Jacob Franklin

The Life of Jacob Franklin (1826 - 1915)

By his great-great-great-great-grandson, Oliver Moules

Jacob Franklin III was born on the 2nd of April 1826, in Westwells, Corsham, Wiltshire. Jacob's parents were Jacob Franklin Jr. and Elizabeth Norris. Jacob Franklin Jr was a 40-year old labourer and retired member of the Royal Navy, who may have fought in the Napoleonic Wars which had ended 13 years earlier. Jacob spent his childhood growing up in Westwells with his large family. Jacob had two older brothers: Jonathan Franklin, who was four years older, and John Franklin who was one year older. Following Jacob were five younger siblings: William in 1828, Sarah Jane in 1832, Marianne in 1834, Mark in 1839 and finally Julia in 1840.

Jacob arrested at age 15 for destroying a fence.

Jacob did not attend school and started work at an early age. From the age of around 12, he began working as a labourer alongside his father and older brothers. He may have been among the many labourers who helped construct the nearby Box Tunnel, which opened in 1841. At age 15, later in 1841, Jacob got in trouble with the law for the first of many times in his life. In December, Jacob and his childhood friend and neighbour, James Tinson, were found guilty of "willfully destroying a line fence to the garden of Thomas Jones." Jacob and James were both sentenced to one month each in prison. After being released from prison in early 1842, Jacob returned to working as a labourer.


At some point over the next few years, Jacob became engaged to Sarah Barnett. Sarah was also from Corsham, having been born at Pound Pill, and her father worked alongside Jacob as a labourer. They married on 11 November 1844, at St. Bartholomew's Church in Corsham. Jacob was 18 years old and Sarah was 17. After the wedding, Jacob and Sarah moved to Greenhill. At this time in Corsham, the completion of Box Tunnel had caused underground quarrying in the area to flourish, due to the new way to transport the cut stone and ease of access to the quarry. As a result, many local labourers - including Jacob - began working as quarrymen.

Jacob and Sarah's first son, William, was born on 16 October 1845 when Jacob was 19. Over the next few years they had several more children: George Franklin in 1849, Thomas Franklin in 1850, Ann Elizabeth Franklin who died as a baby in 1852, and another Ann Franklin in 1853. Shortly after Jacob's 27th birthday in 1853, his mother was diagnosed with Typhus fever. She died three weeks later, on 29 April 1853, when she was 54 years old. Jacob and Sarah's next daughter, Elizabeth Franklin, was born in 1856 and named in honour of Jacob's mother.

1859 was a particularly hard year for Jacob. The year started with the sudden death of his wife, Sarah. She died on 20 January 1859 of valvular heart disease, and was only 31 years old. Jacob was now a 32 year old widower with four young children. Just a few months after Sarah died, Jacob became engaged again to Sarah Neate. Sarah Neate was from Atworth, and 12 years younger than Jacob. Jacob and Sarah married in Atworth on 24 October 1859. However, just days before their wedding, Jacob was struck by another family tragedy when his younger brother, Mark, was killed in the Quarry at the age of 22.

After getting married, Jacob, Sarah, and Jacob's five children moved from Corsham to the nearby village of Box, so Jacob could work in the Box Freestone Quarry. Jacob also adopted Sarah's three year old daughter, Elizabeth Neate, who had been born out of wedlock. Jacob and Sarah had several children over the next decade: Sarah in 1862, John in 1864, Henry in 1866, Rosina in 1868, Lily in 1870 and Alice in 1872.

In 1873, Jacob suffered a sad family tragedy. On Sunday, 16 November 1873, Jacob's 9 year old son John was playing near the edge of a disused quarry at Box Hill. John lost his footing and fell 12 feet into the quarry - a large piece of the ceiling then fell onto him and crushed his arm "very badly." John's 7 year old brother, Henry, ran home to get Jacob. Upon reaching the quarry, Jacob found his son "crushed under a large mass of stone of some two tons weight." Despite this, John was still alive. Jacob managed to rescue his son and John was taken to the Royal United Hospital, in Bath. Due to his injuries, John's arm had to be amputated. Whilst in hospital John developed a fever, and he died the next evening. An inquest was held into John's sad death. It was ruled as an "accidental death", and it was found that "there was a number of disused quarries in [Box] in a dangerous condition." The jury asked the coroner to communicate with "the responsible parties" to make them safer.

