Richard Frankland (tutor)
Encyclopedia
Richard Frankland was an English nonconformist
, notable for founding the Rathmell Academy
, a dissenting academy
in the north of England.
, a hamlet in the parish of Giggleswick
, Yorkshire
. The Franklands of Thirkleby, Yorkshire (baronet
s 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
; 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. He indicted them for riot
, but the case was dismissed at the assizes for a technical flaw in the indictment. Cosin now offered to institute Frankland and give him higher preferment if he would receive episcopal ordination. He even proposed, but without result, to ordain him conditionally, and ‘so privately that the people might not know of it.’ By the act of 1661
Frankland was confirmed in the possession of his living; but the uniformity act
of the following year ejected him.
’ preachers. Efforts were being made by the nonconformists of the north to secure the educational advantages offered for a short time by the Durham College
. William Pell
, who had been a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge
, and a tutor at Durham, declined to start an academical institution, holding himself precluded by his graduation oath from resuming collegiate lectures outside the ancient universities. Application was then successfully made to Frankland, who was not hindered by the same scruple. Nonconformist tutors usually understood the oath as referring to prelections in order to a degree. Before opening his ‘academy’ Frankland was in London, where he felt ‘a violent impulse upon his mind to go to the king.’ By the help of ‘the old Earl of Manchester, lord chamberleyne’ (Edward Montagu
), he gained an audience while Charles
was on his way to the council. Frankland, in the divine name, enjoined Charles ‘to reform your life, your family, your kingdom, and the church,’ adding an impressive warning. ‘“I will,” saith the king, “do what I can.”’ After a few more words ‘the king hasted away, saying, “I thank you, sir,” and twice looking back before he went into the counsel-chamber, said, “I thank you, sir; I thank you”’.
leanings. Some of his students were intended for the legal, others for the medical profession; his first divinity students belonged to the independent denomination. It was not till the indulgence of 1672
, from which Stillingfleet
dates the presbyterian separation, that divinity students connected with that body were sent to Rathmell, and the earliest nonconformist ‘academy’ (as distinct from a mere school) became an important institution and the model of others. The course of studies in this ‘northern academy’ included ‘logic
, metaphysics
, somatology
, pneumatology
, natural philosophy
, divinity
, and chronology
.’ The lectures were in Latin, and given by Frankland until he had trained up assistants, among whom were John Issot, Richard Frankland (the tutor's son) and John Owen. The discipline of the house was strict, but Frankland always succeeded in gaining the confidence of his students, and maintained his authority with ‘admirable temper.’ Morning prayers were at seven, winter and summer; lectures were over by noon, but solitary study went on after dinner till six o'clock prayers, and supper was followed by discussion of the day's work, unhampered by the tutor's presence. Those who wished to graduate went on to Scotland
, where they were promoted to a degree after one session's attendance. The total number of Frankland's students was 304; among the best known of his divinity students are William Tong
(entered 2 March 1681), Joshua Bayes
and John Evans, D.D. (entered 26 May 1697), leaders of the presbyterian interest in London. John Disney (1677–1730) entered as a law student on 5 July 1695. The ministry of dissent in the north of England was chiefly recruited from Frankland's academy, as the ejected of 1662 gradually died out. James Wood
minister of Chowbent Chapel
was a student of the academy.
. At Natland
, near Kendal
, the dissenters of the neighbourhood held their worship, the parochial chapel being in ruins. Frankland moved hither with his academy in 1674 (between 20 February and 26 May). The congregation increased under his care, and he extended his labours to Kendal and elsewhere. The first nonconformist ordination in Yorkshire was held (10 July 1678) at his instigation and with his assistance. He met with considerable opposition, but the first definite reference to proceedings against him occurs in a manuscript notebook of Oliver Heywood, under date 29 May 1681. Frankland had been excommunicated in the ecclesiastical court; his friends had obtained an absolution for him, upon which the official gave notice ‘that Mr. Richard Frankland, the ringleader of the sectarys, hath voluntarily submitted himself to the orders of the church and is reconciled to it’. The report ran that Frankland had conformed and got a good living. Early in 1683 the enforcement of the Five Miles Act
compelled him to leave Natland as being too near to Kendal. He transferred his academy to Calton Hall, the seat of the Lamberts, in the parish of Kirkby Malham
, West Yorkshire, and in 1684 to Dawson Fold in Westmoreland, just outside the five-miles radius from Kendal. In 1685 (a year in which two of his former students were imprisoned at York
, and the only year in which his academy received no accessions) he retired to Hart Barrow, near to Cartmell Fell, just inside the Lancashire border, and so convenient for escaping a writ for either county. Late in 1686 Frankland availed himself of James II's
arbitrary exercise of the dispensing power, took out a fifty shilling dispensation, and removed to Attercliffe
, a suburb of Sheffield
, Yorkshire. He left Attercliffe at the end of July 1689, in consequence of the death of his favourite son, and returned to Rathmell. His pupil Timothy Jollie
, independent minister at Sheffield, began another academy at Attercliffe on a more restricted principle than Frankland's, excluding mathematics ‘as tending to scepticism.’
