“Franchise” as an Element in Place-Names (13 S. i. 232).—See Skeat’s Dictionary. Under
“Franklin,” a freeholder, we get “M.E. frankelein, Chaucer … shortened to franklen”: and
there are references to ‘Piers Plowman,’ etc.
Harry K. Hudson.
A group of houses on the boundary of Hereford City is marked on the Ordnance Map “Franchise Stone,” but
pronounced “Franchiston.” The actual stone defining the “Liberties of the City of Hereford“
(an enclosure also referred to in old documents as “the franchise of Hereford”) is at this spot.
This is a good example of the suffix “-ton” being derived from the separate word “stone,” a derivation much more frequent than some philologists admit.
Alfred Watkins.
Hereford.
Source info: Checked in library.
Watkins uses Franchiston as an example of a -ton name from a stone in The Old Straight Track, page 163.