Richard Frankland

Richard Frankland (1630–1698) was an English nonconformist, notable for founding the Rathmell Academy, a dissenting academy in the north of England. Biography Richard Frankland, son of John Frankland, was born on 1 November 1630, at Rathmell, a hamlet in the parish of Giggleswick, Yorkshire. The Franklands of Thirkleby, Yorkshire (baronets from 1660), with whom John Frankland was connected, were originally from Giggleswick. Frankland was educated (1640–1648) at Giggleswick grammar school, and was admitted on 18 May 1648 as minor pensionary at Christ's College, Cambridge. The tone of his college, under the mastership of Samuel Bolton, D.D., was that of a cultured puritanism. Frankland, like Oliver Heywood, received lasting impressions from the preaching of Samuel Hammond, lecturer (till 1652) at St. Giles'. He was a hard student, and took his degrees with distinction (B.A. 1651, M.A. 1655). Northumberland and Durham After graduating, Frankland preached for short periods at Hexham, Northumberland; Houghton-le-Spring, Durham; and Lanchester, Durham. At Lanchester he received presbyterian ordination on 14 September 1653. 'Discouragements' led him to remove to a chaplaincy at Ellenthorp Hall, near Boroughbridge, West Yorkshire, in the family of John Brook (d 1693), twice lord mayor of York, and a strong presbyterian. Frankland left Ellenthorp to become curate to Lupthern, rector of Sedgefield, Durham. Sir Arthur Haslerig put him into the rich vicarage of Bishop Auckland, Durham, some time before August 1659. Some post was designed for him in Durham College, for which Cromwell had issued a patent on 15 May 1657. His patron, Haslerig, was interested in the success of this college, which died at the Restoration. At Bishop Auckland, where two of his children were born, Frankland confined himself to his parochial duties. After the Restoration he was one of the first to be attacked for nonconformity. His living was in the bishop's gift, but John Cosin (consecrated 2 December 1660) did not interfere with a peaceable man. An attorney named Bowster demanded of him, 'publickly before the congregation,' whether he intended to conform. Frankland thought it would be time to answer this question when the terms of conformity had been settled; and meanwhile relied on the king's declaration (25 October 1660) dispensing with conformity. Bowster, with a neighbouring clergyman, got possession of the keys and locked Frankland out of his church.