welcome back to the ancestral findings podcast Benjamin Franklin is one of the best known of
the signers of the Declaration of Independence and one of our most celebrated founding fathers
most of his life is well documented and there is much to tell as it was one of achievement and
Adventure these are some of the lesser-known facts about this most famous of founders
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Benjamin Franklin is one of the best known of the signers of the Declaration of Independence
and one of the best known of the founding fathers overall contrary to what many May believe thanks
to his presence on the American 100 Bill Benjamin was not an American president yet
he was undoubtedly one of the most important and influential architects of the nation we know today
these are some of the highlights of Benjamin Franklin's well-documented life born in 1706
Benjamin Franklin was one of 17 children born to his father Josiah Franklin and one of 10 of
those 17 born to his mother Josiah's second wife Abigail Folger Benjamin attended the Boston Latin
School but didn't graduate his father wanted him to attend the local clergy school but with so many
children to support Josiah did not have the funds to send him for the full two-year program there
after dropping out of the Latin School Benjamin continued his education on his own with a lot of
reading and became a lifelong scholar and learner both of his parents talked about a career in the
clergy for Benjamin when he was young but he did not attend formal school after he was 10 years old
after leaving school he worked for his dad for a while and was apprenticed to his older brother
James as a printer when he was 12. James taught his younger brother Benjamin the printing trade
and founded the New England current the first truly independent newspaper in the American
colonies when Benjamin was 15. Benjamin wanted to write a letter to his brother's newspaper to be
published in it and James refused him so Benjamin wrote a letter under the pseudonym silence do
good who was supposed to be a middle-aged Widow under this pseudonym and Alternate personality
the teenage Benjamin wrote a number of letters to his brother's paper that were published and
were so popular that people around town often made them the subjects of conversation when
James later found out that silence do-good was his younger brother he was displeased about it
Benjamin was not to be deterred though he was a believer in freedom of speech from a young age
after James Franklin was jailed for three weeks in 1722 on a charge of publishing material that
was unflattering to Pennsylvania's Governor Benjamin took charge of the newspaper while
in charge Benjamin published silence do-good materials with relish even having her Proclaim
in print that without freedom of thought there could be no such thing as wisdom and no such
thing as public Liberty without freedom of speech Benjamin left his apprenticeship with his brother
early being dissatisfied with working for him because he left without permission from his
brother he was considered a fugitive as at that time apprentices were legally bound to their
employers for the duration of their apprenticeship contract Benjamin went on to have Many Adventures
on his own traveling around Pennsylvania and other nearby colonies as a young teenager he even met
the 15 year old Deborah Reed while boarding at her mother's house as a 17 year old himself and
proposed to her Deborah's mother did not approve of the match considering Benjamin's uncertain
business prospects when Benjamin went to England on business Deborah's mother pushed her into
marrying someone else that man had many deaths and he soon left the colonies and Deborah for Barbados
since no one knew what happened to him after that Deborah could not be considered a widow
and was not free to marry again to get around this Benjamin and Deborah set up housekeeping
together in September of 1730 as common law husband and wife and were acknowledged by
their friends and neighbors as such they had two children together a son and a daughter
plus took in and raised Benjamin's illegitimate son William who had been born earlier that year
while William's birth mother is not known to history many believe that it was Deborah
herself who was not able to publicly acknowledge the child as hers due to social conventions
she certainly treated William as if he were her own child so it is possible she was his mother as
she and Benjamin were once again a romantic couple when he was born Benjamin became a successful
entrepreneur and dabbled in a number of businesses including printing philosophy writing investing
science politician Statesman and diplomat he invented the lightning rod the Franklin
stove and bifocal eyeglasses and developed some important theories on electricity he founded the
library company the first Philadelphia fire department and the University of Pennsylvania
Benjamin was one of the earliest and most passionate supporters of colonial unity in
the cause of Independence because of this he is often referred to as the first American
Benjamin's outspokenness on the subject of Independence and his work and the cause of
it brought him from his printing career into one as a politician and in that capacity was
appointed as a Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress where he not only signed
the Declaration of Independence he was on the committee that was assigned to get it written
along with John Adams and others though Thomas Jefferson wrote most of the resulting document
during the American Revolution Benjamin was asked to be a colonial spokesperson in England
after the war he was appointed as the first American ambassador to France
during and after the revolution Benjamin was coming and going across the Atlantic quite a
lot but his wife Deborah had a fear of sailing that kept her from accompanying him this meant
that they often spent years apart in their later decades together Deborah became depressed at
their long stretches of time apart and wrote to Benjamin about how sad she was but he would not
come home until his work overseas was done she died in 1774 and their daughter Sarah
said that one of Deborah's last voice wishes was to see her beloved Benjamin one more time
Benjamin did not come home until his business in Europe was concluded the following year after
losing his wife he became estranged from his son William who was a royalist During the Revolution
and lost his son Francis as a child to smallpox his daughter Sarah took care of him in his old age
he died in 1790 and was buried in Christchurch burial ground in Philadelphia next to his wife
Deborah who had hoped for so long that her husband would come home [Music]
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