Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the Texas Republic, 1836-1839
Benjamin Cromwell Franklin, the first person to hold a judicial position in the Republic of Texas, was born April 25, 1805 in Cherokee County, Georgia. He attended Franklin College in Athens, Georgia, studied law privately following his graduation, and was admitted to the bar in Macon, Georgia in 1827.
Franklin arrived in Velasco, Texas in April 1835. Within a few months, the Texas Revolution began. Franklin joined the Texas army and fought in the Battle of San Jacinto. Following the battle it was Franklin who was dispatched to Galveston to give the news of victory to President Burnet. Shortly thereafter, he became the first judge of the Texas Republic when Burnet appointed him special district judge to hear the case of the Pocket, a U.S. ship seized by Texas during the revolution. By year's end, President Houston had appointed him judge of the Second Judicial District, which automatically made him an associate justice of the supreme court of the Texas Republic.
Franklin was married in 1837 and fathered two children. He resigned his judgeship and moved with his wife to Galveston in 1839 to start a law practice. His wife died in 1844, and Franklin remarried three years later.
Franklin represented Galveston in the Third, Fifth, and Eighth Legislatures. When the Civil War broke out he retired to his farm near Livingston in Polk County. He returned to Galveston in 1870. Benjamin Cromwell Franklin died following a brief illness on December 25, 1873, and was buried in Galveston.
Ericson, Joe E.
Judges of the Republic of Texas (1836-1846) 109 (Dallas, Texas: Taylor Publishing Co., 1980).Kemp, L. W. Franklin, Benjamin Cromwell,
Handbook of Texas Online (last updated June 6, 2001). http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/FF/ffr2.htmlLynch, James Daniel.
The Bench and Bar of Texas 173-177 (St. Louis, Missouri: Nixon-Jones Printing Co., 1885).