| Administrative History | Sophia Cracroft (1815-1892) was the daughter of Thomas Robert Cracroft and his wife Isabella. In 1836, she accompanied John Franklin and his second wife, Jane, as well as her cousin Eleanor, to Van Diemen's Land [now Tasmania], after Franklin had accepted the post of Lieutenant Governor there. On Franklin's recall they all returned to Britain in 1844. She became the close companion and confidante of Lady Franklin, particularly after the marriage of her cousin Eleanor to John Philip Gell in 1849 and the confirmation of the death of John Franklin in 1857. Sophia accompanied Jane Franklin on her travels in the 1860s, visiting Alaska, the United States, Hawaii, Canada, South America, China, Japan, India and Europe. Sophia increasingly fell out with her cousin Eleanor from 1844 and took the side of Lady Franklin in 1849 when the step-daughter and step-mother disputed financial arrangements in the uncertainty created by the disappearance of Sir John Franklin and his expedition. |