52W Mark V – Week 5: Rachel Franklin

Unless I go back to the 1600s on my maternal grandfather’s paternal line, I do not have much English ancestry. My most recent ancestors who emigrated from England are my Great x4 Grandparents, Rachel Franklin and Thomas Hadlond. They had seven children at the time they came over sometime around 1852, give or take a year, including my Great x3 Grandmother, Maria Hadlond.

Rachel was the fourth of ten (possibly eleven) children born to James Franklin, a shoemaker, and Mary Luker Eaton. I have found several iterations of Mary’s surname. She was baptized “Mary, Daugr of Eliz Luker”. The register entry does not name a father or husband, implying that Mary was illegitimate. A few pages later there is an entry for the 1792 marriage of Thomas and Elizabeth shows: “May 20, Thos Eaton to Eliz Looker by license.” Earlier on the same page of the register for the marriage is an entry for the baptism of “Charlotte, daur of Thos and Eliz Eaton.” It would be reasonable to believe that it is the same Elizabeth Luker/Looker in both entries, but not without some doubt.

Rachel was born on December 14, 1817, in Clanfield, Oxfordshire, which is located in the Cotswolds. All of Rachel’s siblings were born in Clanfield or the nearby village of Hailey.

Rachel married Thomas Hadlond three days shy of her 20th birthday, on December 11, 1837, in Charlbury, another village in the Cotswolds, just north of Hailey. Shortly after marrying, Rachel and Thomas were living in Finstock, a stone’s throw from Blenheim castle, the home of the Spencer-Churchill family. There they had their first child, Charlotte. The family was not in Finstock long, as my Gx3 Grandmother Maria was born in Cheltenham, Gloucester, in August 1838. Rachel bore five more children in Cheltenham. Rachel’s last child born there was Alice, in September 1850.

On November 23, 1846, Rachel was baptized into the Mormon church. I know little about the circumstances of her joining the church, but I’ve not yet found any evidence her husband Thomas did. This is evidenced by the fact that Thomas was not baptized into the church until a year after his death.

According to the 1851 English census, Rachel and her family were still resident in Cheltenham. However, sometime before 1853, the family moved to North America. It appears they entered by way of Canada, because Rachel gave birth to a son there in June 1853. By 1856, Rachel and her family were living in St. Louis, Missouri. In August 1858, Rachel gave birth to twins, Ella and Alphius, in East St. Louis, which is a suburb on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River.

Rachel died in St. Louis on March 29, 1879. She is interred at the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. She is buried only a few hundred meters from Dred Scott. She’s also not far from Adolphus Busch, although I think it’s lame that my ancestor is buried near the guy who made crappy Budweiser, while my wife’s ancestors are interred near Alexander Keith, who made excellent beer. Lame for me, anyway. Sadly, Rachel is also not far from Rush Limbaugh. Well, there went the neighbourhood.