THE

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

OF

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

§ 1. Franklin's Ancestry, Parentage, and Youth.

TWYFORD,1 at the Bishop of St. Asaph's, 1771.

EAR SON:2 I have ever had pleasure in obtaining

DEAR

any little anecdotes of my ancestors. You may remember the inquiries I made among the remains of my relations when you were with me in England, and the journey I undertook for that purpose. Imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life, many of which you are yet unacquainted with, and expecting the enjoyment of a week's uninterrupted leisure

1 Twyford: a small village near Winchester, Hampshire, in the South of England. Here, Rev. Dr. Jonathan Shipley, bishop of St. Asaph's, Wales, had his summer residence. In his house, which is still standing, the first part of the Autobiography was written. "The good bishop," as Franklin liked to call him, was not only the author's intimate friend, but he was one of the few prelates in the House of Lords who openly defended the cause of the American Colonies against those tyrannical measures of the Crown which ultimately caused the Revolution.

2 Dear Son: William Franklin, the last royal governor of New Jersey, and Dr. Franklin's only surviving son. During the Revolution he remained loyal to Great Britain, and eventually removed to that country, where he continued to reside until his death.

in my present country retirement, I sit down to write them for you. To which I have besides some other inducements. Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of, which with the blessing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to be imitated.

That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me sometimes to say, that were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first. So I might, besides correcting the faults, change some sinister1 accidents and events of it for others more favorable. though this were denied, I should still accept the offer. Since such a repetition is not to be expected, the next thing most like living one's life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down in writing.

But

Hereby, too, I shall indulge the inclination so natural in old men, to be talking of themselves and their own past actions; and I shall indulge it without being tiresome to others, who, through respect to age, might conceive themselves obliged to give me a hearing, since this may be read or not as any one pleases. And, lastly (I may as well confess it, since my denial of it will be believed by nobody), perhaps I shall a good deal gratify my own vanity. Indeed, I scarce ever heard or saw the introductory words, 1 Sinister: (on the left hand), unlucky, disastrous.

"Without vanity I may say," etc., but some vain thing immediately followed. Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor, and to others that are within his sphere of action; and therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life.

And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all humility to acknowledge that I owe the mentioned happiness of my past life to His kind providence, which led me to the means I used and gave them success. My belief of this induces me to hope, though I must not presume, that the same goodness will still be exercised toward me, in continuing that happiness, or enabling me to bear a fatal reverse, which I may experience as others have done; the complexion of my future fortune being known to Him only in whose power it is to bless to us even our afflictions.

The notes one of my uncles (who had the same kind of curiosity in collecting family anecdotes) once put into my hands, furnished me with several particulars relating to our ancestors. From these notes I learned that the family had lived in the same village, Ecton, in Northamptonshire,1 for three hundred years, and how much longer he knew not

1 Northamptonshire: this county-the geographical heart of England - has for us a twofold interest. There, on the manor of Sulgrave, thirty miles from Ecton, Laurence Washington was residing in the early part of the 17th century. In 1657, John Washington, one of his descendants, emigrated to Virginia, where he became the grandfather of George Washington. Twentyfive years later (1682) Josiah Franklin, the father of Benjamin Franklin, came to New England. Thus in the same English county, and within a few hours' ride of each other, the ancestors of the two most illustrious leaders of the Revolution had their origin.

(perhaps from the time when the name of Franklin, that before was the name of an order of people, was assumed by them as a surname when others took surnames all over the kingdom,1) on a freehold 2 of about thirty acres, aided by the smith's business, which had continued in the family till his time, the eldest son being always bred to that business; a custom which he and my father followed as to their eldest sons. When I searched the registers at Ecton, I found an account of their births, marriages and burials from the year 1555 only, there being no registers kept in that parish at any time preceding. By that register I perceived that I was the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations back. My grandfather Thomas, who was born in 1598, lived at Ecton till he grew too old to follow business longer, when he went to live with his son John, a dyer at Banbury, in Oxfordshire, with whom my father served an apprenticeship. There my grandfather died and lies buried. We saw his gravestone in 1758. His eldest son Thomas lived in the house at Ecton, and left it with the land to his only child, a daughter, who, with her husband, one Fisher, of Wellingborough, sold it to Mr. Isted,

1 Franklin: "Moreover, the same country is so filled and replenished with landed menne, that therein so small a thorpe [village] cannot be found wherein dweleth not a knight, an esquire, or such an householder, as is there commonly called a Franklin, enriched with great possessions." - Judge Fortescue's Laws of England, 1412.

Later, a Franklin was simply a small landowner.

With regard to surnames it may be said that originally the English had but one name, as Edward, Harold, and the like; but after the Norman Conquest it became customary for men to take a second name, suggested by some personal peculiarity, occupation, or condition in life. In this way Edward the Franklin, or landowner, would become Edward Franklin.

2 Freehold land held by free tenure usually land which is practically owned by the tenant.

now lord of the manor1 there. My grandfather had four sons that grew up, viz.: Thomas, John, Benjamin and Josiah. I will give you what account I can of them, at this distance from my papers, and if these are not lost in my absence, you will among them find many more particulars. Thomas was bred a smith under his father; but, being ingenious, and encouraged in learning (as all my brothers were) by an Esquire Palmer, then the principal gentleman in that parish, he qualified himself for the business of scrivener; became a considerable man in the county; was a chief mover of all public-spirited undertakings for the county or town of Northampton, and his own village, of which many instances were related of him; and much taken notice of and patronized by the then Lord Halifax. He died in 1702, January 6, old style, just four years to a day before I was born. The account we received of his life and character from some old people at Ecton, I remember, struck you as something extraordinary, from its similarity to what you knew of mine. "Had he died on the same day," you said, "one might have supposed a transmigration."6

John was bred a dyer, I believe, of woolens. Benjamin was bred a silk dyer, serving an apprenticeship at London. He was an ingenious man. I remember him well, for 1 Manor: originally the estate of a lord or person of rank, as the manor of Ecton. Lord of the manor: the proprietor of a manor.

2 Ingenious: having natural capacity, intellectual power or genius.

3 Esquire: here, a country gentleman.

4

Scrivener: a professional writer; one who draws contracts, deeds, etc. 5 Old style: the old method of reckoning time. The new style was adopted in England in 1752 by dropping an excess of eleven days from the year.

6 Transmigration: the passage of a soul, at death, into another body; for example, into that of a new-born child.