She is best remembered as the grandmother of Benjamin Franklin. THANK GOODNESS!!!!! SOURCES Deborah Read Benjamin Franklin Wikipedia: Benjamin Franklin Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Franklin started courting the girl and expected a large dowry for their marriage. Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in colonial Boston. My brain is forever warped! We experience things married that singles do not. I have been so happy as to receive several of your dear letters within these few days, she began, adding that she had read one letter over and over. I call it a husbands Love letter, she wrote, thrilled as though it were her first experience with anything of the kind. . Ben Franklin was my first idol, when I was a young lad, & he remains one of my very favorite people wise, inventive, & ohh so witty! A bachelor in his twenties was frowned upon and Franklin at age 24 was set to find a wife. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. His father thought him too young for such a venture, so Keith offered to foot the bill himself and arranged Franklins passage to England so that he could choose his type and make connections with London stationers and booksellers. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) 1706, Jan. 17 Born, Boston, Massachusetts 1718-1723 Apprenticed as a printer to his brother James Franklin 1723 Moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1724-1726 Worked in London, England, as a journeyman printer 1727 Founded the Junto, a debating club, in Philadelphia 1729 Purchased the Pennsylvania Gazette 1730, Sept. 1 He had never been much interested in children, but after the birth of Francis Folger Franklin, on October 20, 1732, he wrote that they were the most delightful Cares in the World. The boy, whom he and Deborah nicknamed Franky, gave rise to a more ebullient version of Franklin than he had allowed the world to see. In 1758, near the start of Franklins first extended stay in London, she sent the portrait or a copy of it to him, perhaps hoping it would bind him to her in the same way she imagined its subject once had. In all, Josiah would father 17 children. Perhaps it was. Marriage is the proper Remedy. Francis Folger Franklin. While Franklin was away from Deborah for over a decade, she sent him romantic letters but he only responded in terse replies. In the same period he read tirelessly and taught himself to write effectively. Known to historians as Benjamin Franklin's favorite sister, Jane was eleven when her restless brother ran away from Boston to begin his career in Philadelphia. J R. Another note on the title page, made by Lloyd P. Smith, librarian of the Library Company, on May 26, 1880, reads, Jos. But rather than focusing on the devastation caused by the disease, Franklins coverage dealt primarily with the success of smallpox inoculation. Check out these top 15 facts that helped shape the history of America. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (Simon & Shuster, New . If Deborah was the model for this fictional wife, as she seems to have been, its worth noting the authors rationale for preferring her type. The argument that Franky was sickly is based primarily on one fact: Nearly a year passed between his birth and his baptism. In 1730 he and Meredith were named Pennsylvanias official printers. Deborah left him and moved back in with her mother. It's long been alleged that, in private, he labeled blame upon Deborah. 1.A Century of Printing: The Issues of the Press of Pennsylvania (Phila., 1885), no. . Franklin was born the 10th son of the 17 children of a man who made soap and candles, one of the lowliest of the artisan crafts. An undutiful daughter will prove an unmanageable wife. Happiness Marriage Anniversary Man. (Franklin immortalized his wifes fiery personality in various fictional counterparts, including Bridget Saunders, wife of Poor Richard. Franklin and Madame Helvetius were both in advanced age, and it would be highly unlikely that she could have produced children even if they sustained an intimate relationship. Franklin apparently proposed marriage, but she declined in deference to her deceased husband. Smithsonian magazine participates in affiliate link advertising programs. And as far as an older woman being grateful that a man might take an interest in her, I think it is just the opposite. This letter was even funnier to me because Benjamin Franklin misspelled words that I restrained myself from correcting. It is the Man and Woman united that make the compleat human Being. In 1721 James Franklin founded a weekly newspaper, the New-England Courant, to which readers were invited to contribute. But he might have had, as Franklin claimed, an unfortunately timed (and uncommonly drawn-out) case of dysentery throughout September, October and early November 1736. A few months later she pressed him: I hope you will not stay longer than this fall.. One popular image is that he was a free and easy libertineour founding playboy. I know of no Medicine fit to diminish the violent natural Inclinations you mention; and if I did, I think I should not communicate it to you. We can not be whole without a mate for this enables us to practice everything together and have no sin involved. 