Franklin, William Temple, 1760-1823

William Temple Franklin served as Benjamin Franklin's secretary at the American Philosophical Society, 1786.

Grandson of Benjamin Franklin.

William Temple Franklin was Benjamin Franklin's grandson and secretary.

William Temple Franklin was Benjamin Franklin's grandson and his secretary in Paris.

The sons of Joseph Fox and Elizabeth Mickle, George (1759-1828) and Samuel Mickel Fox I (1763-1808) became intimate friends of Benjamin Franklin's grandson William Temple Franklin. George, a physician who was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1784, represented Philadelphia in the Assembly in 1800, and was an organizer and director of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal and an early supporter of the bank of North America, of which he was Director from 1818 until 1828. Samuel also served in public office as a member of City Council, the Common Council (1793-1797), and the Upper Chamber (1797-1800), and he was both an incorporator of the Bank of Pennsylvania and its President from 1797-1808. After the Indian treaties of 1784 and 1785, Samuel and George invested heavily in lands in northern and western Pennsylvania, often investing with the Morrises and other Philadelphians. At his death, Samuel held 118,000 acres.

When Temple Franklin returned to Europe in 1792, he turned to his old friend George Fox to oversee his interests in America, particularly the land holdings he inherited and purchased from his father and grandfather. Franklin also left the balance of his grandfather's papers at Fox's estate Champlost, where they had been stored since Benjamin's death in 1790, and most of these were donated to the American Philosophical Society in 1840 after having passed to Fox's son Charles Pemberton Fox.

The only son of Benjamin Franklin, William Franklin rose through life from illegitimate birth to become the last Royal Governor of New Jersey. Born in Philadelphia to an unidentified woman of low standing, William was raised by Franklin and his common law wife, Deborah Read Franklin. A favored child, he enjoyed the best education that the city could offer, including two years at Alexander Annand's classical academy, and was still in his teens when he received a commission to serve as Ensign in the 60th Regiment of Foot (the American Regiment) during King George's War. Serving in upstate New York, he distinguished himself for conspicuous bravery and won promotion to Captain of Grenadiers by the war's end, even helping his father to organize the militia in Philadelphia during a furlough in 1747.

After the war, William and his father grew increasingly close, working together on all manner of projects. William joined as an assistant in his father's electrical experiments during the 1750s, and the two worked closely in a variety of civic projects in Philadelphia. Perhaps most propitiously, William also became an important political ally in the antiproprietary faction, writing scathing pamphlets against his father's political foes under the apt pseudonym Humphrey Scourge. In return, Benjamin favored his son by using his political influence to win him appointment to a succession of minor offices, from Clerk of the Assembly to postmaster. He also served at his father's side during the Seven Years' War in organizing the colony's defenses and erecting a series of forts.

In his mid-twenties, William turned to the study of law, reading under Joseph Galloway, who later became a prominent Loyalist, and after his father's removal to London in 1757, with Richard Jackson in the Middle Temple. Ingratiating himself in London society, William earned the attention of John Pownall, Secretary of the Board of Trade, who probably recommended him for higher office. After a brief but intense struggle with the New Jersey Assembly, Pownall and the Earl of Bute had Franklin appointed Royal Governor of New Jersey in August 1762, an office he may have earned without his father's intervention.

William appointment as governor was a watershed in his career, and not merely a step up the ladder. An able administrator, his term in office began just as the colonial crises of mid-century were coming to a head. His relatively enlightened Indian policy and support for internal improvements and legal reforms, including chartering Rutgers University, were received well in the colony, however his unbending enforcement of the Stamp Act and hard line support for the government's policies earned him the disdain of American "patriots." While his father moved ever further into the revolutionary camp, William moved into the Loyalist, providing information on the revolutionary activities in the colony to London and working tirelessly against the cause for independence. After he and his father met at Galloway's estate in May 1775, the two split permanently.

Declared "an enemy to the liberties of this country" by the Continental Congress in June, 1776, William was arrested and held under harsh conditions in New Jersey and Connecticut, refusing to acknowledge to legitimacy of his captors even after being subjected to 250 days of solitary confinement. Exchanged in November 1778, Franklin entered New York, and under the direction of Henry Clinton, unleashed his efforts in the Loyalist cause. Using the formidable organizational skills associated with the Franklins, William helped found the Board of Associated Loyalists and organized Loyalist resistance activities on Long Island and northern New Jersey that were famously -- or infamously -- considered some of the most ruthless in the war. His notoriety was so great that George Washington intervened personally, though without success, in an attempt to coerce Clinton into surrendering the former governor.

With the war all but lost in August 1782, Franklin left for London. In compensation for the considerable estate he lost, he was awarded a mere £1,800 from the Commissioners of Loyalist Claims and was placed on half pay by the Army at the rank of Brigadier General. Disinherited and never fully reconciled with his father, William lived a comfortable life with his second wife, Mary D'Evelyn, a wealthy Irish widow, working as an agent for Loyalist claims.

Associates and friends of Benjamin Franklin and his family, the Fox family came to Philadelphia in 1686, when the Quaker convert Justinian Fox (1673-1718) arrived aboard the Desire from his native Plymouth, England. Justinian's son Joseph Fox (ca.1710-1779) prospered after taking an apprenticeship with the carpenter James Portues, a founder of the Carpenters' Company, acquiring substantial property holdings in the city and serving in offices ranging from City Commissioner to Member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, including two stints as Speaker and one as a member of the Committee of Correspondence, a group responsible for communications with the colony's Agents in London, Benjamin Franklin and Richard Jackson. Read out of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in 1756 for refusal to withdraw from public office, and for "having violated our testimony against war," Fox's principaled refusal to accept Continental money for debts owed him in 1775 fueled rumors that he held Loyalist sympathies during the Revolution. He was a member of the revived American Philosophical Society at the time its merger with the American Society in 1769.

Joseph and his wife Elizabeth Mickle (1729-1805) had thirteen children, of whom only six survived to adulthood. These six, however, continued the family's prosperity. Their daughter Thomazine Fox (1748-1821) married into the Roberts family, while sons George (1759-1828) and Samuel Mickel Fox I (1763-1808) distinguished themselves in business and intellect. George, who was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1784, represented Philadelphia in the Assembly in 1800, and was widely known as an organizer and director of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal and as one of the early supporters of the bank of North America, of which he was Director from 1818 until 1828. He traveled extensively in France in the 1770s and 1780s, nearly dying at the chateau of the Comte de Champlost in 1780. He named his estate Champlost, built on the property that his grandfather Justinian Fox had inherited from James Portues.

Samuel Mickle Fox I served in a number of public offices, including the City Council, the Common Council (1793-1797), and the Upper Chamber (1797-1800), and he was both an incorporator of the Bank of Pennsylvania and its President from 1797-1808. After the Indian treaties of 1784 and 1785, Samuel and his brother George acquired immense tracts of land in northwestern Pennsylvania near the Allegheny River north of the Clarion that were patented in 1796. At his death, Samuel held 118,000 acres.

Samuel's son George (1806-1882) was born in a house on the southeast corner of 5th and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia. He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with an AB in 1825 and MD in 1828. A prominent surgeon and Fellow of the College of Physicians, Fox was a member of the delegation from the College of Physicians to the organizing convention of the American Medical Association in 1847.