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Benjamin Franklin was a terrible father.His son William was born just before his marriage to Deborah Read in 1730. Perhaps because of the circumstances of his birth -- despite being taken in by the family -- William seems to have grown up with a chip on his shoulder.
The apple didn't seem to fall far from the tree, though, because William also had an illegitimiate child -- William Temple Franklin. For whatever reason, Benjamin felt quite fond of Temple, which probably just irritated William further.
The animosity became political. While Benjamin Franklin was a great advocate for the American cause, William was a Loyalist. In fact, he became what would be the last Royal Governor of New Jersey. As the Revolutionary War wound down, William moved to England with Temple, and the two never saw Benjamin Franklin again. [Source]
Benjamin was a terrible husband, too.
In November 1764, he left for England, where he would stay until 1775. Even after Deborah suffered a stroke (1768) and stopped writing to him (1773), he still refused to return. She died in Deember 1774, without having seen him for the last ten years of her life. [Source]
Benjamin and Deborah had a son (Francis) and a daughter (Sarah) together, but Francis died from smallpox when he was four years-old. Sarah grew up and had a family of her own, but took her husband's name -- Bache. As a result, the only descendents of Benjamin Franklin with his family name are in England.
Benjamin did, however, have many brothers and sisters. In fact, his immediate-older sister was also named Deborah; he was born in 1706, she was born in 1705.
Deborah Franklin married a fellow named Joseph Scull on February 1, 1729, and the two would go on to have 15 children. I'm not sure if all of them survived to adulthood, but the 11th seems to have been named after his uncle: Benjamin Franklin Scull.
That was interesting to me, because Scull was my grandmother Eleanor's middle name. And it was her middle name because it was *her* mother's maiden name.
Benjamin Franklin Scull was my great-grandmother Anna Mae Scull's great-great-grandfather, making Ben Franklin my 6th great-granduncle.
1 comment:
I was wrong about this. The problem was that I mis-identified my great-grandmother's grandfather. Her father was William Scull; I got that right. But *his* father wasn't Samuel Scull. It was William Scull, Sr. And that's where everyone things can't go any further back.
So...cool story, but based on a wrong guess. Two William Sculls of the same age, both in NJ.
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