_

His father John Frankland is said on his tombstone in Giggleswick Church
to be one of the Franklands of "Thartilbe" (Thirkleby, near Thirsk) and
he was admitted to Christ's in 1626.

Richard became B.A. in 1651 and M.A. four years later. In 1653 he was
"set apart" and received Presbyterian ordination. He was immediately
appointed Vicar of Auckland S. Andrew by Sir Arthur Haselrig but was
ejected nine years later. He was not an extreme man but he refused to be
re-ordained by Bishop Cosen. After the second Conventicle Act of 1670 he
made a personal appeal to Charles II, "to reform your life, your family,
your kingdom and the Church." The King was much moved and replied "I
thank you, Sir," and twice looking back before he went into the Council
Chamber said "I thank you, Sir; I thank you." Returning to Rathmell his
native place, Frankland opened an Academy, where he gave an University
training in Divinity, Law or Medicine. Aristotle was taught and one
tutor was a Ramist. The lectures were delivered in Latin. His pupils
were not confined to any one denomination, but included Puritans,
Presbyterians and Independents.

[Illustration: RICHARD FRANKLAND, M.A.]

Fortune smiled very grimly upon him and he was compelled to change his
place of instruction on many occasions. His pupils always followed him.
One Archbishop excommunicated him, another--Archbishop Sharpe--also a
Christ's man, discussed the matter with the help of tobacco and a bottle
of wine. Sharpe's main objection was that a second school was not
required so close to Giggleswick, and an Academy for public instruction
in University Learning could not lawfully receive a Bishop's license. In
the main he was undisturbed during his last years and when he died in
1698 over three hundred pupils had passed through his hands and his
Academy was later transferred to Manchester and in 1889 to Oxford, where
it became known as the Manchester New College. During the period of
Frankland's struggles with the dignitaries of the Church, one Samuel
Watson, of Stainforth, who had been a Governor of Giggleswick School was
in 1661 "willing being a Quaker that another should be elected in his
place." Eight years later he interrupted a service in the Parish Church,
and the people "brok his head upon ye seates."

In 1656 William Walker resigned the mastership and for three months his
place was taken by William Bradley, who had been a pensioner at S.
John's, Cambridge, at the same time