In 1874, Jacob was arrested again for assaulting George Greening - the keeper of The Bear Inn, in Box. On the evening of the 31st of January 1874, Jacob came into The Bear with Sarah and one of their children, and went into the taproom. About ten minutes later, George heard a woman scream and ran into the taproom to find Jacob beating Sarah with a leather strap. As soon as George tried to stop him, Jacob reportedly said he would "serve you the same" and punched George in the face. Some of George's friends then rushed forward and threw Jacob out of the building. Jacob refused to leave and remained outside offering "to fight anyone." Jacob was fined £1 (worth about £62 in modern money). At the time, Jacob was dealing with his son's tragic death less than two months before - which could explain his behaviour here.

Jacob and Sarah had one more child in Box, Emma Franklin in 1875, before relocating to the nearby village of Colerne. Jacob took up a new job as a farm labourer on Widdenham Farm, where he worked alongside several of his sons. Jacob and Sarah's youngest child, Ellen, was born in 1879 when Jacob was 53. In 1881 Jacob was briefly put out of work after injuring himself. On 3 September 1881, Jacob tripped and fell over whilst getting over a stile at Colerne. He was taken to The Royal United Hospital, in Bath, the next morning suffering from a contused back which healed after a few weeks. It wasn't long after that Jacob and Sarah moved back to Box, and Jacob returned to his job in the Quarry. The settled on Box Hill, where Jacob's eldest son, William, lived with his family.

By this time in his life, Jacob had enough experience and skill as a quarryman to become a ganger (self-employed foreman), who employed his own team of quarrymen. In December 1882, Jacob signed a contract with R.J. Marsh and Co. to work for them for 12 months. However, by the 31st of March 1883, Jacob "gave out" and refused to complete the contract. He was summoned to court, and said his reasoning for not fulfilling the contract was that he "could not go on without help because the stone turned out bad." Jacob was made to pay £3 9s 8d to R.J. Marsh and Co, which is now worth about £230. In 1889, Jacob's son George died at the age of 40. Three of Jacob's siblings, Jonathan, John and Sarah Jane, all died in 1895. Jacob's last surviving sibling, Marianne, died in 1904 age 70.

Jacob continued to work in the Quarry well into old age. At the time of the 1901 census, Jacob was still listed as working as a "stone quarryman" despite being days away from his 75th birthday. On 26 October 1901, two days after Jacob and Sarah's 42nd Wedding Anniversary, Jacob's eldest son, William, died age 56. William's widow, Elizabeth Jane "Bessie" Franklin, later remarried to Henry John "Jack" Simpkins - whose mother was Jacob's step-daughter Elizabeth Neate.

Jacob retired at some point over the next few years. In 1905 Jacob was widowed again when Sarah died age 67. They had been married for 48 years. After Sarah died, Jacob lived alone on Box Hill.

In 1908, the 82-year old Jacob was taken to court yet again after another assault: on 25 July 1908, Jacob supposedly "assaulted" a little girl called Elsie Hancock. Elsie lived at The Quarryman's Arms pub, which was run by her family, and on 25 July Jacob went there and had a pint of beer. Elsie's mother, Sarah Hancock, left Jacob and Elsie alone in the taproom whilst she cleaned the bar. She then hear a noise which sounded like Elsie, and upon entering the taproom found Jacob "behaving improperly towards the child" with his hand over her mouth. Jacob denied the charge of assault, and during the trial seemed confused and "apparently did not know what had taken place." Investigators found that he was a respectable person. He was fined £5 and ordered to have good behaviour for 12 months. The judge also advised Jacob's family to "keep him under some restraint" due to his advanced age. Shortly afterwards Jacob moved in with his daughter Emma, and her family. He was found to be suffering from dementia, and remained in her care for the rest of his life.

Jacob lived long enough to see the start of World War I on 28 July 1914. Several of Jacob's grandsons fought in the war: William James Franklin and Henry John Tom Franklin both served in the army, whilst Jacob James Franklin and Percy George Franklin served in the Royal Navy. On 10 December 1915, Jacob's eldest grandson, William James Franklin, died in Gallipoli of frostbite whilst fighting in the war. Exactly one week later, on 17 December 1915, Jacob died at the age of 89 of "senile decay" - what would now be described as dementia.

Jacob's death certificate

Jacob was survived by 10 of his 13 children, 46 of his 62 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren.