trade a carpenter. He  lived in a comfortable house at Brook End, in which he had been left a life interest by his uncle Henry Theobalds of Ashwell, who died in 1857. William farmed the small quantity of land, which went with the house and added to it, so by 1861 he felt able to describe himself as a farmer with 12 acres and employing 1 labourer.

John Franklin arrived on the scene in 1862 and it appears that he and Mary Ann settled in at the house at Brook End and presumably the new son-in-law played a part in the farming enterprise?

William Theobalds died in 1869 and his executors, his sons, put the Brook End house and land up for sale at auction. The purchaser was John Hart of East Hatley and it would appear that he let the estate to John Franklin, as John and Mary Ann remained in residence.

Even with only 12 acres, farming would have been in the traditional manner of corn and other crops and a few animals, however, things were about to change. In 1870 there began an agricultural depression, which was to be the deepest and longest ever experienced. It resulted in farmers and ultimately landlords becoming insolvent. With echoes of modern times the answer was to diversify and traditional crops were replaced with fruit trees and horticultural crops, which produce could be whisked off to the London wholesale markets, notably Covent Garden, on the trains from Ashwell, where freight was an important part of the operation.

John Franklin’s Steeple Morden journey can be charted thus. In the 1871 Census he considered himself a dealer, although he did not say in what. However, in the 1879 Trade Directory he is listed as poultry dealer. By 1881 he was a farmer with 64 acres employing 2 labs and 2 boys and continued as farmer in the 1891 Census. In the Trade Directories 1883-1900 his trade is given as farmer and in the 1904 Directory as fruit grower. In the 1901 Census he had become a market gardener and in the 1911 Census John age 70 with wife Mary Ann age 87, daughter Mary Ann age 45 and son William age 43 are all bracketed together with occupation given as market gardeners working as J Franklin & Son.

Fordham’s Brewery of Ashwell, built a couple of pubs and some shops and houses (named Odsey Villas) in Haringey, London in 1895. They supplied several pubs in north London by rail from Ashwell Station. William with sisters Ruth and Mary Ann went off to London and rented two shops as greengrocers from Fordhams at 46 Wightman Road (where they lived above the shop, as recorded in 1901 Census below) and 42 Quernmore Road. The shops took produce from father John and other growers back in Steeple Morden, who would have used the railway for speedy shipment. By 1905 J Franklin & Son, market gardeners and produce dealers, were standing at the Covent Garden wholesale fruit and vegetable market in London.

John became active in parish life and was a member of the Vestry, which was the forerunner of the Parish Council. When the Parish Council was created in 1894 he became a councillor. Between 1874-1883 he was Clerk of the Steeple Morden Benefit Society. He died in 1917 age 76.

His son William married Beatrice Emily Rule of  Guilden Morden and bought Home Farm, in Cheyney Street, where he died 1922 age just 53.

These are all the Franklin entries from Steeple Morden Parish Registers and are all Burial entries

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