Benjamin Franklin (Dictionary of World Biography: The 17th and 18th Centuries)
Early Life
Among Benjamin Franklin’s English ancestors, one had owned a bit of land only twelve miles from the English ancestral seat of the Washingtons. His father, Josiah, had repudiated the Church of England and removed from England to Boston in the 1680’s; his mother’s forebears had arrived somewhat earlier. When Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, the modest household was already teeming with children, for he was a tenth son—and, incidentally, the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations back. The salient facts of Franklin’s life were...
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