(Anglo-French-Teut.) Free Man, Freeholder [Middle English frankeleyn, &c., Anglo-French frankelayn, Low Latin francalan-us, franchilan-us; v. under] Frank and France A frankeleyn At sessiouns ther was he lord and sire; Ful ofte tyme he was knyght of the shire.

A shirreve [sheriff] hadde he been, and a countour, Was nowher such a worthy vavasour.—Chaucer, Cant. Tales, A 331 sqq.

And tho [those] that bicome cristene, Bi counseil of the baptisme, Aren frankaleyns, free men.

Piers Plowman, 13,034-6.

Middle-English frankeleyn, i.e. freeholder. This name has long been established in Cos. Limerick and Tipperary. MIF 281*

“Freehold Farmer” in Old English.

(English) A freeholder who held substantial land for which he paid only a small rent and who rendered little or no service to the lord.

In the H.R. Franckleyn, Frankelain (with and without the prefix Le), Franklanus, &c. Halliwell's definition is "a large freeholder." Properly the son or descendant of a vilein, who had become rich; but the term was also applied to fanners and country gentlemen of inconsiderable property. Chaucer's description, however, makes the Franklin a much more important personage. See English Surn., i. 127-8.

Anciently, in England, a "superior freeholder,"next below gentlemen in dignity, now called country Squires. Fortescue says (De Leg. Ang.), "Moreover England is so filled and replenished with landed menne, that therein the smallest thorpe can not be found wherin dwelleth not a knight or an esquire, or such a householder as is there commonly called a Franklin, enriched with great possessions, and also other freeholders, and many yeomen, able for their livelyhood to make a jury in form aforementioned."So Chaucer, in his Canterbury Tales;

"A Franklin was in this companie,

White was his beard, as is the dayesie."

Franchilanus, or Le Fraunclein, meant a free tenant, holding by military service (Du Cange). It included both native and foreign families, but probably the latter bore chiefly the name Fraunclein, the former the English form Freeman. The name was not used in Normandy.

(English), Freeholder. (variant: Freyhofer and Sondermann.)

Oxfordshire has been for ages one of the principal homes of the Franklins. The name, which in early times, as well as in those of Shakespeare, often signified a freeholder, is also established in Bucks, Berks, Beds, Herts, Essex, and Northamptonshire, so that it may be said to occupy a somewhat circumscribed and continuous area. In the 13th century its usual forms were Frankelayn, Frankeleyn, Fraunkelayn, Fraunkeleyn, sometimes preceded by "Le" and "De," Frankelin being rare (H. R.); it was then especially numerous in Oxfordshire, and also in fair numbers in Bucks and Wilts (H. R.), so that it would appear that in those early times, as in our own day, Oxfordshire and Bucks stood foremost amongst the English counties for their proportion of the Franklins.