Eleanor Anne Franklin (nee Porden) was born ca. 1795 in London, youngest daughter of the eminent architect William Porden. Interested in science and the arts from an early age, she published her first poem The veils, or the triumph of constancy, a poem in 6 books in 1815, which led to her election as a member of the Institute of Paris. She first became acquainted with the Arctic explorer John Franklin in 1818 when she visited his ship HMS Trent before his departure on the British Naval North Polar Expedition (leader David Buchan), and she published a short poem The Arctic expeditions later in the same year. In 1822, she published a more ambitious work Coeur de Lion, an epic poem in 16 cantos, which established her reputation as a British Romantic poet. After resuming her friendship with Franklin on his return from the British Naval Exploring Expedition [first Arctic Land expedition], 1819-1822, they married on 19 August 1823. She gave birth to their daughter, Eleanor Isabella, in June 1824, and she died of tuberculosis on 22 February 1825, shortly after her husband had left England on the British Naval Exploring Expedition [second Arctic Land expedition], 1825-1827.
From the guide to the Eleanor Anne Porden collection, 1824, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
