Eleanor Payne Jones had a colourful life although perhaps not quite as colourful as that of her brother Richard Payne Jones. She was two years old at the time of her father Richard's death in 1797 and times must have been hard for this family. At some point Eleanor went to the Cape, possibly with her brother Richard and she married in Cape Town in 1832 when she was 37, to a Charles FRANKLAND whose life is not yet fully uncovered. Rubidge records show a marriage to Frankland but no given name. The records* of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Cape Town show a marriage of Charles FRANKLAND to Eleanor Payne JONES on 9th June 1832. An extract from a marriage register dated AD 1832 states: "At Cape Town 9th June 1832 I did this day by special licence and before a competent number of witnesses perform the ceremony of marriage between Charles Frankland and Eleanor Payne Jones. As witness my hand James Adamson Esq." *(copy of register entry in my possession) Her two surviving children, Charles (1833) and Richard, (1836) both born in Cape Town, have 'Colville' as a middle name implying a connection with the Franklands of Thirkleby although no trace of Eleanor's husband's birth appears in the relevant family records.A third son, Edward Colville Frankland was born in 1837 but died in Cape Town in 1838. Charles left the Cape for Liverpool in 1838 on the Sarah Birkett while Eleanor and the two boys left for Boston on the Levant on the 9th December 1839 arriving in Boston on the 7th February 1840. Eleanor's age on arrival in 1840 was 34 although she was 10 years older. Eleanor's husband Charles established a shipping business with his brother-in-law Richard Payne Jones. Their businesses included shipping slaves from the Caribbean to Texas, they opened a meat packing company, imported goods from England and shipped cotton to England. They were also involved in land speculation and local politics, and loaned money to new settlers. The firm, Frankland and Jones, was the subject of a British government enquiry in respect of their slaving activities. Charles Frankland is thought to have drowned in 1843 in the Sabine River off Galveston whence Eleanor had removed in the 1840s. The event, the sinking of the Sarah Barnes was recounted in the Galveston Daily News Perils of the Deep A Resume of Noted Disasters to Steam Vessels in These Waters for Forty Years (News) The Galveston Daily News Sunday, November 14, 1875; Issue 264; col D Sunday September 24th, 1843.  A transcript of the report of the event at the time of the sinking reports that Frankland climbed aboard a raft. Whatever the truth of the affair, nothing is known of him after this event so he must be presumed to have died at the time. 'Ellen Franklin' and her two sons born in Cape Town are recorded in the 1850 US census for Liberty County, Texas. Eleanor died in 1859 and left a will which was not lodged so had to be attested to by people who knew her. She and her brother Richard had not communicated for some time as his earlier will of 1853 describes her as dead. The two sons continued to farm in the Galveston area; they married two sisters and had issue from which there are descendants in Texas today. Alfred Portlock Rubidge corresponded with Richard Colville Frankland whose descendant Kathy Shajari in Texas sent me two of the letters, yet to be transctibed.  Image of Charles Colville FRANKLAND born Cape Town 1833  |
