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William Francklin, orientalist, was educated at Westminster School from 1777 to 1781 and at Trinity College, Cambridge (1781–2). He was admitted as a cadet in the service of the East India Company in 1782 and appointed ensign of the 19th regiment of Bengal native infantry on 31 January 1783. By 1814 he had risen to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. On being invalided on 1 October 1815 he was made regulating officer at Bhagalpur. He retired from the army in December 1825, and died on 12 April 1839, aged seventy-six.
A distinguished officer, Francklin also enjoyed considerable reputation as an oriental scholar. In 1786 he made a tour of Persia, in the course of which he lived at Shiraz for eight months as the close friend of a Persian family, and subsequently wrote an account of Persian customs, "Observations Made on a Tour from Bengal to Persia" (Calcutta, 1788). His publications also include a compilation of the memoirs of George Thomas (1756–1802); translations from Persian; archaeological remarks on the plain of Troy; and historical, political, geographic, economic, and religious essays on parts of India. His religious writings include a discussion of the worship of the serpent in various parts of the world. Francklin was a member, and during the later years of his life, librarian and council member, of the Royal Asiatic Society. He was also a member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.