to which he himself adhered. But while the Toleration Act
protected him as a preacher, hardly a year passed without some fresh attempt on the part of the authorities to put down his academy. For not answering a citation to the archbishop's (Lamplugh
) court he was again excommunicated; at the instance of Lord Wharton
and Sir Thomas Rokeby, William III
ordered his absolution, which was read in Giggleswick Church. Soon after the consecration of Sharp as archbishop of York
(5 July 1691) new alarm was excited by the assembling of twenty-four nonconformist ministers at Wakefield (2 September) to consider the ‘heads of agreement’ sent down from London as an irenicon (a proposition or device for securing peace) between the presbyterian and independent sections. Frankland was the senior minister present, and earnestly promoted the union. Next year the clergy of Craven
petitioned Sharp to suppress the academy. Sharp wrote to Tillotson
for advice. Tillotson evidently did not like the business, and suggested to Sharp (14 June 1692), as ‘the fairest and softest way of ridding’ his ‘hands of’ it, that he should see Frankland and explain that the objection to licensing his academy was not based upon his nonconformity. His school was not required in the district, and it was contrary to the bishop's oath to license public instruction in ‘university learning.’ Sharp saw Frankland after a confirmation at Skipton
and invited the nonconformist to Bishopthorpe
. Here, with the help of a pipe of tobacco and a glass of good wine, a very friendly interview took place in the library, Sharp courteously declining controversy and inviting confidential hints about the state of the diocese (according to Frankland in a latter to Ralph Thoresby
, 6 November 1694). The archbishop's goodwill did not stop further proceedings. From a letter of Richard Stretton, presbyterian minister at Haberdashers' Hall, London, to Thoresby, it appears that early in 1695 there was a prosecution against Frankland; on 10 February the indictment was quashed. In 1697 he was brought before the spiritual court, but at Michaelmas
the case was postponed, apparently by the archbishop's order. Calamy
states that his troubles continued till the year of his death, but no further particulars are available. Oliver Heywood's diaries are full of references to the academy and its students, and to Frankland's labours at ordinations.
Church. His funeral sermon was preached some time after by John Chorlton
, who transferred the ‘northern academy’ to Manchester
.
, Durham (buried 5 January 1691), and had at least two sons (1. John, born 13 August 1659, entered the academy 3 May 1678, and died in June 1679, ‘the strongest man of his age in and about Natland;’ 2. Richard, baptised 8 June 1668, entered the academy 13 April 1680, died of the small-pox, and was buried at Sheffield 4 May 1689) and three daughters (1. Barbary, born 16 April 1661, and buried 5 August 1662; 2. Elizabeth, baptised 25 Aug. 1664 (this is the ‘Mrs. Frankland’ mentioned by Oliver Heywood as collecting materials for a memoir of her father); 3. Margaret, married 19 June 1701 to Samuel Smith (d 1732) of York).
English Dissenters
English Dissenters were Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.They originally agitated for a wide reaching Protestant Reformation of the Established Church, and triumphed briefly under Oliver Cromwell....
, notable for founding the Rathmell Academy
Rathmell Academy
Rathmell Academy was a Dissenting academy set up at Rathmell, North Yorkshire, in the north of England by Richard Frankland from 1670.-Preparations:...
, a dissenting academy
Dissenting academies
The dissenting academies were schools, colleges and nonconformist seminaries run by dissenters. They formed a significant part of England’s educational systems from the mid-seventeenth to nineteenth centuries....
in the north of England.
