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LIFE

OF

DOCTOR BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,

&'c.

MY DEAR SON,

I HAVE amufed myself with collecting fome

little anecdotes of my family. You may remember the enquiries I made, when you were with me in England, among fuch of my relations ast were then living; and the journey I undertook for that purpofe. To be acquainted with the particulars of my parentage and life, many of which are unknown to you, I flatter myself, will afford the fame pleasure to you as to me. I fhall relate them upon paper: it will be an agreeable employment of a week's uninterrupted leifure, which I promise myself during my present retirement in the country. There are also other motives which induce me to the undertaking. From the bofom of poverty and obfcurity, in which I drew my first breath and spent my earliest years, I have raised myself to a state of opulence and to fome degree of celebrity in the world. A conftant good fortune has attended me through every period of life to my prefent advanced age; and my defcendants may be defir

ous of learning what were the means of which I made ufe, and which, thanks to the affifting hand of providence, have proved fo eminently fuccessful. They may alfo, fhould they ever be placed in a fimilar fituation, derive fome advantage from my narritive.

When I reflect, as I frequently do, upon the felicity I have enjoyed, I sometimes say to myself, that, were the offer made me, I would engage to run again, from beginning to end, the fame career of life. All I would afk fhould be the privilege of an author, to correct, in a second edition, certain errors of the firft. I could wifh, likewife, if it were in my power, to change some trivial incidents and events for others more favourable, Were this however denied me, ftill would I not decline the offer. But fince a repetition of life cannot take place, there is nothing which, in my opinion, fo nearly resembles it, as to call to mind all its circumftances, and to render their remembrance more durable, commit them to writing. By thus employing myfelf, I fhall yield to the inclination, fo natural to old men, to talk of themselves and their exploits, and may freely follow my bent, without being tirefome to thofe, who, from refpect to my age, might think themfelves obliged to listen to me; as they will be at liberty to read me or not, as they pleafe. In fine, (and I may well avow it, fince nobody would believe me were I to deny it,) I shall perhaps, by this employment gratify my vanity. Scarcely indeed have I ever heard or read the introductory phrafe, "I may fay without vanity," but fome ftriking and characteristic inftance of

vanity has immediately followed. The generality of men hate vanity in others, however strongly they may be tinctured with it themselves; for myself, I pay obeifance to it wherever I meet with it, perfuaded that it is advantageous, as well to the individual whom it governs, as to those who are within the sphere of its influence. Of confequence, it would, in many cafes, not be wholly abfurd, that a man fhould count his vanity among the other sweets of life, and give thanks to providence for the bleffing.

And here let me with all humility acknowledge, that to divine providence I am indebted for the felicity I have hitherto enjoyed. It is that power alone which has furnished me with the means I have employed, and that has crowned them with fuccefs. My faith in this refpect leads me to hope, though I cannot count upon it, that the divine goodness will still be exercised towards me, either by prolonging the duration of my happiness to the close of life, or by giving me fortitude to fupport any melancholy re-, verfe, which may happen to me, as to so many others. My future fortune is unknown but to him in whose hand is our destiny, and who can make our very afflictions fubfervient to our benefit.

One of my uncles, defirous, like myself, of collecting anecdotes of our family, gave me fom notes, from which I have derived many particulars refpecting our ancestors. From thefe I learn, that they had lived in the fame village (Eaton in Northamptonshire) upon a freehold of about thirty acres, for the space at leaft of three hundred years. How long they had refided there

prior to that period, my uncle had been unable to difcover; probably ever fince the inftitution of furnames, when they took the appellation of Franklin; which had formerly been the name of a particular order of individuals.*

This pretty estate would not have fufficed for their fubfiftence, had they not added the trade of blacksmith, which was perpetuated in the family down to my uncles time, the eldeft fon having been uniformly brought up to this em

* As a proof that Franklin was anciently the common name of an order or rank in England, fee Judge Fortefcue, De laudibus legum Anglia, written about the year 1412, in which is the following paffage, to fhew that good juries might easily be formed in any part of England:

"Regio etiam illa, ita refperfa refertaque eft poffefforibus "terrarum et agrorum, quod in ea, villula tam parva repe"riri non poterit, in qua non eft miles, armiger, vel pater

familias, qualis ibidem franklin vulgaritur nun-eupatur, "magnis ditatus poffeffionibus, nec non libere, tenentes "at alii valeti plurimi, fuis patrimoniis fufficientes, ad "faciendum juratam, in forma prænotata."

"Moreover, the fame country is fo filled and replenish"ed with landed menne, that therein fo fmall a thorpe

cannot be found wherein dwelleth not a knight, an ef"quire, or fuch a houfholder as is there commonly called "a franklin, enriched with great poffeffions; and also other "freeholders and many yeoman, able for their livelihoods "to make a jury in form aforementioned."

Old Tranflation.

Chaucer too calls his country gentleman a Franklin, and, after defcribing his good housekeeping, thus characterises him:

This worthy Franklin bore a purse of silk,
Fix'd to his girdle, white as morning milk.
Knight of the fhire, first justice at the affize,
To help the poor, the doubtful to advise.
In all employments, generous, just he prov'd,
Renown'd for courtesy, by all belov'd.

tics,too much fo perhaps for his fituation. I lately found in London a collection which he had made of all the principal pamphlets relative to public affairs, from the year 1641 to 1717. Many volumes are wanting,as appears by the series of numbers; but there ftill remain eight in folio, and twenty-four in quarto and octavo. The collection had fallen into the hands of a fecond-hand bookfeller, who, knowing me by having fold me fome books, brought it to me. My uncle, it feems, had left it behind him on his departure for America, about fifty years ago, I found various notes of his writing in the margins. His grandfon, Samuel, is now living at Boston.

Our humble family had early embraced the Reformation. They remained faithfully attached during the reign of Queen Mary, when they were in danger of being molefted on account of their zeal against Popery. They had an English Bible, and, to conceal it the more fecurely, they conceived the project of fastening it, open, with pack-threads across the leaves, on the infide of the lid of a clofe-ftool. When my great-grandfather wifhed to read to his family, he reversed the lid of the clofe-ftool upon his knees, and paifed the leaves from one fide to the other, which were held down on each by the pack-thread. One of the children was ftationed at the door to give notice if he saw the proctor (an officer of the spiritual court) make his appearance: in that cafe, the lid was restored to its place with the Bible concealed under it as before. I had this anecdote from my uncle Benjamin.

The whole family preferved its attachment to the Church of England till towards the clofe of

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