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."

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

FRANKLIN. In the H.R. Franckleyn, Franlielain (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 farmers and country gentlemen of inconsiderable pjoperty. Chaucer's description, however, makes the Franklin a much more important personage. See Eng. Sum., i. 127-8.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.