Biography
Richard Frankland, son of John Frankland, was born on 1 November 1630, at RathmellRathmell
Rathmell is a village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It is close to the River Ribble and about three miles south of Settle. Other towns and villages nearby include Wigglesworth, Tosside, Giggleswick and Long Preston....
, a hamlet in the parish of Giggleswick
Giggleswick
Giggleswick is a village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England near the town of Settle. It is the site of Giggleswick School.-Origin of name:A Dictionary of British Place Names contains the entry:...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. The Franklands of Thirkleby, Yorkshire (baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
s from 1660), with whom John Frankland was connected, were originally from Giggleswick. Frankland was educated (1640–1648) at Giggleswick grammar school
Giggleswick School
Giggleswick School is an independent co-educational boarding school in Giggleswick, near Settle, North Yorkshire, England.- Early school :...
, and was admitted on 18 May 1648 as minor pensionary at Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...
. The tone of his college, under the mastership of Samuel Bolton
Samuel Bolton
Samuel Bolton was an English clergyman and scholar, a member of the Westminster Assembly and Master of Christ's College, Cambridge.-Life:...
, D.D.
Doctor of Divinity
Doctor of Divinity is an advanced academic degree in divinity. Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects....
, was that of a cultured puritanism. Frankland, like Oliver Heywood, received lasting impressions from the preaching of Samuel Hammond
Samuel Hammond (minister)
Samuel Hammond D.D. was a Church of England minister, and later a nonconformist.-Biography:Hammond is said to have been a ‘butcher's son of York’, although the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography notes no butchers of his surname on the lists of freemen of that city.In 1638 Hammond entered...
, lecturer (till 1652) at St. Giles'. He was a hard student, and took his degrees with distinction (B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
1651, M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
1655).
Northumberland and Durham
After graduating, Frankland preached for short periods at HexhamHexham
Hexham is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, located south of the River Tyne, and was the administrative centre for the Tynedale district from 1974 to 2009. The three major towns in Tynedale were Hexham, Prudhoe and Haltwhistle, although in terms of population, Prudhoe was...
, Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
; Houghton-le-Spring
Houghton-le-Spring
Houghton-le-Spring is part of the City of Sunderland in the county of Tyne and Wear, North East England that has its recorded origins in Norman times. It is situated almost equidistant between the cathedral city of Durham 7 miles to the south-west and the centre of the City of Sunderland about 6...
, Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
; and Lanchester
Lanchester
Lanchester may refer to:Places*Lanchester, County Durham, village in England*Lanchester Polytechnic, former name of Coventry UniversityPeople*Elsa Lanchester , Oscar-nominated English character actress*Frederick W...
, Durham. At Lanchester he received presbyterian
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
ordination on 14 September 1653. ‘Discouragements’ led him to remove to a chaplaincy at Ellenthorp Hall, near Boroughbridge
Boroughbridge
Boroughbridge is a small town and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated northwest of York. Until its bypass was built, it was on the main A1 road from London to Edinburgh...
, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, 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
Sedgefield
Sedgefield is a small town and civil parish in County Durham, England. It has a population of 4,534.Sedgefield has attracted particular attention as the Member of Parliament for the wider Sedgefield constituency was the former Prime Minister Tony Blair; he was the area's MP from 1983 to 2008,...
, Durham. Sir Arthur Haslerig put him into the rich vicarage of Bishop Auckland
Bishop Auckland
Bishop Auckland is a market town and civil parish in County Durham in north east England. It is located about northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham at the confluence of the River Wear with its tributary the River Gaunless...
, Durham, some time before August 1659. Some post was designed for him in Durham College
Durham College (17th-century)
New College, Durham was a university institution set up by Oliver Cromwell, to provide an alternative to the older University of Oxford and University of Cambridge. It also had the aim of bringing university education to Northern England. The idea met with opponents, including John Conant.Such a...
, 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
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
he was one of the first to be attacked for nonconformity
Nonconformism
Nonconformity is the refusal to "conform" to, or follow, the governance and usages of the Church of England by the Protestant Christians of England and Wales.- Origins and use:...
. His living was in the bishop's gift, but John Cosin
John Cosin
John Cosin was an English churchman.-Life:He was born at Norwich, and was educated at Norwich grammar school and at Caius College, Cambridge, where he was scholar and afterwards fellow. On taking orders he was appointed secretary to Bishop Overall of Lichfield, and then domestic chaplain to...
