Frankland’s great-uncle and namesake, a citizen and Clothworker of London, acquired Rye and several adjacent manors in Hertfordshire in 1559, was granted arms in 1569, and purchased the manor of Great Thirkleby from Ambrose, earl of Warwick in 1576. Frankland, who inherited these estates, initially resided in Hertfordshire, where he was recommended as a justice in 1609 by Sir Henry Cocke†. However, in 1619 and 1623 he disposed of his southern properties and built a house at Thirkleby, three miles from Thirsk.
The first of his family to sit in Parliament, Frankland was presumably returned in 1628 by agreement with his influential neighbour Lord Fauconberg (Sir Thomas Belasyse*). During the two sessions in which he sat he was named to two committees, one for a naturalization bill (7 May 1628), the other to consider a petition from London merchants about the postal service (9 Feb. 1629).
Frankland paid £25 to compound for distraint of knighthood in 1630. He was re-elected to the Short Parliament, but died shortly after the next election, on 10 Dec. 1640. His eldest son Henry, though knighted by Sir Thomas Wentworth*, fought for Parliament in the Civil War. After the Restoration his descendants were returned regularly for Thirsk, beginning with his grandson Sir William in 1671.