Henry Francklyn

'Henry Franckyln' was awarded with Charles Alfred Francklyn (q.v.) the compensation for the Hope estate on Tobago. This was most likely Henry Francklyn (c. 1772-1846), the son of the pro-slavery polemicist Gilbert Francklyn (1733-1799) (q.v.), but conceivably Henry Gilbert Francklyn (c. 1801- 1883), London West India merchant and the son of Henry Francklyn (with his first wife Grace Parson), and grandson of Gilbert Francklyn. Henry Gilbert Franckyin was in correspondence with the compensation commissioners but this might have been on behalf of Henry. 

1. Henry Francklyn was baptised 07/04/1772 Marylebone, son of Gilbert and Edith Francklyn; Henry Francklyn widower married Fanny Webbe St Marylebone 15/12/1808. Their son Alexander Allan Webbe married Marian Cutler Westminster 31/03/1853 and died 24/04/1868 at Portland Place, personal estate under £180,000. In 1852 Alexander Allan Webbe, of St George Hanover Square only son of Henry Francklyn late of Tonbridge Wells by Fanny his second wife, only daughter of George Webbe of Nevis and sister and heir [sic] of Josiah Webbe Chief Secretary to Governor of Madras and Resident at Scindia, by the 'earnest wish' of his mother Fanny Francklyn, was granted the right to use name and arms of Webbe rather than Francklyn.

2. Gilbert Francklyn had died 20/05/1799 at Aspe[n]den House Herts. He had been the partner of Anthony Bacon in slave-trading and government contracting c. 1770 onwards.

3. Will of Henry Francklyn of Drinkston Suffolk proved 22/04/1847. In the will he left his estate after very modest monetary legacies between his two sons Henry Gilbert and Edward and his daughter Grace Catharine as tenants-in-common. In a codicil of 1843 he referred to £9361 16s 10d in consols he had intended to leave his children but most had been cashed in and the money largely advanced to the children already. The will is completely silent on his second wife or their son Alexander Allan (later Webbe).

T71/ Tobago No. 48A-C. T71/1610 letter from Henry Gilbert Francklyn 14 Old Burlington Street 03/05/1836 re picking up certificate is an indication but no more that the award went to the younger Henry Francklyn: Henry Gilbert Francklyn may have been acting for the older Henry Francklyn.

1. Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]; Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages & Banns, 1754-1921 [database online]; Ancestry.com, England & Wales Marriages and Banns, 1538-1940 [database online]; National Probate Calendar 1868; London Gazette, Issue 21284, 23/01/1852, p. 184. The 1851 census online showed Fanny and Allan Franklyn [sic] at 18 Hereford Street.

2. Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 69 Part 1 p. 528; Chris Evans, Slave Wales: the Welsh and Atlantic Slavery 1660-1850 (Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 2010), pp. 59, 87-8.

3. PROB 11/2054/139.

We are grateful to Jonathan Spencer Jones for his assistance with compiling this entry.