(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. He indicted them for riot
Riot
A riot is a form of civil disorder characterized often by what is thought of as disorganized groups lashing out in a sudden and intense rash of violence against authority, property or people. While individuals may attempt to lead or control a riot, riots are thought to be typically chaotic and...
, but the case was dismissed at the assizes for a technical flaw in the indictment. Cosin now offered to institute Frankland and give him higher preferment if he would receive episcopal ordination. He even proposed, but without result, to ordain him conditionally, and ‘so privately that the people might not know of it.’ By the act of 1661
Corporation Act 1661
The Corporation Act of 1661 is an Act of the Parliament of England . It belongs to the general category of test acts, designed for the express purpose of restricting public offices in England to members of the Church of England....
Frankland was confirmed in the possession of his living; but the uniformity act
Act of Uniformity 1662
The Act of Uniformity was an Act of the Parliament of England, 13&14 Ch.2 c. 4 ,The '16 Charles II c. 2' nomenclature is reference to the statute book of the numbered year of the reign of the named King in the stated chapter...
of the following year ejected him.
Rathmell
In 1662 Frankland retired to his patrimony at Rathmell, where he lived some years in privacy. His children were baptised (1664 and 1668) at the parish church. At this period he did not join the ranks of the ‘conventicleConventicle
A conventicle is a small, unofficial and unofficiated meeting of laypeople, to discuss religious issues in a non-threatening, intimate manner. Philipp Jakob Spener called for such associations in his Pia Desideria, and they were the foundation of the German Evangelical Lutheran Pietist movement...
’ preachers. Efforts were being made by the nonconformists of the north to secure the educational advantages offered for a short time by the Durham College
Durham College (17th-century)
New College, Durham was a university institution set up by Oliver Cromwell, to provide an alternative to the older University of Oxford and University of Cambridge. It also had the aim of bringing university education to Northern England. The idea met with opponents, including John Conant.Such a...
. William Pell
William Pell (minister)
William Pell was an English nonconformist minster, ejected in 1662, a tutor of Durham College subsequently imprisoned for illegal preaching.-Life:...
, who had been a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge
Magdalene College, Cambridge
Magdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene...
, and a tutor at Durham, declined to start an academical institution, holding himself precluded by his graduation oath from resuming collegiate lectures outside the ancient universities. Application was then successfully made to Frankland, who was not hindered by the same scruple. Nonconformist tutors usually understood the oath as referring to prelections in order to a degree. Before opening his ‘academy’ Frankland was in London, where he felt ‘a violent impulse upon his mind to go to the king.’ By the help of ‘the old Earl of Manchester, lord chamberleyne’ (Edward Montagu
Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester
Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester KG, KB, FRS was an important commander of Parliamentary forces in the First English Civil War, and for a time Oliver Cromwell's superior.-Life:...
), he gained an audience while Charles
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
was on his way to the council. Frankland, in the divine name, enjoined Charles ‘to reform your life, your family, your kingdom, and the church,’ adding an impressive warning. ‘“I will,” saith the king, “do what I can.”’ After a few more words ‘the king hasted away, saying, “I thank you, sir,” and twice looking back before he went into the counsel-chamber, said, “I thank you, sir; I thank you”’.
Frankland's academy
Early in March 1670 Frankland began to receive students at Rathmell. His first student was George, youngest son of Sir Thomas Liddell, bart., of Ravensworth Castle, Durham, head of a family distinguished for its loyalty, though marked by puritanPuritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
leanings. Some of his students were intended for the legal, others for the medical profession; his first divinity students belonged to the independent denomination. It was not till the indulgence of 1672
Royal Declaration of Indulgence
The Royal Declaration of Indulgence was Charles II of England's attempt to extend religious liberty to Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics in his realms, by suspending the execution of the penal laws that punished recusants from the Church of England...
, from which Stillingfleet
Edward Stillingfleet
Edward Stillingfleet was a British theologian and scholar. Considered an outstanding preacher as well as a strong polemical writer defending Anglicanism, Stillingfleet was known as "the beauty of holiness" for his good looks in the pulpit, and was called by John Hough "the ablest man of his...
dates the presbyterian separation, that divinity students connected with that body were sent to Rathmell, and the earliest nonconformist ‘academy’ (as distinct from a mere school) became an important institution and the model of others. The course of studies in this ‘northern academy’ included ‘logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
, metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
, somatology
Somatology
Somatology is defined as the study or science of the human body as a branch of anthropology. This also includes the study of material substances, as in physics, chemistry, biology, botany which are under the general heading of physicalism....
