Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed, Volume 1 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own WritingsBruce, Wiliam Cabell
History
Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed, Volume 1 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings
Bruce, Wiliam Cabell
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
The _Autobiography_ does not mention the fact that Franklin had at least
one aunt on the paternal side, but he had. In a letter in the year 1767 to
Samuel Franklin, the grandson of his Uncle Benjamin, after stating that
there were at that time but two of their relations bearing the name of
Franklin living in England, namely, Thomas Franklin, of Lutterworth, in
Leicestershire, a dyer, and his daughter, Sally, Franklin asserts that
there were besides still living in England Eleanor Morris, an old maiden
lady, the daughter of Hannah, the sister of Franklin's father, and Hannah
Walker, the granddaughter of John, the brother of Franklin's father, and
her three sons. No Arab was ever made happier by the reception of a guest
than was Franklin by the discovery of a new Franklin. In 1781, when a lady
at Koenigsberg, who was the granddaughter of a John Franklin, communicated
to him certain facts about her family history, he replied in terms that
left her no footing for a claim of relationship, but added affably, "It
would be a Pleasure to me to Discover a Relation in Europe, possessing the
amiable Sentiments express'd in your Letter. I assure you I should not
disown the meanest." One of the statements of this letter was that he had
exact accounts of every person of his family since the year 1555, when it
was established in England. Such a thing as sensitiveness to his humble
origin or the social obscurity of his kinsfolk could find no lodgment in a
mind so capacious, a heart so kind, or a nature so full of manly
self-respect as his. To say nothing more, he was too much of a philosopher
not to realize how close even the high-born nobleman, when detached from
privilege and social superstition, is to the forked radish, to which
elemental man has been likened. It is true that he once wrote to his sister
Jane that he would not have her son Peter put the Franklin arms on soap of
his making, and this has been cited as evidence that even Franklin had his
petty modicum of social pride. The imputation overlooks the reason that he
gave, namely, that to use the Franklin coat of arms for such a purpose
would look too much like an attempt to counterfeit the soap formerly made
by Peter's uncle John. It was Franklin's true pride of character that
disarmed the social arrogance which might otherwise have rendered him less
triumphantly successful than he was in winning his way into the favor of
the most accomplished men, and the most beautiful and elegant women, in
France.
With regard to his generous conduct to his brother James we have already
spoken. Of Jemmy, James' son, who became Franklin's apprentice at James'
request, we have a view in a letter from Franklin to his sister Jane in
which he uses Jemmy as an illustration of how unreasonably her son Benny,
when Mr. Parker's apprentice, might have complained of the clothes
furnished to him by his master.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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