Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/557

Rh to have borne a strong likeness to his immortal nephew. The second son, John, was a dyer of woollens, and lived in Banbury. The_ third son, Benjamin, for some time a silk-dyer in London, emigrated to Boston at an advanced age, and left descendants there. He took a great interest in politics, was fond of writing verses, and invented a system of short-hand. The fourth son, Josiah, born in 1655, served an apprenticeship with his brother Jolm, at Banbury, but removed to New England in 1682. From the beginning of the Reformation the family had been zealous Protes- tants, and in Mary's reign had incurred considera- ble danger on that account. Their inclination seems to have been toward Puritanism, but they remained in the Church of England until late in the reign of Charles II., when so many clergymen were dispossessed of their holdings for non-con- formity, and proceeded to carry on religious ser- vices in conventicles forbidden by law. Among these dispossessed clergymen in Northamptonshire were friends of Benjamin and Josiah, who became their warm adherents and attended their conventi- cles. The persecution of ^hese non-conformists led to a small Puritan migration to New England, in which Josiah took part. He settled in Boston, where he followed the business of soap-boiler and tallow-chandler. He was twice married, the second time to the daughter of Peter Folger, one of the earliest settlers of New England, a man of some learning, a writer of political verses, and a zealous opponent of the persecution of the Quakers. By his first wife Josiah Franklin had seven children ; by his second, ten, of whom the illustrious Benja- min was the youngest son. For five generations his direct ancestors had been youngest sons of youngest sons. As a child he showed such pi'e- cocity that his father at first thought of sending him to Harvard and educating him for the minis- try; but the wants of his large family were so nu- merous that presently he felt that he could not afford the expense of this. At the age of ten, after little more than a year at the grammar-school, Benjamin was set to work in his father's shop, cut- ting wicks and filling moulds for candles. This was so irksome to him that he began to show symptoms of a desire to run away and go to sea. 'i'o turn his mind from this, his father at length de- cided to make him a printer. He was an insatia- ble reader, and the few shillings that found their way into his hands were all laid out in books. His eider brother, James, had learned the printer's trade, and in 1717 returned from England with a press, and established himself in business in Bos- ton. In the following year Benjamin was appren- ticed to his elder brother, and, becoming intei-ested and proficient in the work, soon made himself very useful. He indulged his taste for reading, which often kept him up late into the night. Like so many other youthful readers, he counted Defoe and Bunyan among his favorites, but presently we find him studying Locke's " Essay on the Human Understanding," and the Port Royal logic. While practising himself in arithmetic and the elements of geometry, he was also striving to acquire a prose style like that of Addison. He wrote little ballads and songs of the chap-book sort, and hawked them about the streets, sometimes with profit to his pocket. At the same time an inborn tendency toward free-thinking was strengthened by reading Shaftesbury and Collins, until some worthy people began to look askance at him and call him an infidel. In 1721 James Franklin began printing and publishing the " New England Cou- rant," the third newspaper that appeared in Boston, and the fourth in America. For this paper Benjamin wrote anonymous articles, and con- trived to smuggle them into its columns with- out his brother's knowledge of their authorship ; some of them attracted attention, and were attrib- uted to various men of eminence in the colony. The newspaper was quite independent in its tone, and for a political article that gave offence to the colonial legislature James Franklin was put into jail for a montli, while Benjamin was duly admon- ished and threatened. Finding himself somewhat unpopular in Boston, and being harshly treated by his brother, whose violent temper he confesses to have sometimes provoked by his saueiness, Benja- min at length made up his mind to run away from home and seek his fortune. He raised a little money by selling some of his books, and in Octo- ber, 1723, set sail in a sloop for New York. Un- able to find employment there as a printer, he set out for Philadelphia, crossing to Amboy in a small vessel, which was driven upon the coast of Long Island in a heavy gale. Narrowly escaping ship- wreck, he at length reached Amboy in the crazy little craft, after thirty hours without food or drink, except a drop from a fiask of what he called " filthy rum." From Amboy he made his way on foot across New Jersey to Burlington, whence he was taken in a row-boat to Philadelphia, landing there on a Sunday morning, cold, bedraggled, and friendless, with one Dutch dollar in his pocket. But he soon found employment in a printing-oifice, earned a little money, made a few friends, and took comfortable lodgings in the house of a Mr. Read, with whose daughter Deborah he proceeded to fall in love. It was not long before his excellent train- ing and rare good sense attracted the favorable notice of Sir William Keith, governor of Pennsyl- vania. The Philadelphia printers being ignorant and unskilful, Keith wished to secure Franklin's services, and offered to help set him up in business for himself and give him the government print- ing, such as it was. Franklin had now been seven months in Philadelphia, and, his family having at length heard news of him, it was thought best that he should return to Boston and solicit aid from his father in setting up a press in Philadelphia. On reaching Boston he found his brother sullen and resentful, but his father received him kindly. He refused the desired assistance, on the ground that a boy of eighteen was not fit to manage a business, but he commended his industry and perseverance, and made no objection to his returning to Phila- delphia, warning him to restrain his inclination to write lampoons and satires, and holding out hopes of aid in case he should behave industriously and frugally until twenty-one years of age.

On Franklin's return to Philadelphia, the gov- ernor promised to furnish the money needful for establishing him in business, and encouraged him to go over to London, in order to buy a press and type and gather useful information. But Sir Will- iam was one of those social nuisances that are lav- ish in promises but scanty in performance. It was with the assurance that the ship's.mail-bag carried letters of introduction and the necessary letter of credit that young Franklin crossed the ocean. On reaching England, he found that Keith had de- ceived him. Having neither money nor credit wherewith to accomplish the purpose of his jour- ney or return to America, he sought and soon found a place as journeyman in a London printing- house. Befoi'e leaving home he had been betrothed to Miss Read. He now wrote to her that it would be long before he should return to America. His ability and diligence enabled him to earn money