FRANKLIN, THOMAS, D. D. chaplain in ordinary to his majesty, was born in London about the year 1720, and was the son of Richard Franklin, well known as the printer of an anti-ministerial paper called The Craftsman; in conducting which he received great assistance from Lord Bolingbroke, Mr Pultney, and other excellent writers, who then opposed Sir Robert Walpole's measures. By the advice of the second of these gentlemen, young Franklin was devoted to the church, with a promise of being provided for by the patriot; who afterwards forgot his undertaking, and then entirely neglected him. He was educated at Westminster School; from whence he went to the university of Cambridge, where he became fellow of Trinity college, and was some time Greek professor. In December 1758, he was instituted vicar of Ware and Thundridge; which, with the lectureship of St Paul, Covent Garden, and a chapel in Queen Street, were all the preferments he held till he obtained the rectory of Brafield in Kent. This gentleman was possessed of no inconsiderable share of learning and poetical abilities, and was long a favourite in the literary world. His translations of Phalarus, Sophocles, and Lucian, equally evince his learning and his genius, as they are not more distinguished for fidelity in the version, than congeniality with the spirit of the admirable originals. Dr Franklin, like Mr Foote, suffered a translation from the French to be printed in his name; but the Orestes and Electra are supposed to be all that were really by him. It was a translation of Voltaire's works, to which also Dr Smollett's name appears. His own dramatic compositions, of which the principal are the tragedies of The Earl of Warwick and Matilda, are universally known, and deservedly esteemed by the public. He died in March 1784.