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A manuscript history of the Franklin family by Sophia Cracroft (1853)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2013

Shane McCorristine
Shane McCorristine*
Affiliation:
Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1ER ([email protected])
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Abstract

Sir John Franklin's widow, Jane Franklin, planned a biography of her husband in the years following the disappearance of his expedition. In this project she was directly assisted by her niece and amanuensis Sophia Cracroft. This biography never came to fruition, but it did result in an unpublished manuscript history of the Franklin family, dated 1853, which Cracroft shared with Franklin's early biographers. The manuscript provides an interesting account of the Franklin family, including the detailed circumstances of the failure of the Boston and Spilsby Bank in 1804, which caused great financial and emotional stress. The final section of the manuscript provides an account of John Franklin's early naval career and Arctic expeditions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 72 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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