FRANKLIN, LUMLEY, businessman and amateur musician; b. probably c.1820 in England, son of Lewis Franklin, a Liverpool banker, and Miriam Abraham; d. 3 Aug. 1873 in San Francisco, Calif.

At least as early as 1857 Lumley Franklin was in San Francisco, where his brother Selim had been in business since 1849, and in July 1858 he followed Selim to Victoria, Vancouver Island. Here the brothers established the firm of S. Franklin and Company, auctioneers and land agents, and were soon recognized as among the most able and highly respected members of the Jewish business community, whose growth had been stimulated by the gold rush to the Fraser River. In 1863 Lumley was president of the short-lived Eureka Copper Company. Both Franklins were active in the Victoria Philharmonic Society, which was organized at their place of business, the “Anchor Rooms,” on 26 Jan. 1859. Lumley is said to have “had the advantage of an Italian musical education” and was a composer as well as a performer: at a concert in 1865 he sang his own setting of Byron’s “Adieu, adieu my native shore.” He was also active in masonic circles. While in San Francisco he had been a member of the Occidental Lodge no.22, A.F. & A.M., and in 1865 he became worshipful master of Victoria Lodge no.1085 of which he was considered a founding member.

In November 1865 Lumley Franklin was elected mayor of Victoria, and when the laying of the Atlantic cable was completed in July 1866 he signed the city’s telegram of congratulation to the mayor of London. Urged to seek a second term he declined, but continued to take an active interest in public affairs, serving on the board of education for Vancouver Island and as president of the Mechanics’ Literary Institute, and advocating the removal of the capital from New Westminster to Victoria. In October 1871 he left for England and returned a year later, after “a lengthened tour of Europe and Canada.” In 1873 he was in San Francisco administering the estate of his brother Edward when he had a paralytic stroke; he died soon after, leaving a reputation as “a most amiable gentleman . . . always foremost in good works.”

Dorothy Blakey Smith