Those things are trueup to a point. The Energizer Bunny? 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. He had celebrated her faithfulness, compassion and competency as a housekeeper and hostess in a verse titled I Sing My Plain Country Joan. But he seems never to have written her an unabashed expression of romantic love. 6) If your head is wax, don't walk in the sun. Cookie Policy You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife? As for the letter, it seems to me he had a lot of experience to be able to go on with so much knowledge. Wherein a Practicable Plan is laid down for Obtaining and Securing Conjugal Felicity. Whether the United States keep Daylight Saving Time as first whimsically suggested by Benjamin Franklin is widely debated. I would have been burned at the stake for being a redhead back then since they thought redheads were witches! If you purchase an item through these links, we receive a commission. However, lets face it, there are a lot of older women who never evolve and remain stuck in their own fears. How Many People Signed the U.S. Constitution? He read these Spectator papers over and over, copied and recopied them, and then tried to recall them from memory. And with regard to theirs, if the Affair should happen to be known, considerate People might be rather inclind to excuse an old Woman who would kindly take care of a young Man, form his Manners by her good Counsels, and prevent his ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes. I love brainy people. The happy State of Matrimony is, undoubtedly, the surest and most lasting Foundation of Comfort and Love . His father, Josiah, was a soap and candle maker from England who immigrated to Boston. In June 1728, he launched a printing house with a partner, Hugh Meredith. Speaking of ghosts. A Benjamin Franklin Reader, p.53, Simon and Schuster, There is a mistake in the text of this quote, Occupation: Founding Father of the United States. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. January 6, 1705 [1 - April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Benjamin Franklin has written many quotes about Marriage. Whether the letter in question truly qualified as his first is unknown, since it has been lost. He chronicles Franklin's tumultuous relationship with his illegitimate son and grandson, his practical marriage, and his flirtations with the ladies of Paris. By 1726 Franklin was tiring of London. The inoculation issue was over, but Franklin let his anger boil over in other ways, and this is one example. That September 29, a contingent of Indian chiefs representing the Six Nations was heading for Philadelphia to renegotiate a treaty when government officials halted them a few miles short of their destination and advised them to go no farther. Franklin had endured sadnessthe death of his brother James, the man who had taught him printing and with whom he had only recently reconciledand a serious health scare, his second serious attack of pleurisy. He learned to read very early and had one year ingrammar schooland another under a private teacher, but his formal education ended at age 10. After expressing his regret over having failed to inoculate Franky, he added: This I mention for the Sake of Parents, who omit that Operation on the Supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a Child died under it; my Example showing that the Regret may be the same either way, and that therefore the safer should be chosen., Franklin took the blame for not inoculating Franky, just as he took the blame for Deborahs disastrous first marriage. Franklin family members worked in the smith trade for nearly 300 years. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine The grateful part, Im not so sure! In May 1771, on a kinder note, he wrote: I am much pleased with the little Histories you give me of your fine Boy.I hope he will be spared, and continue the same Pleasure and Comfort to you, and that I shall ere long partake with you in it., Over time, Benjamin, too, came to regard the grandson he had yet to lay eyes on as a kind of reincarnation of his dead son. Add to Favorite List. And when she became pregnant with their first child, near the beginning of 1732, she had reason to hope she might have one. More substantive evidence suggests the delay was due to Franklins oft-expressed antipathy to organized religion. He ignored her appeals until July 1771, when he wrote her: I purpose it [his return] firmly after one Winter more here. The following summer he canceled again. 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. One problem, though the couple's only son was not inoculated, contracted smallpox, and ultimately died. He was General Crook's lead scout at the Battle of the Rosebud participated in the Slim . But Franklin himself hinted that something else delayed his action and perhaps cost Franky his life. Reed was terrified of water and wouldn't cross the ocean; Franklin refused. 5. What would Benjamin Franklin say about the Purkapile's marriage? Through its grants program, the NHPRC supports a wide range of activities to He was reporting this, he said, to show how groundless all those extravagant Reports are, that have been spread through the Province to the contrary. In the next weeks Gazette he plugged inoculation again, excerpting a prominent English scientific journal. As far as older woman and sex go, we never change. His sons were William Franklin and Francis Folger Franklin, and his daughter was Sarah Franklin Bache. Yes, we do rock!!! The Way to Wealth. 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. He. His mastery of the printers trade, of which he was proud to the end of his life, was achieved between 1718 and 1723. They could set up house on Market Street as a common-law marriage. It involves their only son, a lethal disease and a disagreement over inoculation. "Fart Proudly" is just another great example of that tradition, that universal reference point that we all share. , Yes, we have come a looooooooooooooooooong way! That February Franklin, newly arrived in London, had predicted that he would be home in a few Months. But now he had been gone for 11, with no word on when he would come back. Im glad you seemed to enjoy it as much as me! If one parent or near relation is against it, he noted in 1759, the other does not chuse to inoculate a child without free consent of all parties, lest in case of a disastrous event, perpetual blame should follow. He raised that dilemma again in 1788. Im sure it has nothing to do with my mother or daughter. William Franklin was Benjamin's first child and his only son to survive into adulthood. Franklin had been obliged to help print attacks against it in his brothers newspaper, but the procedures success won him over. She moved into his house on September 1, 1730, in a common law marriage. Now a me limbs are soft an tender. When smallpox returned to Philadelphia in September 1736, he couldnt resist lampooning the logic of the English minister Edmund Massey, who had famously declared inoculation the Devils work, citing Job 2:7: So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of the foot unto his crown. Near the front of the new, Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine now for just $12, The Fever of 1721: The Epidemic that Revolutionized Medicine and American Politics, Dried Lake Reveals New Statue on Easter Island. Benjamin Franklin. From the outset, his father hinted otherwise. Franklin argued in his essay that since human beings have no real freedom of choice, they are not morally responsible for their actions. Benjamin accepted the form and function of married lifeeven writing about it (skeptically) in his newspaperbut kept his wife at arms length. 