7) They who have nothing to trouble them will be troubled at nothing. Deborah simply moved into Franklins home and printing house at what is now 139 Market Street. In 1776 he insisted that the 7-year-old accompany him on his diplomatic mission to France. Did I say a? Benjamin Franklin, Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress (1745) June 25, 1745 My dear Friend, I know of no Medicine fit to diminish the violent natural Inclinations you mention; and if I did, I think I should not communicate it to you. His father, Josiah, was a soap and candle maker from England who immigrated to Boston. Poor Richard's Almanack, p.39, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. Benjamin Franklin (2013). He was the tenth son of soap maker, Josiah Franklin. Finding a bakery, he asked for three pennies worth of bread and got three great Puffy Rolls. Carrying one under each arm and munching on the third, he walked up Market Street past the door of the Read family, where stood Deborah, his future wife. Usually, inoculated patients became slightly ill, broke out in a few, smallish pox, and recovered quickly, immune to the disease for the rest of their lives. Notes: 1974-1975 TV miniseries "The Lives of Benjamin Franklin" Events. Thank you for providing this, it was fun reading, with some valid points. Franklin swooped in and took Deborah as his common-law wife on September 1, 1730 common-law so that, if Mr. Potter returned, neither one would be in violation of bigamy laws. Deborahs famous temper might be traced to her frustration with him, as well as the general unfairness of her situation. 3. Keiths motives may have been more political than paternal, but with that, the couple interchangd some Promises, in Franklins telling, and he set out for London. It was a small matter, but Benjamin was incensed. Much has been made of Franklin being a womanizer, especially in Europe. A Quick Biography of. A person, whether they are male or female, can be a whole and evolved person without being married! Ignoring the spelling errors, I still find this letter funny. Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson (2003). Benjamin loved the child and his new role as a dad, but that did not mean he opened up to be more of a loving husband to Deborah. Benjamin Franklin was the George Clooney of his day. Thankfully we have come a long way in our thinking since the time Benjamin Franklin wrote that letter 268 years ago! In 1730, when Boston had another outbreak, he used his own newspaper to promote inoculation in Philadelphia because he suspected the disease would spread south. Your email address will not be published. The Redhead Riter is Witty, Intelligent & Addictive. Franklin was a great manscientist, publisher, political theorist, diplomat. I think it is just the opposite Oh yeah!!! But he never came. Franklin was not the gushy, romantic type, but, prior to his marriage, he had an affair with the wife of a friend and ended up getting her pregnant. Deborah could tell herself that a man who would write such a letter would not repeat his previous sojourn in England, which had begun in 1757 with a promise to be home soon and dragged on for five years, during which rumors filtered back to Philadelphia that he was enjoying the company of other women. He flat out denied such rumors, claiming he was an honest husband, even if he was not a loving one. His first enthusiasm was for poetry, but, discouraged with the quality of his own, he gave it up. Journal of the American Revolution is the leading source of knowledge about the American Revolution and Founding Era. In public, Franklin himself took the blame for not inoculating Franky. Did it render the boy too sick to be inoculated? The legislatures minutes, delivered to Franklin for printing, spelled out the reason: Smallpox had broken out in the heart or near the middle of the town.. Benjamin loved the child and his new role as a dad, but that did not mean he opened up to be more of a loving husband to Deborah. Jednm z jeho najvch diplomatickch spechov v Pari bolo v roku 1783 dosiahnutie mierovej zmluvy s Vekou Britniou, m bola v podstate ukonen vojna o nezvislos USA. . He considered becoming an itinerant teacher of swimming, but, when Thomas Denham, a Quaker merchant, offered him a clerkship in his store in Philadelphia with a prospect of fat commissions in the West Indian trade, he decided to return home. On another occasion, Franklin wrote of her many good qualities but conspicuously left out any mention of her being a good mother, a slap in the face at the time. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. The grateful part, Im not so sure! In October 1765, Deborah Franklin sent a gushing letter to her husband, who was in London on business for the Pennsylvania legislature. Over 35 years of marriage, Benjamin Franklin had indirectly praised Deborahs work ethic and common sense through wife characters in his Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richards Almanac. Through its grants program, the NHPRC supports a wide range of activities to That didn't end well, as Potter absconded to the West Indies to escape paying some debts. He married Dorothy L Myler on 30 July 1946, in Los Angeles, California, United States. I know you didnt see the misspelled words because you misspell just as atrociously. Marriage is the proper Remedy. Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards. Around the time they married Franklin took custody of an illegitimate child, William. One dark spot in his life was his marriage. Deborah Read, who he had courted before going to England, had married Roger Potter during his absence. Soon she took in the infant son her new husband had fathered with another woman and began running a small stationery store on the first floor. He was right that the older a woman gets the more wisdom and compassion she has acquired merely by the fact that she has lived and experienced more of life than a younger woman has. Even with those deathswhich doctors attributed to smallpox contracted before inoculationthe inoculation death rate was negligible compared with the fatality rate from naturally acquired smallpox. His sons were William Franklin and Francis Folger Franklin, and his daughter was Sarah Franklin Bache. And when, in February 1731, Philadelphians began coming down with smallpox, Franklins backing became even more urgent. -Joseph Campbell Resolve to perform what you ought. Many biographers and historians have followed suit, accepting at face value that Franky was simply too sick for inoculation. 57; Van Doren, Franklin, pp. Poor Richard's Almanack, p.17, Barnes & Noble Publishing. 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