Jeremy Franklin
Mayor of Oxford 1728/9 and 1736/7
Jeremy (or Jeremiah) Franklin (or Franckling) (d. 1748) was a carpenter. He took his first apprentice, Robert Pratt, in January 1698/9 and his second, William Cantwell, in February the next year. In the latter agreement, Franklin is described as a "house carpenter", and the terms are spelt out thus: "Master to find meat, drink, washing, lodging & other necessaries but no apparel".
On 31 May 1700 Franklin was appointed City Carpenter "in place of his father, deceased". He appears to have always had two young apprentices working for him, as he regularly took on new boys for a seven year term: Charles Etty (1703), Thomas Phillips (1705), John Reeve (1710), Thomas Hawkins (1714), John Stiles (1718), Thomas Franklin (son of the late Thomas Franklin, a carpenter of Witney, and probably a relation, 1721), Thomas Garlick (1725), John Lowe (1728/9), Richard Ayres (1731), and John Smith (1736).
In 1708 Franklin leased from the Council Mr Box’s property in Northgate for 40 years for a fine of £39 and 4s. rent p.a. He also leased from them a property in St Peter-le-Bailey.
Franklin had been appointed the Council’s Surveyor of Nuisances on 30 September 1699, a post he held until his death in 1748 (except for the year 1714/15 when he was Senior Bailiff and for the two years when he was Mayor). In 1704 he was elected "one of the 24", and in 1705 a Keykeeper; in 1711 a Gentleman Chamberlain, and in 1725 Bailiff again.
On 27 May 1728 Franklin was made one of the eight Assistants and on 20 September that year was elected Mayor for the first time, choosing John Wilkins as his child. He wanted Sampson Remmett to be his Chamberlain, but this choice was rejected by the Commons. In March he proposed that the city should elect a City plumber.
Thomas Hearne remarks that on 19 October 1733 houses on the east of the south side of Queen’s College began to be pulled down in order to erect a new part, and that "The Mason was Mr. Townsend and the Carpenter Mr. Franklin, who are the same that were imployed in the former new Buildings of that College".
Franklin continued to serve on the Mayor’s Council and was elected for a second term of office as Mayor in September 1736: this time he chose John Gilbert as his Child and William Culley as his Chamberlain.
Franklin died in 1748.
See also:
- Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entries numbered 71, 97, 264, 385, 650, 802, 971, 1093, 1258, 1368, 1456, and 1622
- MS Wills Oxon W. 211.281; 128/2/44