William Franklin (35)

William Franklin (c. 1731–16 November 1813), son of Benjamin Franklin, was a politician and a member of the Young Junto, elected c. 1758, and the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768. Born out of wedlock to an unidentified mother in Philadelphia, he attended a classical academy before working in his father’s print shop. He fought in the American Regiment on the New York border, aided his father in organizing Philadelphia’s first defensive militia, and became the official courier for the Pennsylvania Land Office during the Treaty of Lancaster. He then joined Conrad Weiser on an Indian treaty mission in the Ohio Valley. William assisted with his father’s electrical experiments, including the iconic kite and key test, and inherited from him several public offices including postmaster of Philadelphia, comptroller-general of the British-American postal system, and clerk of the Assembly. In 1757, William accompanied his father to London. There, he studied law at the Middle Temple, enjoyed social and scientific opportunities during excursions to the Continent, and received an honorary M.A. degree from Oxford. He returned to America in 1763 as Governor of New Jersey. His tenure was uncontroversial until he sided with his London superiors against his colonial constituents during the Stamp Act crisis. His Loyalism would create an irreparable rift between him and his patriot father. Caught forwarding intelligence about revolutionary activity to London in 1776, William was imprisoned for two years. Upon his release, he became a Loyalist leader. His participation in a guerrilla raid on a colonial privateer base made him nearly as infamous as Benedict Arnold. When the Board of Associated Loyalists, of which he was president, disbanded in 1782, he departed for London in disgrace. Although William was the addressee of his father’s 1771 Autobiography, they never reconciled. (PI, ANB, DNB, DAB)