John Franklin Autographs
Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin KCH FRS FLS FRGS (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer and colonial administrator. After serving in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, he led two expeditions into the Canadian Arctic and through the islands of the Arctic Archipelago, during the Coppermine expedition of 1819 and the Mackenzie River expedition of 1825, and served as Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1837 to 1843. During his third and final expedition, an attempt to traverse the Northwest Passage in 1845, Franklin's ships became icebound off King William Island in what is now Nunavut, where he died in June 1847. The icebound ships were abandoned ten months later, and the entire crew died from causes such as starvation, hypothermia, and scurvy.
Franklin was born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, on 16 April 1786, the ninth of twelve children born to Hannah Weekes and Willingham Franklin. His father was a merchant descended from a line of country gentlemen, while his mother was the daughter of a farmer. One of his brothers later entered the legal profession and eventually became a judge in Madras; another joined the East India Company; while a sister, Sarah, was the mother of Emily Tennyson, wife of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. John Franklin must have been affected by an obvious desire to better his social and economic position, given that his elder brothers struggled, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, to establish themselves in a wide variety of careers.
Educated at King Edward VI Grammar School in Louth, he soon became interested in a career at sea. His father, who intended for Franklin to enter the church or become a businessman, was initially opposed but was reluctantly convinced to allow him to go on a trial voyage on a merchant ship when he was aged 12. His experience of seafaring only confirmed his interest in a career at sea, so in March 1800, Franklin's father secured him a Royal Navy appointment on HMS Polyphemus.
Read more about John Franklin on Wikipedia
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Traded items with a signature of John Franklin
The most expensive item with a signature of John Franklin (JOHN FRANKLIN * PSA * Vanished POLAR EXPLORER Autograph Signed * RIP) was sold in October 2025 for $995.00 while the cheapest item (2018 Sage Hit Premier Draft John Franklin Rookie Auto Autograph RC #A-18) found a new owner for $0.99 in September 2023. The month with the most items sold (2) was January 2022 with an average selling price of $474.05 for an autographed item of John Franklin. Sold items reached their highest average selling price in October 2025 with $995.00 and the month that saw the lowest prices with $3.78 was November 2014. In average, an autographed item from John Franklin is worth $180.95.
Most recently, these items with a signature of John Franklin were sold on eBay - click here for more items.