, pneumatology
Pneumatology
Pneumatology is the study of spiritual beings and phenomena, especially the interactions between humans and God.Pneuma is Greek for "breath", which metaphorically describes a non-material being or influence....
, natural philosophy
Natural philosophy
Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature , is a term applied to the study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science...
, divinity
Divinity
Divinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or deity, or its attributes or manifestations in...
, and chronology
Chronology
Chronology is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time, such as the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past events".Chronology is part of periodization...
.’ The lectures were in Latin, and given by Frankland until he had trained up assistants, among whom were John Issot, Richard Frankland (the tutor's son) and John Owen. The discipline of the house was strict, but Frankland always succeeded in gaining the confidence of his students, and maintained his authority with ‘admirable temper.’ Morning prayers were at seven, winter and summer; lectures were over by noon, but solitary study went on after dinner till six o'clock prayers, and supper was followed by discussion of the day's work, unhampered by the tutor's presence. Those who wished to graduate went on to Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, where they were promoted to a degree after one session's attendance. The total number of Frankland's students was 304; among the best known of his divinity students are William Tong
William Tong (minister)
William Tong was an English Presbyterian minister, at the heart of the subscription debate of 1718.-Life:He was born on 24 June 1662, probably at Eccles near Manchester, where his father was buried. His mother was early left a widow with three children...
(entered 2 March 1681), Joshua Bayes
Joshua Bayes
-Life:Bayes was son of the Rev. Samuel Bayes, who was ejected by the Act of Uniformity of 1662 from a living in Derbyshire, and after 1662 lived at Manchester until his death. Believed to be born in 1671, he received his entire secular education in the grammar school of his native town, Manchester...
and John Evans, D.D. (entered 26 May 1697), leaders of the presbyterian interest in London. John Disney (1677–1730) entered as a law student on 5 July 1695. The ministry of dissent in the north of England was chiefly recruited from Frankland's academy, as the ejected of 1662 gradually died out. James Wood
James Wood (minister)
James Wood was a Presbyterian minister of the first Atherton and Chowbent Chapels in Atherton, Greater Manchester, England. During the Jacobite Uprising, he was given the title "The General" for leading a force of men that routed The Highlanders....
minister of Chowbent Chapel
Chowbent Chapel
Chowbent Chapel is a Unitarian place of worship in Atherton, Greater Manchester, England. It was built in 1721 and is the oldest place of worship in the town. It is a member of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella organisation for British...
was a student of the academy.
Migrations
The academy had six migrations from place to place. In consequence of the indulgence, Frankland had begun to preach at Rathmell, and though ‘no very taking’ preacher, his solid discourses gained him a call from a congregation in WestmorelandWestmoreland
Westmoreland is a historic county in England. It may also refer to:-Places:Australia*Westmoreland County, New South WalesCanada*Westmorland County, New BrunswickJamaica*Westmoreland, Jamaica, a parishNew Zealand...
. At Natland
Natland
Natland is village and civil parish about two miles south of Kendal in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, close to the village of Oxenholme. At the time of the 2001 census the population was 747....
, near Kendal
Kendal
Kendal, anciently known as Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish within the South Lakeland District of Cumbria, England...
, the dissenters of the neighbourhood held their worship, the parochial chapel being in ruins. Frankland moved hither with his academy in 1674 (between 20 February and 26 May). The congregation increased under his care, and he extended his labours to Kendal and elsewhere. The first nonconformist ordination in Yorkshire was held (10 July 1678) at his instigation and with his assistance. He met with considerable opposition, but the first definite reference to proceedings against him occurs in a manuscript notebook of Oliver Heywood, under date 29 May 1681. Frankland had been excommunicated in the ecclesiastical court; his friends had obtained an absolution for him, upon which the official gave notice ‘that Mr. Richard Frankland, the ringleader of the sectarys, hath voluntarily submitted himself to the orders of the church and is reconciled to it’. The report ran that Frankland had conformed and got a good living. Early in 1683 the enforcement of the Five Miles Act
Five Mile Act 1665
The Five Mile Act, or Oxford Act, or Nonconformists Act 1665, is an Act of the Parliament of England , passed in 1665 with the long title "An Act for restraining Non-Conformists from inhabiting in Corporations". It was one of the English penal laws that sought to enforce conformity to the...
compelled him to leave Natland as being too near to Kendal. He transferred his academy to Calton Hall, the seat of the Lamberts, in the parish of Kirkby Malham
Kirkby Malham
Kirkby Malham is a small village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Situated in the Yorkshire Dales it lies five miles east of Settle. Nearby settlements include Hanlith, Malham, Airton and Calton....
, West Yorkshire, and in 1684 to Dawson Fold in Westmoreland, just outside the five-miles radius from Kendal. In 1685 (a year in which two of his former students were imprisoned at York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
, and the only year in which his academy received no accessions) he retired to Hart Barrow, near to Cartmell Fell, just inside the Lancashire border, and so convenient for escaping a writ for either county. Late in 1686 Frankland availed himself of James II's
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
arbitrary exercise of the dispensing power, took out a fifty shilling dispensation, and removed to Attercliffe
Attercliffe
Attercliffe is an industrial suburb of northeast Sheffield, England on the south bank of the River Don.-History:The name Attercliffe can be traced back as far as an entry in the Domesday book -Ateclive- meaning at the cliffe, a small escarpment that lay alongside the River Don...
, a suburb of Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
, Yorkshire. He left Attercliffe at the end of July 1689, in consequence of the death of his favourite son, and returned to Rathmell. His pupil Timothy Jollie
Timothy Jollie
Timothy Jollie, , was a nonconformist minister and notable educator in the north of England.-Biography:Timothy Jollie, son of Thomas Jollie, was born at Altham, Lancashire, about 1659. On 27 August 1673 he entered the dissenting academy of Richard Frankland at Rathmell, Yorkshire...
, independent minister at Sheffield, began another academy at Attercliffe on a more restricted principle than Frankland's, excluding mathematics ‘as tending to scepticism.’
Troubles
Frankland carried his academy with him back to Rathmell, and during the remaining nine years of his life he admitted nearly as many students as in the whole previous period of over nineteen years. His congregation also throve, and he maintained harmony among its members at a time when many were beginning to relax their hold of the CalvinismCalvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
to which he himself adhered. But while the Toleration Act
Act of Toleration 1689
The Act of Toleration was an act of the English Parliament , the long title of which is "An Act for Exempting their Majestyes Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of certaine Lawes".The Act allowed freedom of worship to Nonconformists who had pledged to the...
protected him as a preacher, hardly a year passed without some fresh attempt on the part of the authorities to put down his academy. For not answering a citation to the archbishop's (Lamplugh
Thomas Lamplugh
Thomas Lamplugh was an English churchman who ended up being Archbishop of YorkHe was the son of Christopher Lamplugh of Little Riston, Yorkshire and his wife Anne, daughter and coheir of Thomas Roper of Octon in the East Riding of Yorkshire...
) court he was again excommunicated; at the instance of Lord Wharton
Thomas Wharton, 1st Marquess of Wharton
Thomas Wharton, 1st Marquess of Wharton PC was an English nobleman and politician. He was the son of Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton and his second wife, Jane Goodwin, only daughter of Colonel Arthur Goodwin of Upper Winchendon, Buckinghamshire, and heiress to the extensive Goodwin estates in...
and Sir Thomas Rokeby, William III
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
ordered his absolution, which was read in Giggleswick Church. Soon after the consecration of Sharp as archbishop of York
Archbishop of York
The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...
(5 July 1691) new alarm was excited by the assembling of twenty-four nonconformist ministers at Wakefield (2 September) to consider the ‘heads of agreement’ sent down from London as an irenicon (a proposition or device for securing peace) between the presbyterian and independent sections. Frankland was the senior minister present, and earnestly promoted the union. Next year the clergy of Craven
Craven
Craven is a local government district in North Yorkshire, England that came into being in 1974, centred on the market town of Skipton. In the changes to British local government of that year this district was formed as the merger of Skipton urban district, Settle Rural District and most of Skipton...
petitioned Sharp to suppress the academy. Sharp wrote to Tillotson
John Tillotson
John Tillotson was an Archbishop of Canterbury .-Curate and rector:Tillotson was the son of a Puritan clothier at Haughend, Sowerby, Yorkshire. He entered as a pensioner of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1647, graduated in 1650 and was made fellow of his college in 1651...
