Chartridge - More about the Franklins

In 1883, Arthur Ellis Franklin (born 1857) married Caroline Jacobs (1863-1935) in London. The Franklin family were in banking and finance but also owned Routledge, the publishers. In 1935 Routledge published Arthur Franklin's book 'Records of the Franklin Family and Collaterals', which traced the lineage of the family back to King David. The Franklin children, Jacob Arthur, Alice Caroline, Cecil Arthur, Helen Caroline, Hugh Arthur and Ellis were all born in London between 1884 and 1894.

Hugh supported the suffragist movement (votes for women) and threatened Winston Churchill on a train with a whip. Following other offences Hugh was imprisoned before eventually escaping to the continent with his fiancée, suffragette, Elsie Duval. The pair were married in London in 1915 following the declaration of an amnesty for suffragettes at the beginning of World War I.

In 1899 the family moved to Chartridge Lodge. As well as developing the small cottage into a substantial country house and buying several other properties in the area, Arthur Franklin built several houses in and around Chartridge, including Ellis and Adelaide cottages in Ballinger. A row of houses next to Chartridge Green Farm and the cottage adjoining the Reading Room bear the initials of Arthur and Caroline Franklin.

Arthur and Caroline's son Ellis became the father of Rosalind Franklin, who together with Francis Crick and James Watson, discovered the structure of DNA in 1951.