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 was just going home on sick leave, when the mutiny of 1857 broke out. Thereupon he refused to go to England, and remained at Calcutta until his health was sufficiently restored to enable him to take the field. In January 1858 he was appointed to command the 4th infantry division in the field, with the rank of brigadier-general. This division, nearly six thousand strong, was intended to carry out a favourite scheme of Lord Canning. Franks was directed to march across the north-eastern frontier of Oude, driving the mutineers before him, and then to meet Sir Jung Bahadur, the prime minister of Nepal, who had promised to bring a force of Goorkhas to the assistance of the English, after which the two corps together were to co-operate in Sir Colin Campbell's operations against Lucknow. This programme was successfully carried out; the junction with Jung Bahadur's Goorkhas was cleverly effected, and on 19 and 23 Feb. Franks inflicted two severe defeats on the rebel leader, Muhammad Hussein Nazim, at Chanda, and between Badshahganj and Sultánpur respectively. The effect of these victories, in which Franks only lost two men killed and sixteen wounded, was, however, minimised by the severe check which he received in an attempt to take Dohrighat. Sir Colin Campbell was much incensed at this defeat, and after the final capture of Lucknow he refused to give Franks another command in the field. This was a severe blow to Franks, who at once returned to England, where he was promoted major-general on 20 July 1858, made a K.C.B., and given the thanks of parliament. His health was entirely ruined by his exertions, and he died at Ibstone House, Tetsworth, Oxfordshire, on 5 Feb. 1862. Franks married (1) Matilda, daughter of Richard Kay, esq., and widow of the Rev. W. Fletcher; (2) Rebecca Constantia Elizabeth, widow of Samuel Brewis, esq., of Langley House, Prestwich, Lancashire.

[Hart's Army List; Gent. Mag. March 1862; Despatches of Lord Hardinge, Lord Gough, and Sir Harry Smith; Shadwell's Lord Clyde; Malleson's Indian Mutiny.] 

FRANSHAM, JOHN (1730–1810), freethinker, son of Thomas and Isidora Fransham, was born early in 1730 (baptised 19 March) in the parish of St. George of Colegate, Norwich, where his father was sexton or parish clerk. He showed precocity at an elementary school. He wrote sermons, which the rector of St. George's thought good enough to submit to the dean. The aid of a relative, probably Isaac Fransham (1660–1743), an attorney, enabled him to study for the church. His relative dying, Fransham, at the age of fifteen, was apprenticed for a few weeks to a cooper at Wymondham, Norfolk. By writing sermons for clergymen he made a little money, but could not support himself, though he went barefoot nearly three years. John Taylor, D.D., the presbyterian theologian, gave him gratuitous instruction. A legacy of 25l. determined him to buy a pony, not to ride, but to ‘make a friend of,’ as he told a physician consulted by his father, who thought him out of his wits. As long as the money lasted, Fransham took lessons from W. Hemingway, a land surveyor. He then wrote for Marshall, an attorney, but was never articled. one of Marshall's clerks, John Chambers, afterwards recorder of Norwich, took great pains with him. He made the acquaintance of Joseph Clover [q. v.], the veterinary surgeon, who employed him to take horses to be shod, and taught him mathematics in return for Fransham's help in classics.

In 1748 he joined a company of strolling players. He is said to have taken, among other parts, those of Iago and Shylock. The players got no pay and lived on turnips; Fransham left them on finding that the turnips were stolen. He sailed from Great Yarmouth for North Shields, intending to study at the Scottish universities and visit the highlands. But at Newcastle-on-Tyne he enlisted in the Old Buffs, was soon discharged as bandy-legged, and made his way back to Norwich with three halfpence and a plaid. After this he worked with Daniel Wright, a freethinking journeyman weaver. The two friends sat facing each other, so that they could carry on discussions amid the rattle of their looms.

After Wright's death, about 1750, Fransham devoted himself to teaching. For two or three years he was tutor in the family of Leman, a farmer at Hellesdon, Norfolk. He next took pupils at Norwich in Latin, Greek, French, and mathematics. He only taught for two hours a day, and had time to act as amanuensis to Samuel Bourn (1714–1796) [q. v.] He became a member of a society for philosophical experiment, founded by Peter Bilby. His reputation grew as a successful preliminary tutor for the universities; he reluctantly took as many as twenty pupils, being of opinion that no man could do justice to more than eight. His terms rose from a shilling a week to 15s. a quarter; out of this slender income he saved money, and collected two hundred books towards a projected library. If he got a bargain at a bookstall he insisted on paying the full value as soon as he knew it.

In 1767 he spent nine months in London, carrying John Leedes, a former pupil, through