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[May t;- 
MEMOIRS AND REMAINS OF EMINENT PERSONS,» 
=o 
MEMOIR of the late JOHN FRANS- 
HAM, the norwich poLyTHEIsT.. 
Norwich, March 20,, 1814 
WN ORE ‘than a twelvemonth has 
elapsed since the death of our 
learned and singular townsman, Mr, 
John Fransham, Some account ought 
to be preserved of a life so devoted: to 
philosophy. 
The substance of the following me- 
moir would before now have been offered 
to the Monthly Magazine, but that the 
task of a biographic notice seemed most 
naturally to devolve on those who inherited 
the manuscripts of the deceased: and the 
writer has but lately learnt, that no un- 
welcome usurpation on their piety will be 
eommitted by his interference. 
During March 1730, John Fransham, 
the son of John Fransham, was born at 
Norwich, in St. George’s parish, of 
which his father was clerk. 
For the elements of readmg, writing, 
and cyphering he was indebted to Mr. 
Wingfield; and for the rudiments of Jatin, 
to Mr. Pagan, an antiquary and Anglo. 
saxon scholar of some eminence. Dr. 
John Taylor, the theologian, thought 
well of his early talents, and gave him 
gratuitous instruction, possibly with a 
view of suggesting and opening to him 
the ecclesiastic profession, 
To this plan Fransham did not lean. 
At fifteen he was bound apprentice to a 
eooper at Wymondham ; but in less than 
two years deserted the employment, 
moved by an internal conviction, which 
regarded toil, competence, and igno- 
rance as refuse, when weighed against 
leisure, privation, and philosophy, 
A legacy of twenty-five pounds fell to 
himat this period. His first project was 
to buy a poney, which he told Sir Ben. 
jamin Wrench (a physician, whom his 
parents consulted about his eccen- 
tricity), he should not ride, but make a 
friend of, and lead about wherever it 
wished to stray and feed. Kindness to 
animals was one of his-earliest instincts, 
and was always one of his favourite 
topics. i 
His eventual determination, however, 
was to purchase lessons in mathematics 
from Mr. Hemingway, a land-surveyor 
of science. The pupil’s proficiency did 
honour to his choice, to his capacity, and 
to his application. 
The parents ef Fransham had also a 
daughter, ‘and. could not long afford to 
maintain this son:im unproductive literary’ 
pastime. They induced: him to write 
for Mr. Marshall, an attorney, which he 
did:for a while with sufficient regularity, 
and with exemplary neatness: but he 
was never articled to the profession, nor 
attached to it. 
In 1748, Fransham:again broke loose. 
He was then at an age, when those, who: 
from principle, or frugality, practise 
continence, labour under an * inquietude: 
of temperament,. and are: often assailed. 
with vehement enthusiasms of the mind, 
with a disposition to sally forth in quest 
of adventures. He obeyed the restless 
impulse, strolled to Yarmouth, and em- 
barked for North Shields, intending to. 
walk the tour of the Scotch Highlands, 
and to know by inspection a people, 
whose manners he imagined to resemble 
those of the free nations of antiquity. 
Arrived at Newcastle, he forthed ae- 
quaintance with some soldiers belonging 
to the regiment of Old Butis. He had 
always spoken of military excellence as 
the noblest accomplishment of man, and: 
resolved to attempt this heroic line of life. 
Ile enlisted ; but, being somewhat bandy. 
legved, he was not retained in the ser- 
vice of his country... The gaiety of his 
new associates had made inroads on his. 
pecuniary resources, which the bounty 
of the sovereign was not to replace. 
Finding iis means unequal to his in- 
tended stretch of route, he relinquished 
the investigation of Scotland, turned 
back towards the south, marching almost 
incessantly alone, and managed to reach 
Norwich, with a residue of only three 
half-pence, and a plaid which he had 
bought on this excursion. 
Among. the manuscripts. left behind 
by Fransham, occurs a syllogistic trea~ 
tise entitled ‘* Metaphysicorum Ele= 
menta,” of which the English preface is 
dated in 1748. The pamphlet is a + pa- 
redy 
* That Fransham at a mature age thus 
explained his own gadding, appears from the 
thirty-fifth paragraph of his “* Oestrum Or- 
phicum.” 
+ The ironical character of this string ef 
propositions will be detected in the following 
extract. 
Prop. xvi; 
Omnis substantia est necessario eterna. 
Demonstratio. : 
Omnis substantia (prop, v1.) est absalute 
asceag 
