Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/207

 money matters he was extremely exact, but could bear losses with equanimity. He had saved up 100l., which he was induced to lodge with a merchant, who became bankrupt just after Fransham had withdrawn 75l. to buy books. To his friends' expressions of condolence he replied that he had been lucky enough to gain the 75l.

At the latter end of 1809 he was attacked by a cough; in January 1810 he took to his bed and was carefully nursed, but declined medical aid. When dying he said that had he to live his days again he would go more into female society. He had a fear of being buried alive, and gave some odd instructions as to what was to be done to prove him ‘dead indeed.’ On 1 Feb. 1810 he expired. He was buried on 4 Feb. in the churchyard of St. George of Colegate; his gravestone bears a Latin inscription. A caricature likeness of him has been published; his features have been thought to resemble those of Erasmus, while his double-tipped nose reminded his friends of the busts of Plato. He left ninety-six guineas to his sister; his books and manuscripts were left to Edward Rigby, M.D. (d. 1821); some of them passed into the possession of William Stark, and a portion of these is believed to have perished in a fire; William Saint, his pupil and biographer, seems to have obtained his mathematical books and most of his mathematical manuscripts.

He published: 1. ‘An Essay on the Oestrum or Enthusiasm of Orpheus,’ Norwich, 1760, 8vo (an anonymous tract on the happiness to be derived from a noble enthusiasm). 2. ‘Two Anniversary Discourses: in the first of which the Old Man is exploded, in the second the New Man is recognised,’ London, 1768, 8vo (anonymous satires; not seen; reviewed in ‘Monthly Review,’ 1769, xl. 83, and identified as Fransham's on the evidence of his manuscripts). 3. ‘Robin Snap, British Patriotic Carrier,’ 1769–70, fol. (a penny satirical print, published in Norwich; 26 numbers, the first on Saturday, 4 Nov. 1769, then regularly on Tuesdays from 14 Nov. 1769 to 30 Jan. 1770, and again 13 Feb.–24 April, also 15 May and 29 May 1770; the whole, with slight exceptions, written by Fransham; his own copy has a printed title-page, ‘The Dispensation of Robin Snap,’ &c.; ‘snap’ is the local term for the dragon carried about the streets of Norwich on the guild day.)

Of Fransham's manuscripts six quarto volumes remain. Five of these are described by Saint; they are prepared for the press and indexed, and contain a few allegorical drawings. They bear the general title ‘Memorabilia Classica: or a Philosophical Harvest of Ancient and Modern Institutions.’ In the first volume is (No. 2) the original draft of his ‘Oestrum,’ and (No. 5) ‘The Code of Aristopia, or Scheme of a perfect Government,’ the most remarkable of his writings. He advocates (p. 175) a decimal system of coinage and measures. The second volume, ‘A Synopsis of Classical Philosophy,’ embodies his ‘Essay on the Fear of Death,’ expressing a hope of a future and more perfect state of being, a topic on which he had written in his nineteenth year. At the end of the third volume is his ‘Antiqua Religio,’ including his hymns to Jupiter, Minerva, Venus, Hercules, &c. The fourth volume includes the draft of his ‘Anniversary Discourses,’ and others in the same strain. The fifth volume contains thirty numbers of ’ Robin Snap,’ some of which were worked up in the published periodical. A sixth volume, ‘Memorabilia Practica,’ is perhaps that which is described by Saint as ‘a mathematical manual;’ it contains a very interesting compendium of all the subjects which he taught. Fransham's style is uncouth and emotional, but bears marks of genius; his prose becomes rhythmical when he is strongly moved.

There was an earlier (d. July or August 1753), a Norwich linendraper, rent-agent to Horace Walpole, and correspondent of Defoe, 1704–7 (Notes and Queries, 5th ser. iii. 261 sq.), a contributor to periodicals (ib. ii. 37); author of: 1. ‘The Criterion … of High and Low Church,’ &c., 1710, 8vo; reprinted, Norwich, 1710, 8vo (by ‘J. F.’) 2. ‘A Dialogue between Jack High and Will Low,’ &c., 1710, 8vo (anon.; both of these are identified as Fransham's by a note in his handwriting); and in all probability the ‘Mr. John Fransham of Norwich,’ who published 3. ‘The World in Miniature,’ &c., 1740, 2 vols. 12mo. To him has also been ascribed a valuable tract by J. F., ‘An Exact Account of the Charge for Supporting the Poor of … Norwich,’ &c., 1720, 8vo (British Museum, 104, n. 44; catalogued under ‘John Fransham’), but this is assigned, in a contemporary Norwich hand on Mr. Colman's copy, to James Fransham.

[Saint's Memoir, without date (preface dated Norwich, 3 Oct. 1811), is a perplexing jumble of contradictory accounts, and it is quite probable that the attempt made above to present the narrative in its true sequence has not been entirely successful. Saint's extracts from the manuscripts, made partly with the view of exhibiting Fransham's ‘Christian character,’ are well chosen. It would appear from a letter, dated 3 Aug. 1811, that ‘the Rev. W. J. F.,’ i.e. William Johnson Fox [q. v.], had something to do with the publication. An earlier memoir, in some respects better (dated Norwich, 20 March 1811), appeared in the Monthly Magazine, 1811,