* I'm Constantly Grateful For The Bad And Good Times. When a me limbs were soft an tender. The inoculation issue was over, but Franklin let his anger boil over in other ways, and this is one example. Deborah Read, who he had courted before going to England, had married Roger Potter during his absence. . Year after year Deborah stoically endured the snubbing, even after she had a stroke in early spring 1769. How did a man who understood better than most the relative safety and efficacy of inoculation choose wrong? History seems to show that he was a success in almost every endeavor he entered into almost. Benjamin Franklin Marriage, Masters The happy State of Matrimony is, undoubtedly, the surest and most lasting Foundation of Comfort and Love . Clearly Franklin believed he had had a choice and had chosen wrong. The boy that seemed so mature because he was very distant during courtship may continue to be distant after marriage as well; if a wife is then looking for a closer and warmer relationship, she will spend the rest of her married life feeling cheated of that closeness. Benjamin's parents wanted him to be a clergy By David Martin - Wikimedia Growing up, Franklin's parents wanted him to be a priest. Biographers and historians tend to shy away from his married life, perhaps because it defies idealization. In London Franklin quickly found employment in his trade and was able to lend money to Ralph, who was trying to establish himself as a writer. He wrote that Franklin fully intended to inoculate the boy, but that Frankys sickness dragged on and smallpox took him before his recovery. Indeed, Lemay went even further in providing cover for Franklin, describing Franky as a sickly infant and a sickly child. This, too, has become accepted wisdom. Most likely, it was a disagreement with Deborah over inoculation. By now you already know that one of my favorite people in history is Benjamin Franklin. But one of the most eloquentand least expectedcommentators on the subject is Benjamin Franklin. Nothing went as planned. While Franklin was away from Deborah for over a decade, she sent him romantic letters but he only responded in terse replies. Franklin, Benjamin Date 17 April 1746 Reference Cite as " [Reflections on Courtship and Marriage, 17 April 1746]," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-03-02-0030. One dark spot in his life was his marriage. Marriage is the proper Remedy. And we can imagine that for Deborah it was even worse. Archives. They are these: 1. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by B. Franklin, M,DCC,XLVI. He even turned them into poetry and then back into prose. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Stephen Coss is the author of the book The Fever of 1721: The Epidemic that Revolutionized Medicine and American Politics. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Updates? My brain is forever warped! 1731-1813. Some say the longer daylight hours promote safety and help the economy. Perform without fail what you resolve. Because thro more Experience, they are more prudent and discreetin conducting an Intrigue to prevent Suspicion . However, Benjamin Franklin was right and wrong about older women! 1743: Proposes a plan for an Academy, which is adopted 1749 and develops into the University of Pennsylvania. The debauching a Virgin may be her Ruin, and make her for Life unhappy. The argument that Franky was sickly is based primarily on one fact: Nearly a year passed between his birth and his baptism. Franklin never said his son was sick, but that he had not recovered sufficient Strength. Its possible that Franky had been ill, but was no longer showing symptoms of dysentery. 5. 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. Benjamin Franklin (1819). the United States, and research and development projects to bring historical records to the Benjamin Franklin Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. . Now you may argue with God but not me. After insisting that he was leaving home more cheerfully for his confidence in Deborahs ability to manage his affairs and Sarahs education, he added: And yet I cannot forbear once more recommending her to you with a Fathers tenderest Concern.. Marriage is the proper Remedy. On one occasion, a customer bought some paper from the Franklins' business and Deborah forgot to mark down which kind of paper, meaning the customer could have gotten away with buying a high-quality paper for less than it was really worth. Deborah simply moved into Franklins home and printing house at what is now 139 Market Street. Oh my! Houghton LibraryHarvard College Library. Poor Richard's Almanack, p.39, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. Benjamin Franklin (2013). 6) If your head is wax, don't walk in the sun. Author of, Alva O. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. In 1758, near the start of Franklins first extended stay in London, she sent the portrait or a copy of it to him, perhaps hoping it would bind him to her in the same way she imagined its subject once had. Marriage and Children Deborah Read and Benjamin Franklin entered a common law agreement on September 1, 1730. The answer isnt simple. Inoculation had proven successful after the 1721 outbreak in Boston when 5,889 Bostonians had smallpox, and 844 died of it. I have this thing with words spelled or used incorrectly. He deposited this material in a vial and brought it to the home of the person to be inoculated. Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage. 5) Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterward. But the rest, spot on, Ben, baby. As every reader of Franklins Autobiography knows, Deborah Read first laid eyes on Benjamin Franklin the day he arrived in Philadelphia, in October 1723, after running away from a printers apprenticeship with his brother in Boston. Smallpox was the most feared distemper in Colonial America. 57; Van Doren, Franklin, pp. Silence Dogood. Keiths motives may have been more political than paternal, but with that, the couple interchangd some Promises, in Franklins telling, and he set out for London. , Yes, we have come a looooooooooooooooooong way! A customer had bought paper on credit, and Deborah had forgotten to note which paper he had bought. Franklin was born in 1706 in Boston on a Sunday, which for the Puritans was reason enough for him to be morally weak; they believed that any child born on the Sabbath was conceived on the. Benjamin, now 16, read and perhaps set in type these contributions and decided that he could do as well himself. Marriage more than 15 Yrs (to Deborah Reed 1730-1774) Family : Relationship : Number of Marriages (one) Family : Parenting : Kids 1-3 (two sons, one daughter) Benjamin Franklin's The Art of Virtue: His Formula for Successful Living. Speaking of ghosts. Just weeks into Deborahs marriage, word reached Philadelphia that Rogers had another wife in England. | READ MORE. 171-3. Im sure it has nothing to do with my mother or daughter. 