Michael Francklin

Michael Francklin By John Singleton Copley, Uniacke Estate Museum Park

Michael Francklin or Franklin (6 December 1733 – 8 November 1782) served as Nova Scotia's Lieutenant Governor from 1766-1772. He is buried in the crypt of St. Paul's Church (Halifax).

Early life and immigration

Born in Poole, England, Francklin immigrated to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1752. He worked as a trader and merchant, initially in association with Joshua Maugher.

Capture

During Father Le Loutre's War, Michael Francklin was captured by a Mi'kmaw raiding party in 1754 and held captive for three months in which he learned the Mi'kmaw language and developed an appreciation for native culture.^[1]

Political career

Francklin represented Lunenburg County from 1759 to 1760 and Halifax County from 1761 to 1762 in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.

On February 7, 1762, Francklin married Susannah Boutineau. In May of that year, he was named to the Nova Scotia Council.

In the early 1770s, he was responsible for bringing about the Yorkshire Emigration. He also played an important role in assisting the return of Acadians after the Expulsion of the Acadians by guaranteeing Catholic worship, land grants and a promise that there would be no second expulsion.

Death

He died at home in Halifax in 1782.

Legacy

• namesake of Fort Franklin, Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia (1768) ^[2]
• namesake of Mi'kmaq reserve Franklin Manor 22, Nova Scotia^[3]

• 

  Susannah (Boutineau) Franklin (1762) by John Singleton Copley (wife of Michael Franklin; grandchild of Peter Faneuil), Uniacke Estate Museum Park

• 

  Susannah Boutineau by Robert Feke (1748), (mother-in-law of Michael Franklin), Uniacke Estate Museum Park

See also

• Captivity narrative

References

Endnotes

1. ↑ Fischer, L. R. (1979). "Francklin, Michael". In Halpenny, Francess G. Dictionary of Canadian Biography. IV (1771–1800) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press. 
2. ↑ Frank Patterson. Acadian Tatamagouche and Fort Franklkin, p.75
3. ↑ https://archive.org/stream/placenamesofprov00browuoft#page/52/mode/2up

Texts

• James S. Macdonald, "Lt. Governor Michael Francklin, 1752-1782" Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society; (40 pp.) vol. 16 (1912)
• W. B. Kerr, "The Rise of Michael Francklin" (7 pp.) The Dalhousie Review, Vol. 13 (1934), No. 4.

External links

• Biography of Michael Francklin
• Memoir of Michael Franklin Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society

Lieutenant Governors of Nova Scotia
Post-Confederation (1867–present)	Williams Doyle Howe Archibald Richey McLelan Daly Jones D. Fraser McGregor MacKeen M. Grant Douglas Tory Stanfield Covert Irwin Mathers Kendall McCurdy A. Fraser Plow MacKeen Oland Gosse Shaffner Abraham Crouse Kinley Freeman Francis J. Grant
Lieutenant-Governors before Confederation (1786–1867)	Parr Bulkeley Wentworth Prévost (Croke) Sherbrooke Smyth Dalhousie Kempt Jeffrey Maitland Jeffrey C. Campbell Falkland Dickson Harvey Bazalgette Le Marchant Phipps Doyle MacDonnell Williams
Lieutenant-Governors of Cape Breton Island (1784–1820)	Desbarres Macarmick Mathews Ogilvie Murray Despard Nepean Swayne Ainslie
Governors before Confederation (1710–86)	Vetch Nicholson Caulfeild Vetch Caulfeild Philipps Doucett Armstrong Cosby Mascarene Cornwallis Hopson Lawrence Ellis Belcher Wilmot W. Campbell Green Francklin Legge Francklin Arbuthnot Hughes Hamond Parr
Lieutenant-Governors who served in the absence of Governors are listed in parentheses. Acting administrators are listed in italics.