FRANKLIN, a town of Norfolk county, Massachusetts, 27m. S.W. of Boston ; served by the New York, New Haven and Hart ford railroad. The population was 7,028 in 1930. It has important manufactures of cotton and woollen goods, carpets, rugs, felt, rubber products and printing presses. The town was formed from part of Wrentham and incorporated in 1778. It was the first of the many places named after Benjamin Franklin, and was the birthplace of Horace Mann.