I am researching the Carpenter family of Factoryville and have been reading the book " Pennsylvania Land Records" by Donna Bingham Monger hopes of finding the records of the Carpenter family Land in Carpenter Hollow. I was truly amassed at the complexity of the process established by the Penn family to purchase land and the one thing I did not find in Donna's book was what a "Right of Franchise" was. I have a copy of an unpublished manuscript that was obtained from the Lackawanna Historical Society written by an unknown author that states "1843 citizens in or near Factoryville capable of exercising a right of Franchise included Benjamin, Peleg, and George Carpenter". Can anyone tell me about the right of franchise, if there is a published list of the 1843 citizens and if so what other information is provided. Jack Schoedinger J.schoedinger.2@netzero.net

Well, this was a tough one! I could find the phrase "right to franchise" being used easily enough, but to a defination for it was something else! What I did then was to search for a defination for "franchise". Thinking all I would come up with was "business" definations..... below are some of the results I found: - "As far as political rights go, because you are a member of a body politic, you need these rights to express yourself as a dignified member of that polity. The fight for political rights is to ensure that because we all belong to one society, we want to have a say in its running. That struggle has brought us this far that for the right to franchise, no one today asks any question about economic and social status, color, creed or gender but just that you are 18 years old and a citizen. " - In politics, the right to vote. The Constitution left the determination of the qualifications of voters to the states. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, states usually restricted the franchise to white men who owned specified amounts of property. Gradually, poll taxes were substituted for property requirements. � Losing the right to vote, called disfranchisement, is most commonly caused by failing to reregister, a procedure that is required every time a person changes residence - a statutory right or privilege granted to a person or group by a government (especially the right to vote) -Exemption from constraint or oppression; freedom; liberty. -(LAw) A particular privilege conferred by grant from a sovereign or a government, and vested in individuals; an imunity or exemption from ordinary jurisdiction; a constitutional or statutory right or privilege, esp. the right to vote. {Elective franchise}, the privilege or right of voting in an election of public officers. - To make free; to enfranchise; to give liberty to. - A right reserved to the people by the constitution; hence we say the elective franchise to designate the right of the people to elect their officers. 3. A certain privilege conferred by grant from the government and vested in individuals. Its almost a wonder that one word could have such indepth meanings to it, yet in today's world when we hear it we think of McDonalds and other restaurant or retail establishments! Sue Jack A Schoedinger <j.schoedinger.2@netzero.net> wrote: I am researching the Carpenter family of Factoryville and have been reading the book " Pennsylvania Land Records" by Donna Bingham Monger hopes of finding the records of the Carpenter family Land in Carpenter Hollow. I was truly amassed at the complexity of the process established by the Penn family to purchase land and the one thing I did not find in Donna's book was what a "Right of Franchise" was. I have a copy of an unpublished manuscript that was obtained from the Lackawanna Historical Society written by an unknown author that states "1843 citizens in or near Factoryville capable of exercising a right of Franchise included Benjamin, Peleg, and George Carpenter". Can anyone tell me about the right of franchise, if there is a published list of the 1843 citizens and if so what other information is provided. Jack Schoedinger J.schoedinger.2@netzero.net ==== PAWYOMIN Mailing List ==== Visit the Wyoming County GenWeb Site at: http://wyomingpa.freeservers.com/ --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software

Hi Sue, Your research is certainly correct. I accomplished a similar task, but took a more general interpretation as the Right of Franchise being a privilege or right granted by a person, authority, group, government, etc. As I told Sally, the time frame was between 1801 and 1831, in a wooded area of Pennsylvania where clearing land and farming was the primary objective. This time period was based on the fact that only Benjamin's first two sons (born in 1801 and 1802) had the right of franchise while his third son William (born in 1805) and the rest of his children did not. My thought was, that it may have been a phrase used to describe the processes of acquiring land for those settlers who arrived after the 1794 law (SmL 3:193-94) was enacted. This law made occupancy and improvement mandatory before submission of an application for the land. In this situation a man would pay the land fee but had to occupy and improve the land for five years before making application for survey and title. This policy was in effect until 1817, and I would assume that these people would have a "Right of Franchise" over there land until they could make application. I may be completely off base, but than there is nothing wrong with a McDonalds franchise! Have a nice day Jack

The people who can probably answer your question would be the staff at the PA State Archive in Harrisburg. Try: http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jack A Schoedinger" <j.schoedinger.2@netzero.net> To: <PAWYOMIN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2003 11:20 PM Subject: [PAWYOMIN-L] Pennsylvania Land Records > I am researching the Carpenter family of Factoryville and have been reading > the book " Pennsylvania Land Records" by Donna Bingham Monger hopes of > finding the records of the Carpenter family Land in Carpenter Hollow. > I was truly amassed at the complexity of the process established by the Penn > family to purchase land and the one thing I did not find in Donna's book was > what a "Right of Franchise" was. > I have a copy of an unpublished manuscript that was obtained from the > Lackawanna Historical Society written by an unknown author that states > "1843 citizens in or near Factoryville capable of exercising a right of > Franchise included Benjamin, Peleg, and George Carpenter". > Can anyone tell me about the right of franchise, if there is a published > list of the 1843 citizens and if so what other information is provided. > > Jack Schoedinger > J.schoedinger.2@netzero.net > > > ==== PAWYOMIN Mailing List ==== > Visit the Wyoming County GenWeb Site at: http://wyomingpa.freeservers.com/ > >