| Administrative History | Isabella Cracroft was the 11th child and 6th daughter of Willingham Franklin and his wife Hannah (nee Weekes). She married Thomas Robert Cracroft on 13 Oct 1814; they had 6 children - Sophia, Isabella, Thomas, Henry, Emma and Catherine. After the death of her sister-in-law Eleanor Anne Franklin (nee Porden), it largely fell on Isabella Cracroft to bring up Eleanor's only child, Eleanor Isabella Franklin, until the age of 12, when Eleanor Isabella travelled with her father Sir John Franklin upon his taking up the the post of Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land [now Tasmania]. The letters cover the period from Eleanor's time in Van Diemen's Land until after her marriage to John Philip Gell. |