Franklin, Jane (1791 - 1875)

Summary

Lady Jane Franklin was a social reformer, traveller, natrual history collector and enthusiastic promoter of science. She arrived in Hobart with her husband, Sir John Franklin, the newly-appointed Lieutenant- Governor of Van Deimen's Land [appointed in 1836, arrived January 1837]. John Franklin was relieved of his post in 1843, under a cloud, and they left the colony on 4 November 1843. During her time in Hobart she attempted to further develop the Tasmanian Botanic Gardens; established one of the predecessors to the Royal Society of Tasmania (the Tasmanian Natural History Society, which she called the "Platipus Society") in 1839; and in 1841 enabled the publication of the first scientific journal in Tasmania, the Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science, Agriculture, Statistics etc..

Details

"Lady Franklin's interest in collecting curiosities led her to cultivate a small coterie of young men who were all avid naturalists. They were the nucleus of a scientific society she established in John Franklin's name, although in every respect it was her creation and passion." (Pybus 2024 page 147). Her collecting included First People's human remains.

"She . . . donated maybe three Tasmanian skulls to the Royal College of Surgeons, which she had got from Dr Edmund Hobson and George Ausgustus Robinson. She probably sold or gifted ancestral reamins to other people, including one Tasmnaina skull given to her close companion Sophia Cracroft, later donated to the British Museum." (Pybus 2024 pages 281-282)

Related entries

Archival resources

Archives Office of Tasmania

• John Franklin - Records, 1800 - 1847; Archives Office of Tasmania. Details

Hobart Reading Room

• Notice on meeting to farewell Sir John Franklin, with early history of the Society, 1843, SD_ILS:545773; Hobart Reading Room. Details

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• John Franklin - Records, 1830 - 1853; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• John Franklin - Records, 1845 - 1893, ML MSS 1465; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Paul Edmund de Strzelecki - Records, 1837 - 1851, A3355, 4059; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Ronald Campbell Gunn - Records, c. 1833 - c. 1854, A 316; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• John Franklin - Records, 1837 - 1859, MS 114; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
• John Franklin - Records, 1837 - 1853, G2486; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Royal Society of Tasmania

• John Franklin - Records, 1837 - 1868; Royal Society of Tasmania. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

• John Franklin - Records, 1800 - 1847; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

• Alexander, Alison, The ambitions of Jane Franklin, Victorian lady adventurer (Melbourne: Allen & Unwin, 2014), 304 pp. Details
• Burn, D., Narrative of the overland journey of Sir John and Lady Franklin and party from Hobart Town to Macquarie Harbour, 1842: edited with introduction, notes and commentary by George Mackaness (Sydney: D. S. Ford, printers, 1955), 72 pp. Details
• Calder, James, Recollections of Sir John and Lady Franklin in Tasmania (Adelaide: Sullivan’s Cove, 1984), 76 pp. Details
• Fitzpatrick, Kathleen, Sir John Franklin in Tasmania 1847-1843 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1949). Details
• Franklin, J., A narrative of some passages in the history of Van Diemen's Land during the last three years of Sir John Franklin's administration in the Colony (Hobart: Platypus Publishers, 1967), 158 pp. Details
• Franklin, Jane; edited with introduction and annotations by Penny Russell, This errant lady: Jane Franklin's overland journey to Port Phillip and Sydney, 1839 (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2002), 286 pp. Details
• Franklin, John, Some private correspondence of Sir John and Lady Franklin (Tasmania, 1837 - 1845): with an introd., notes and commentary by George Mackaness, 2 vols (Sydney: D. S. Ford printers, 1947). Details
• Pybus, Cassandra, A very secret trade: the dark story of gentlemen collectors in Tasmania (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2024), 318 pp. https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Cassandra-Pybus-Very-Secret-Trade-9781761066344. Pages 140-147, 150-176, 179-182, 235, 244 281-282. Details

Book Sections

• Fitzpatrick, Kathleen, 'Franklin, Sir John (1786-1847), rear admiral, Arctic explorer and lieutenant-governor' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 1: 1788 - 1850 A-H, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1966), pp. 412-415. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010380b.htm. Details
• Russell, Penny, 'Paradise Lost: Sir John and Lady Franklin' in For Richer, For Poorer: Early Colonial Marriages, Penny Russell, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1994). Details
• Woodward, Frances J., 'Franklin, Lady Jane (1791-1875), protagonist, governor's lady and patron of science' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 1: 1788 - 1850 A-H, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1966), pp. 411-412. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/franklin-lady-jane-2065. Details