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 . your mother is so funny even if I disagree with some of her statements. Noteworthy is Franklin's involvement in promoting the music of two of the . Franklin went from viewing Deborah as a great business partner, to blaming her for the problems of the business (via Smithsonian Magazine). If youre Having the goutI wish I was near enough to rub it with a light hand.. Because there is no hazard of Children, which irregularly producd may be attended with much Inconvenience. As for the letter, it seems to me he had a lot of experience to be able to go on with so much knowledge. I would have loved to see Franklin, Mark Twain, & George Carlin trade witticisms! 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. Her husband was thrilled. The matter of whether or not he had been inoculated may have created lasting marital discord, says Smithsonian Magazine. William Franklin was born Feb. 22, 1762, followed by the birth of Francis on Oct. 20, 1732 and . Corrections? Sometimes being married is actually BAD for a person and I dont think being single means less happiness. 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. In 1722 he wrote a series of 14 essays signed Silence Dogood in which he lampooned everything from funeral eulogies to the students of Harvard College. Thank you for providing this, it was fun reading, with some valid points. Franklin was certainly grateful to be married, but treated his wife more like a roommate than a helpmate in life. Deborah was a skilled bookkeeper to whom Ben . His first enthusiasm was for poetry, but, discouraged with the quality of his own, he gave it up. Noooo! Whether Franklin himself was inoculatedor survived a case of naturally acquired smallpox at some point is unknowntheres no evidence on record. Franklin family members worked in the smith trade for nearly 300 years. Six years into that marriage, her husband was advancing so quickly in the world that she might have begun to worry he might one day outgrow his plain, poorly educated wife. Franklin agreed to take custody of the babya gesture as admirable as it was uncommonbut that decision made his need for a wife urgent and finding one problematic. Many biographers and historians have followed suit, accepting at face value that Franky was simply too sick for inoculation. The National Historical Publications and Benjamin Franklin NICK NAMES Ben BIRTHDAY January 17, 1706 BORN ON DAY Sunday BIRTHPLACE Boston, Massachusetts Bay, British America. It is the Man and Woman united that make the compleat human Being. And hence there is hardly such a thing to be found as an old Woman who is not a good Woman. Thats a great point! Journal of the American Revolution is the leading source of knowledge about the American Revolution and Founding Era. Deborah appears to have embraced it without qualmand over time seems to have accepted it as a surrogate for her son. By the spring of 1724 he was enjoying the companionship of other young men with a taste for reading, and he was also being urged to set up in business for himself by the governor of Pennsylvania, Sir William Keith. You call this a Paradox, and demand my Reasons. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement. Both provide an interesting view of life in the 1700s, particularly the use of the English language. Just as people change over time so do words. Since he was also an investor, he had a lot to share about achieving wealth and prosperity. Franklin had ten siblings and seven step-siblings. They could set up house on Market Street as a common-law marriage. (Posthumous painting. Around the time they married Franklin took custody of an illegitimate child, William. Deborah Crocker. Notes: 1974-1975 TV miniseries "The Lives of Benjamin Franklin" Events. 1744 . The Redhead Riter is Witty, Intelligent & Addictive. Then he had his own romantic calamity: He learned that a young woman of his acquaintance was pregnant with his child. The budding friendship between the two young people soon developed into mutual attraction. He had dated a woman named Deborah Read, but after Franklin left to go across the ocean to Great Britain, she married a man named Roger Potter. Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. In 1721 Cotton Matherthe man who had stumbled upon the idea of inoculation and then pushed it on the doctors of Boston, declaring it infalliblehad stalled for two weeks before approving his teenage sons inoculation, knowing all the while that Sammy Mathers Harvard roommate was sick with smallpox. Poor Richard's Almanack, p.17, Barnes & Noble Publishing. The name of the mother remains a mystery. 4. Whether he blamed Deborah, or blamed himself for listening to her, the hard feelings relating to the death of their beloved sonthe DELIGHT of all that knew him, according to the epitaph on his gravestoneappear to have ravaged their relationship. Reflections on Courtship and Marriage: in Two Letters to a Friend. Benjamin Franklin's Favorite Sister Benjamin Franklin, the tenth of Josiah Franklin's sons, was six years old when Jane, the seventh daughter, was born on March 27, 1712. . Death, Cause unspecified 17 April 1790 (Age 84) . Known to historians as Benjamin Franklin's favorite sister, Jane was eleven when her restless brother ran away from Boston to begin his career in Philadelphia. Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends, Benjamin Franklin (2004). I love brainy people. Benjamin Franklin, also called Ben Franklin, pseudonym Richard Saunders, (born January 17 [January 6, Old Style], 1706, Boston, Massachusetts [U.S.]died April 17, 1790, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.), American printer and publisher, author, inventor and scientist, and diplomat. But a close reading of Franklins letters and published works, and a re-examination of events surrounding his marriage, suggests a new and eerily resonant explanation. Such women, he wrote, have sound and healthy Constitutions, produce vigorous Offspring, are active in the Business of the Family, special good Housewives, and very Careful of their Husbands Interest. Its unlikely that he would have included produce vigorous Offspring if his son, then 9 months old, had been sickly. Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. Loved this letter. . It involves their only son, a lethal disease and a disagreement over inoculation. Because the Compunction is less. It's long been alleged that, in private, he labeled blame upon Deborah. As a scientist, Franklin took great interest in inoculating against the disease. Are You. The Gazette of April 17, 1746, announced this pamphlet as Just Published. Charles R. Hildeburn assigned it to Franklin on the authority of a note, which he quoted as By Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin Franklin was the George Clooney of his day. Moved into Franklins home and printing house at what is now 139 Street. 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