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
