| Administrative History | John Griffin (1757-1852) was the father of Lady Franklin, the second wife of the Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin. His family was of Huguenot descent, and he was a successful silk weaver, who built up a substantial fortune: he was admitted to the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in 1791. He married Jeanne (Jane) Guillemard on 3 Apr 1786; they had 3 daughters Frances (Fanny), who married Ashurst Majendie, Jane, who marred Sir John Franklin, and Mary, who married John Augustus Francis Simpkinson; they also had a son, John, born in 1790, who died at the age of 14. His wife died in 1795. He lived well into his nineties, and died on 2 May 1852. He had pointedly made sure that Lady Franklin did not inherit his property, believing that she would fritter away the family fortune in funding further search expeditions to find her Arctic explorer husband. |