Editing Benjamin Franklin (section)

==Ancestry==
Benjamin Franklin's father, [[Josiah Franklin]], was a [[tallow]] [[Chandlery|chandler]], [[soaper]], and [[candle]]maker. Josiah Franklin was born at [[Ecton, Northamptonshire]], England, on December 23, 1657, the son of Thomas Franklin, a blacksmith and farmer, and his wife, Jane White. Benjamin's father and all four of his grandparents were born in England.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Huang|first=Nian-Sheng|date=2000|title=Franklin's Father Josiah: Life of a Colonial Boston Tallow Chandler, 1657–1745|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1586007|journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society|volume=90|issue=3|pages=i–155|doi=10.2307/1586007|jstor=1586007|issn=0065-9746}}</ref>

Josiah Franklin had a total of seventeen children with his two wives. He married his first wife, Anne Child, in about 1677 in Ecton and emigrated with her to [[Boston]] in 1683; they had three children before emigration and four after. Following her death, Josiah married [[Abiah Folger]] on July 9, 1689, in the [[Old South Meeting House]] by [[Samuel Willard|Reverend Samuel Willard]], and had ten children with her. Benjamin, their eighth child, was Josiah Franklin's fifteenth child overall, and his tenth and final son.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

Benjamin Franklin's mother, Abiah, was born in [[Nantucket]], [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]], on August 15, 1667, to [[Peter Folger (Nantucket settler)|Peter Folger]], a miller and schoolteacher, and his wife, [[Mary Morrell Folger]], a former [[Indentured servitude|indentured servant]]. Mary Folger came from a Puritan family that was among the first [[Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640)|Pilgrims]] to flee to Massachusetts for [[Freedom of religion|religious freedom]], sailing for [[Boston]] in 1635 after King [[Charles I of England]] had begun persecuting Puritans. Her father Peter was "the sort of rebel destined to transform colonial America."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=14}} As [[Court clerk|clerk of the court]], he was arrested on February 10, 1676, and jailed on February 19 for his inability to pay bail. He spent over a year and a half in jail.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nantucket lands and landowners |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/04017892/ |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref>