Finding Mrs Franklin

 

Six hours into 2026. Grey, cool, wet ... cats have nibbled at their breakfast and snuggled up to snooze ... Wendy is sailing into Nouméa ... yes, I'm 'Home alone'. Well, I promised to, at some stage, enlighten the world (and myself) concerning the Anglo-American soprano Mrs Franklin, so this seems a perfect day to put together what I've managed to discover about the lady whom John Braham described as 'the best oratorio singer in America'.

It has been a very curious search. With strangely incomplete results.

The lady really was a Mrs Franklin, and my delvings have produced a forename. Mrs Jane Mary Franklin. Wife of one William Franklin, who was in the typographical industry. I even have a birthdate for her. 6 June 1803. But not a birth name! How? Because her husband put her birthdate on her funerary notice.

Both of the spouses Franklin were born in Britain. Where? Don't know. I also don't know where and when they were married. I can also see no sign of Jane singing in England. But since I don't know her maiden name ...

However, the name of Mrs Franklin was a well-known one in musical circles. Mrs Anna Maria Franklin (née O'Leary, dite Leary) had been 'the siren of Vauxhall' from the 1780s through into the 19th century, known for her 'white gloves and three ostrich plumes' and as the creatrice of many songs by the Vauxhall Gardens's composers, notably Theodore Hook

My initial thought was that our Mrs F had borrowed the name of her predecessor. But then I discovered William and their children...

Back to square one. Of course, I don't know at what ages Jane and Wiliam left Britain for America. And if they were wed when they did. I don't know much about their early lives at all. Except for that birthdate. Jane Mary born 9 June 1803. Well, I actually found one: Jane Mary Peacock of Hatton Garden ... but is that she? Lord knows. And I'm afraid I never will.

I first see the Franklins in 1829. In Philadelphia. Both, allegedly, in their twenties. Married, it appears. Seemingly no children. They would come in a a few years. Odd that. Anyway, having spent many hours trying to find out their back-story, with no success, I'll just start in 1829. 12 March to be exact.

The Musical Fund of Philadelphia had been for some time staging a series of concerts at their Hall. They weren't rubbish. Alongside the local musos (many of whom were German) they featured some fine (most English) singers. Amelia George, her sister Ellen Gill, Elizabeth Austin, and for goodness' sake .. Elizabeth Feron. Philly 1828 must have been blooming: apparently the artistes got twice the money they did back home.

Amongst those lured to greenbacked pastures, were some ... well ... mediocrities. One of these was a Mr Thomas Mercer, a useful second-string actor ('not claiming to be great, he is always respectable') and musician at the Theatre Royal, Lancaster, and then for five seasons at Drury Lane. Mercer , who emigrated in 1827, had three daughters and three sons whom he launched on Philadelphia en masse. The one who got the most push-n-shove was the eldest boy, who worked as 'Master Mercer' and on 12 March 1829 he -- billed as 'of Drury Lane'! -- hosted a concert at the Musical Fund Hall. 

And there she is. With no explanation. No 'pupil of', no 'first time here', no 'late Miss So and So', no clarification at all. Yes, I've looked and looked and looked. I've looked at concert programmes, shiplists, directories ... she seems to spring fully-armed from .. where?

It is not a very enterprising concert. Father -- a very indifferent singer -- has a jolly song, 13 year-old Master some familiar bits, and the lady gives the hackneyed 'Tell Me, My Heart' and a pretty London show song of a couple of years ago. 

Can I find a review of this concert? No. Anything to tell us whether Mrs Franklin was liked? No. Except that she -- as anonymous as ever -- was asked back to the Musical Fund the following month (29 April), sharing the vocals, alongside a clutch of mostly German musicians, with Elizabeth Austin. She trotted out her 'Tell Me, My Heart' again and Horn's 'Hasten by the Starlight' alongside Mrs Austin's Freischütz and 'Dolce concento'. 21 May she sang at flautist John Krollman's concert ('The Mocking Bird', 'Auld Robin Gray', 'Should he Upbraid'). Mrs Franklin was established as good value, and on 7 October she took to the stage, playing the title-role in Rosina at the Arch Street Theatre. She followed up as Diana Vernon in Rob Roy, returned to the Musical Fund for their next concert ('Lo here the gentle lark', 'Rise gentle moon') and then came to the end of the Pennsylvania episode. The couple removed to Washington DC, and there they would spend most of the rest of their lives.

It is possible that the move was caused by an engagement, for on 9 February 1830, at the Washington Theatre, both Mrs and Mrs Franklin are on the bills in The Dramatist and The Rendezvous in which Amelia George has the bulk of the singing. Norah and Dermot in The Poor Soldier, Medium and Narcissa ('The Bonnie Blue Cap') in Inkle and Yarico, Maria in The Spoil'd Child, he as Richard in Raising the Wind while she sings 'I know a bank' (with Miss George), 'O merry row the bonny bark' and the Butterfly song, Sir James Elliot and Kitty in The Liar, Gardener and Vanilla in The Weathercock, Mary Copp in Charles II  ..

If it seemed that the Franklins were to have a career as stock company players, that notion was soon dispelled. It seems William went back to printing, and Jane turned to giving concerts and teaching. And motherhood. Her concerts attracted some attention: 'a vocalist of extraordinary powers ... the rich melody of her voice is unequalled by any of her professional rivals in this country and her style and execution are of the highest order of excellence'.  Puff or real praise? But Jane was now featured 'as sung by' on sheet music covers ('I will come to thee', 'Fly away ladybird', 'Bonny Blue Cap', 'Light is gthe Heart'), and -- as she carried on her teaching ('Miss Heaney's Academy' &c) -- she gave and appeared at intermittent concerts with sacred music ('The Widow of Nain', 'Let the Bright Seraphim'). She was also, seemingly, soprano at Trinity Church.  William was advertising as a music copyist. 

The couple had issue. Just how many children and when is a mystery. In the 1850 census we see them with a 16 year-old Edward, a 14 year-old 'J' ... and some very curious ages ...

William's will names a son Benjamin. And confirms that son Joseph William was already dead. I've given up on 'Edward'. The children were born in New York? Yes. It was the latest place for work. In 1834, Jane was hired as a soprano soloist for the New York Sacred Music Society, along with Mr and Mrs Wood and Pearson, and as ballad and sacred singer at Niblo's Gardens. I see that William rode along with her as a member of glee groups or a minor soloist on occasison. She was the vocalist on the night of the famous trumpet 'duel' between Gambati and Norton. 

The list of songs which she ran through is long but featured largely the works of Horn, Lee, Luff, Hargreaves, Sidney Nelson, Rodwell, Bishop and other English composers, alongside pieces from the works of Handel and Haydn. Rare was the Italian bravura or the like heard from her: 'Lo! Here the Gentle Lark' and a bit of frilly Bishopry was the most decorated she got. And that seems to have been the basis of her appeal. 'Amongst the most meritorious concert singers of the times', nodded the press.

So, it seems that between 1834 and 1839, for much of the couple's time, while Jane's reputation grew largely, New York was, at least in season, their home. They would return to Washington, but for the interim, it was New York. And ... one, two, three children?

In 1839 (5 February) she appeared in The Messiah with the New York Society. This time her partner was not Mary Ann Wood, but the imperial Rosalbina Caradori Allan ... I wonder how the music was shared! The New York Review summed up: 'Mrs Franklin is not, indeed, generally considered a star. She is certainly not as a Meteor or a Comet which blaze for a short period and then retire, leaving the horizon in darkness; on the contrary, she is as one of the fixed stars, shining not with lurid glare, but with a steady and permanent brightness ..'. Nicely put.

But she was still moving onwards and upwards. Jane Franklin was hired by Boston's Handel and Haydn Society, and in 1840 the little menage headed Massachussetts-ward. The history of that august Institution has been recorded in detail. Suffice it to say Jane was welcomed largely by the capital of American music, in multiple appearances at the Melodeon and with the Society (Creation, David, the new Mount Sinai), and therein she performed for the first time (seemingly 20 November 1840) with John Braham. She sang oratorio with him, and a piece by ... Arne.  They sang together on programmes thereafter ...  solos and duets ...

She seems to have remained based in Boston for some years -- in 1845 she is sill referred to as 'of Boston' ...  and a New York paper sulked that 'she has exiled herself to to Boston' -- but it seems that, soon after, that the Franklins returned to Washington. I see Mrs F still performing in 1846, - and indeed in 1855 (stilll, the Echo Song) --  but she is, once more, mainly teaching. In 1860, back in Washington she is dubbed 'one of Washington's best lady teachers' and sheet music still bore the legend 'as sung by Mrs Franklin'. And occasionally she brought out her Echo Song, her 'Rejoice Greatly' or 'Angels Ever Bright and Fair' ... 'just as in her palmiest days'.

Jane Franklin was surely one of the most accomplished singers of her era, and to all evidence, one of the most unassuming. She performed along with 'international stars' such as Braham, Mrs Wood, and Caradori Allan .. Henry Russell and Dempster ... and was always better than a 'supporting' act. I get the feeling that she was a gloriously pleasing singer. I also get the feeling that she was a very nice person. And her husband .. I wish I knew more about their home life. 

It all came to an end in a rush. Jane died 6 August 1873. A few weeks later, son Joseph (23 October 1873) followed, and in the New Year (3 April1874) it was William ..

Well, I wanted to know about Mrs Franklin. This is my best effort! I'll have another go sometime ... but, for now: Jane Franklin, I know I would have liked you and your truly musical singing.

The three of them lie in Glenwood Cemetery, Washington. Section Q Lot 230. Site 5. Their graves are unmarked. How sad ...