32 Facts About Jane Franklin

Jane, Lady Franklin was a British explorer, seasoned traveller and the second wife of the English explorer Sir John Franklin.

Jane Franklin was the second daughter of John Griffin, a liveryman and later governor of the Goldsmith's Company, and his wife Jane Franklin Guillemard.

Jane Franklin was born in London, where she was raised with her sisters Frances and Mary at the family house, 21 Bedford Place, just off Russell Square.

Jane Franklin was well educated, and her father being well-to-do had her education completed by much travel on the continent.

Jane Franklin's portrait was chalked when she was 24 by Amelie Munier-Romilly in Geneva.

Jane Franklin once said he was the only man who made her swoon, but nothing ever came of the relationship.

Jane Franklin had much correspondence with Elizabeth Fry about the female convicts, and did what she could to ameliorate their lot.

Jane Franklin was accused of using undue influence with her husband in his official acts but there is no evidence of this.

When Jane Franklin was recalled at the end of 1843, they went first to Melbourne by the schooner Flying Fish and then to England by way of New Zealand on board, coincidentally, the barque Rajah.

Jane Franklin intended the building to serve as a museum for Hobart, and left 400 acres in trust to ensure the continuance of what she hoped would become the focus of the colony's cultural aspirations.

Lady Jane Franklin renamed the boy Timeo and handed him over to her step-daughter Eleanor Jane Franklin.

In 1841, Lady Jane Franklin decided to try and "civilise" a second child from Wybalenna.

Lady Jane Franklin compared Mathinna more favourably in comparision to Timemendic, with Mathinna being described as more intelligent and sweet, while Timemendic was "much blacker in complexion than Mathinna who appears to us to be daily growing more copper-coloured as she advances in civilization".

In 1842, Lady Jane Franklin commissioned the artist Thomas Bock to paint Mathinna's portrait in which she is portrayed famously in a scarlet dress.

Lady Jane Franklin sent the portrait to her sister in England with a letter describing Mathinna as "one of the remnant people about to disappear from the face of the earth", who has "the unconquerable nature of the savage".

Jane Franklin's husband started on his last voyage in May 1845, and when it was realised that he must have come to disaster, Lady Franklin devoted herself for many years to trying to ascertain his fate.

Until shortly before her own death, Lady Jane Franklin travelled extensively, generally accompanied by her husband's niece Sophia Cracroft, who remained her secretary and companion until her death.

Lady Jane Franklin travelled to Out Stack in the Shetland Islands of Scotland, the northernmost of the British isles, to get as close as she could to her missing husband.

Lady Jane Franklin sponsored seven expeditions to find her husband or his records :.

Jane Franklin's efforts made the expedition's fate one of the most vexed questions of the decade.

Prior accounts had suggested that, in the end, the expedition had turned to cannibalism to survive, but Lady Jane Franklin refused to believe these stories and poured scorn on explorer John Rae, who had in fact been the first person to return with definite news of her husband's fate.

Jane Franklin provided moral and some financial support for multiple later expeditions that planned to seek the records, including those of William Parker Snow and Charles Francis Hall in the 1860s.

Lady Jane Franklin died in the interim, on 18 July 1875.

Jane Franklin was interred at Kensal Green Cemetery in the vault and commemorated on a marble cross dedicated to her niece Sophia Cracroft.

Lady Jane Franklin was a woman of unusual character and personality.

Jane Franklin's determined efforts, in connection with which she spent a great deal of her own money to discover the fate of her husband, added much to the world's knowledge of the Arctic regions.

Beside Victoria's Mount Jane Franklin is a scoria mound known as Lady Jane Franklin.

The ballad "Lady Jane Franklin's Lament" commemorated her search for her lost husband.

Lady Jane Franklin Drive in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, Sir John's birthplace, is named after her.

Jane Franklin was depicted in the stage play Jane, My Love.

Jane Franklin appears as a character in the 2018 television series The Terror, where she is portrayed by Greta Scacchi.

Lady Jane Franklin is a pivotal figure in three novels, Wanting by Richard Flanagan, The Arctic Fury by Greer Macallister, and The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline.