William Franklin’s Letter to His Father

Benjamin Franklin and his son William

I wrote last week about the death of Deborah Read Franklin, wife of Benjamin Franklin. In that essay, I mentioned William, Benjamin’s out-of-wedlock son who was raised by Benjamin and Deborah.

You need to know a little about William to understand this letter. In 1759, William (age 29) traveled from Philadelphia to London to join his father and study law; Benjamin had been in London for two years at that point. There William married Elizabeth Downes, who joined him when he returned to the colonies in 1763 to assume the position of Royal Governor of the Colony of New Jersey. When Benjamin returned to the colonies over a decade later in 1775, he had become a committed Patriot; William had remained a staunch Loyalist, accepting imprisonment for his views in 1776-78 and serving as Loyalist leader in New York from 1778-1781. After the surrender at Yorktown in 1781, William departed for England, never to return. He died in London in 1813.

I’m writing about William today because, on this date in 1774, he wrote a letter to his father in London. I’ll include the entire letter at the end of this essay, but here are its main points.

William begins the letter reporting that he had attended the funeral of his mother (Benjamin’s wife Deborah) two days earlier. He notes as an aside that bad weather made him almost late for the service. He attended the funeral with his brother-in-law, Richard Bache (married to William’s sister Sally). He goes on to chide Benjamin for not returning to Deborah after her stroke, saying “She told me, when I took Leave of her . . . that she never expected to see you unless you returned this Winter, for that she was sure she should not live till next Summer. I heartily wish you had happened to have come over in the Fall, as I think her Disappointment in that respect preyed a good deal on her Spirits.” At this point, Benjamin had not seen Deborah for almost a decade.

In the next paragraph, William comments that he is glad that Benjamin is healthy, but then chides him (again) for not returning to his family since he seems well enough to do so. William notes that the people in power in England don’t seem to like Benjamin much these days – and in fact this is a period when Benjamin is being openly ridiculed in the House of Commons – so he might as well come home for all the good he is doing. William goes on to say that the people in the colonies – particularly in the Continental Congress – are vocal in their desire for him to return.

In the next paragraph, William mentions that he is anxious to have his son Temple “bred to the law” – study law – in London. You need to know about Temple as well. Temple (his full name was William Temple Franklin) was William’s illegitimate son whom he left in London when he returned to the colonies. Benjamin learned of Temple’s existence only after Temple had been in foster care in London for a few years. Benjamin soon assumed full custody of Temple and raised the boy in his London household.

William “Temple” Franklin

When Benjamin returned to Philadelphia in 1775, he brought Temple with him. And when Benjamin was dispatched to Paris to represent American interests there the following year, he took Temple with him again. The young man served as Benjamin’s aide, rising to serve as secretary to the American delegation at the Treaty of Paris negotiations in 1782-1783. When Benjamin returned to Philadelphia in 1785, Temple once again accompanied him.

After Benjamin’s death in 1790, Temple joined William in London for a while before moving to Paris. He never studied law.

Along the line, Temple followed the family pattern by fathering children with women to whom he was not married. During his first stint in Paris in the early 1780s, when he was serving as an aide to his grandfather, Temple had his first child, with his married mistress Blanchette Caillot. This son died before the age of five. While he was living in London with his father William after Benjamin’s death, Temple had another child, Ellen, with the sister-in-law of his father’s second wife. When Temple went to Paris, he left Ellen with William, who raised her.

He reportedly had other children as well, although the evidence is sketchy:

• 1788: a daughter, born in Port Tobacco, Maryland

• 1789: a son, James William Franklin, born in Roaring River, North Carolina

• 1790: a daughter, Lucy Franklin, who raised a family in Letcher County, Kentucky

The young man got around. Not exactly Matt Gaetz level, but not exactly honorable either.

In the final paragraph of the letter, William includes this sentence: “I shall do our Kinsman Foulger all the Service in my Power.” I looked around a bit, and this seems to refer to a distant relative who wants to relocate from England to western Pennsylvania. Benjamin’s mother’s maiden name was Folger, and her family had been in Massachusetts (specifically, on Nantucket) for several generations by the time the Franklin family arrived in the last decades of the 17^th century. The “Kinsman Foulger” William refers to must be a distant Folger cousin.

Here’s the text of the letter:

Honoured Father,

I came here on Thursday last to attend the Funeral of my poor old Mother who died the Monday Noon preceeding. Mr. Bache sent his Clerk Express to me on the Occasion, who reached Amboy on Tuesday Evening, and I set out early the next Morning, but the Weather being very severe, and snowing hard, I was not able to reach here till about 4 o’Clock on Thursday Afternoon, about half an Hour before the Corpse was to be moved for Interment. Mr. Bache and I followed as Chief Mourners, Your old Friend H. Roberts and several other of your Friends were Carriers, and a very respectable Number of the Inhabitants were at the Funeral. I don’t mention the Particulars of her Illness, as you will have a much fuller Account from Mr. Bache than I am able to give. Her Death was no more than might be reasonably expected after the paralytic Stroke she received some Time ago, which greatly affected her Memory and Understanding. She told me, when I took Leave of her, on my Removal to Amboy, that she never expected to see you unless you returned this Winter, for that she was sure she should not live till next Summer. I heartily wish you had happened to have come over in the Fall, as I think her Disappointment in that respect preyed a good deal on her Spirits.

I received, by Mr. Bingham, your two Favors of the 13th. and 15th. of October, also one dated Novr. 1. enclosed to Mr. Bache by the Packet.

It gives me great Pleasure to find that you have so perfect an Enjoyment of that greatest of Blessings, Health. But I cannot help being concerned to find that notwithstanding you are sensible that you “cannot in the course of Nature long expect the Continuance of it,” yet you postpone your Return to your Family. If there was any Prospect of your being able to bring the People in Power to your Way of Thinking, or of those of your Way of Thinking’s being brought into Power, I should not think so much of your Stay. But as you have had by this Time pretty strong Proofs that neither can be reasonably expected and that you are look’d upon with an evil Eye in that Country, and are in no small Danger of being brought into Trouble for your political Conduct, you had certainly better return, while you are able to bear the Fatigues of the Voyage, to a Country where the People revere you, and are inclined to pay a Deference to your Opinions. I wonder none of them, as you say,7 requested your Attendance at the late Congress, for I heard from all Quarters that your Return was ardently wish’d for at that Time, and I have since heard it lamented by many that you were not at that Meeting, as they imagined had you been there you would have framed some Plan for an Accommodation of our Differences that would have met with the Approbation of a Majority of the Delegates, tho’ it would not have coincided with the deep Designs of those who influenced that Majority. However mad you may think the Measures of the Ministry are, yet I trust you have Candor enough to acknowledge that we are no ways behind hand with them in Ins[tances] of Madness on this Side the Water. However, it [is] a disagreeable Subject, and I’ll drop it.

I shall do what lies in my Power to have Mr. Wilmot’s Account paid. The Assembly are to meet on the 11th. of next Month.

I wrote a long Letter to you lately and enclosed it to Secry. Pownall by the Packet, wh[ich I] hope will get safe to hand. In that I told you I [was] anxious to have Temple bred to the Law, and wished to have him sent for a Year or two to the New York College. I hope to see you and him in the Spring, and that you will spend some Time with me at Amboy, where I am now happily settled in a very good House and shall always have an Apartment at your Service.

I shall do our Kinsman Foulger all the Service in my Power. Mr. Westley, I expect, will call on me soon, on his Return from Schenectady, when I shall pay your Draft in his Favour. I have but just heard of this Vessel’s Departure and have it not in my Power to add more than that I am ever, Honoured Sir, Your dutiful Son

1. Wm: Franklin

(No Copy)

Addressed: To / Doctor Benjamin Franklin

Endorsed: W. Franklin  Dec. 1774