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. 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. In 1745, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter filled with advice which also ended up being praise of the older womanin a round about way. * Why I Got PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome) Since I'm Not In The Military, * Top 41 Lessons Blogging Teaches About Life, * What Is Empty Nest Syndrome And The Words She Said As Comfort. Over 35 years of marriage, Benjamin Franklin had indirectly praised Deborah's work ethic and common sense through "wife" characters in his Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard's Almanac. 9) He that is good at making excuses is seldom good at anything else. My brain is forever warped! A single Man has not nearly the Value he would have in that State of Union. The writings in Fart Proudly reveal the rogue who lived peaceably within the philosopher and statesman. Many biographers and historians have followed suit, accepting at face value that Franky was simply too sick for inoculation. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Our work has been featured by the New York Times, TIME magazine, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Smithsonian, Mental Floss, NPR, and more. 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. That didn't end well, as Potter absconded to the West Indies to escape paying some debts. A recurring theme was Benjamins belief that Deborah was irresponsible. All, who have seen my Grandson, agree with you in their accounts of his being an uncommonly fine Boy, he wrote, which brings often afresh to my Mind the Idea of my son Franky, tho now dead 36 Years, whom I have seldom seen equald in every thing, and whom to this Day I cannot think of without a Sigh.. January 17, 1706, in Boston, Massachusetts; son of Josiah Franklin (tallow chandler and soap boiler who immigrated from England in 1683 to escape religious persecution) and . They entered a common-law agreement which protected them from bigamy if her runaway husband returned. Either intentionally or accidentally, as a side effect of her stroke, she sometimes confused the two, referring to Franklins grandson as your son and our child.. Meanwhile, Pennsylvanias governor, William Keith, happened upon a letter Franklin had written and decided he was a young Man of promising Partsso promising that he offered to front the money for Franklin to set up his own printing house and promised to send plenty of work his way. At Keiths suggestion, Franklin returned to Boston to try to raise the necessary capital. 976. But as her health declined, she gave up her vow not to give him one moments trouble. When will it be in your power to come home? she asked in August 1770. Franklin had ten siblings and seven step-siblings. Benjamin's son William Franklin was most likely born around 1730 out of an illegitimate relationship that later became a common-law marriage. public. 2. Death, Cause unspecified 17 April 1790 (Age 84) . In all, Josiah would father 17 children. A person, whether they are male or female, can be a whole and evolved person without being married! At some point she was told that Rogers had died in the West Indies, but proving his deathwhich would have freed Deborah to remarry formallywas impractically expensive and a long shot besides. Frank Benjamin Grouard (also known as Frank Gruard and Benjamin Franklin Grouard) (September 20, 1850 - August 15, 1905) was a Scout and interpreter for General George Crook during the American Indian War of 1876. Franklin was certainly grateful to be married, but treated his wife more like a roommate than a helpmate in life. By the late 1750s, Benjamin Franklin had established himself as a successful printer, publisher, and writer. Terms of Use Benjamin Franklin Marriage, Masters The happy State of Matrimony is, undoubtedly, the surest and most lasting Foundation of Comfort and Love . In the Autobiography he wrote that he should have beenashamd at seeing Miss Read, had not her Friendspersuaded her to marry another. If he wasnt ashamed, what was he? Thank you for providing this, it was fun reading, with some valid points. * Are All My Recipes Grain Free? 1. Theoretically, the customer could claim to have purchased a lesser grade and underpay what he owed. In August 1737, less than a year after Frankys death, he lashed out at her for mishandling a sale in their store. Nothing went as planned. The Franklins had eight grandchildren: Benjamin, William, Betsy, Louis, Deborah, Richard, Sarah and William Temple (son of Benjamin's illegitimate son William). Benjamin Franklin. Omissions? After that, the two were together only seven times in their . Around the time they married Franklin took custody of an illegitimate child, William. One dark spot in his life was his marriage. 57; Van Doren, Franklin, pp. A mention of flatulence might conjure up images of bratty high school boys or lowbrow comics. In April and July he assured her he would sail shortly. Advertising Notice Both provide an interesting view of life in the 1700s, particularly the use of the English language. 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. Deborah was a skilled bookkeeper to whom Ben . Given Franklins notorious frugality, the commission was an extraordinary indulgencemost tradesmen didnt have portraits made of themselves, let alone their children. He flat out denied such rumors, claiming he was an honest husband, even if he was not a loving one. He found her a good and faithful helpmate. Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends, Benjamin Franklin (2004). Artist and date unknown) Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. (Posthumous painting. 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