for advice. Tillotson evidently did not like the business, and suggested to Sharp (14 June 1692), as ‘the fairest and softest way of ridding’ his ‘hands of’ it, that he should see Frankland and explain that the objection to licensing his academy was not based upon his nonconformity. His school was not required in the district, and it was contrary to the bishop's oath to license public instruction in ‘university learning.’ Sharp saw Frankland after a confirmation at Skipton
Skipton
Skipton is a market town and civil parish within the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It is located along the course of both the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the River Aire, on the south side of the Yorkshire Dales, northwest of Bradford and west of York...
and invited the nonconformist to Bishopthorpe
Bishopthorpe
Bishopthorpe is a village and civil parish three miles south of York in the City of York unitary authority and ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. It is close to the River Ouse, and has a population of 3,174. Prior to 1996 it was part of the Selby district...
. Here, with the help of a pipe of tobacco and a glass of good wine, a very friendly interview took place in the library, Sharp courteously declining controversy and inviting confidential hints about the state of the diocese (according to Frankland in a latter to Ralph Thoresby
Ralph Thoresby
Ralph Thoresby , born in Leeds and is widely credited with being the first historian of that city. He was besides a merchant, non-conformist, fellow of the Royal Society, diarist, author, common-councilman in the Corporation of Leeds, and museum keeper.-Upbringing:Ralph Thoresby was the son of John...
, 6 November 1694). The archbishop's goodwill did not stop further proceedings. From a letter of Richard Stretton, presbyterian minister at Haberdashers' Hall, London, to Thoresby, it appears that early in 1695 there was a prosecution against Frankland; on 10 February the indictment was quashed. In 1697 he was brought before the spiritual court, but at Michaelmas
Michaelmas
Michaelmas, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel is a day in the Western Christian calendar which occurs on 29 September...
the case was postponed, apparently by the archbishop's order. Calamy
Edmund Calamy (historian)
Edmund Calamy was an English Nonconformist churchman, divine and historian.-Life:A grandson of Edmund Calamy the Elder, he was born in the City of London, in the parish of St Mary Aldermanbury. He was sent to various schools, including Merchant Taylors', and in 1688 proceeded to the university of...
states that his troubles continued till the year of his death, but no further particulars are available. Oliver Heywood's diaries are full of references to the academy and its students, and to Frankland's labours at ordinations.
Death
His health began to break in 1697, when he was troubled with gravel. But he persevered in his work to the last, and died in the midst of his scholars on 1 October 1698. He was buried on 5 October in Giggleswick Church, where his daughters placed an ornate mural tablet to his memory, being a facsimile of the monument to John Lambert, son of Major-general Lambert, in Kirkby MalhamKirkby Malham
Kirkby Malham is a small village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Situated in the Yorkshire Dales it lies five miles east of Settle. Nearby settlements include Hanlith, Malham, Airton and Calton....
Church. His funeral sermon was preached some time after by John Chorlton
John Chorlton
John Chorlton was an English presbyterian minister and tutor.-Life:John Chorlton was born at Salford in 1666. On 4 April 1682 he was admitted to be educated for the ministry at Rathmell Academy under Richard Frankland. On completing his studies he was chosen as assistant to Henry Newcome, the...
, who transferred the ‘northern academy’ to Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
.
Marriage
He married Elizabeth Sanderson of Hedley Hope, in the parish of BrancepethBrancepeth
Brancepeth is a village and civil parish in County Durham, in England. It is situated about from Durham on the A690 road between Durham and Weardale. Brancepeth Castle was until 1570 the fortress of the Neville Earls of Westmorland. The castle was extensively modified and rebuilt in the 19th century...
, Durham (buried 5 January 1691), and had at least two sons (1. John, born 13 August 1659, entered the academy 3 May 1678, and died in June 1679, ‘the strongest man of his age in and about Natland;’ 2. Richard, baptised 8 June 1668, entered the academy 13 April 1680, died of the small-pox, and was buried at Sheffield 4 May 1689) and three daughters (1. Barbary, born 16 April 1661, and buried 5 August 1662; 2. Elizabeth, baptised 25 Aug. 1664 (this is the ‘Mrs. Frankland’ mentioned by Oliver Heywood as collecting materials for a memoir of her father); 3. Margaret, married 19 June 1701 to Samuel Smith (d 1732) of York).