Editing Benjamin Franklin (section)

==Early life and education==
===Boston===
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Franklin was born on [[Milk Street, Boston|Milk Street]] in [[Boston]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]] on January 17, 1706,{{refn|group=Note|name=birthdate| Contemporary records, which used the Julian calendar and the [[New Year#Annunciation Style|Annunciation Style]] of enumerating years, recorded his birth as January 6, 1705.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Mulford|editor1-first=Carla|title=The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin|date=2009|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|page=xiv|isbn=9781139828123|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hOTroomqzQQC&pg=PR14}}</ref>{{sfn|Wood|2005|p=17}}}} and [[Infant baptism|baptized]] at the [[Old South Meeting House]] in Boston. As a child growing up along the [[Charles River]], Franklin recalled that he was "generally the leader among the boys."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=16}}

Franklin's father wanted him to attend school with the clergy but only had enough money to send him to school for two years. He attended [[Boston Latin School]] but did not graduate; he continued his education through voracious reading. Although "his parents talked of the church as a career"<ref name="autobio">{{cite book |last= Franklin |first= Benjamin |title= Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qW4VAAAAYAAJ |access-date=February 1, 2011 |series= Macmillan's pocket English and American classics |orig-year= 1771 |year= 1901 |publisher=Macmillan |location= New York |page= vi |chapter= Introduction|isbn= 9780758302939 }}<!-- Note: the introduction of this edition is the source for this quote; please do not change the edition without verifying the quote remains sourced. --></ref> for Franklin, his schooling ended when he was ten. He worked for his father for a time, and at 12 he became an [[apprenticeship|apprentice]] to his brother James, a printer, who taught him the printing trade. When Benjamin was 15, James founded ''[[The New-England Courant]]'', which was the third newspaper founded in Boston.<ref name="Bernhard 2007 p. 11">{{cite book | last=Bernhard | first=J. | title=Porcupine, Picayune, & Post: How Newspapers Get Their Names | publisher=University of Missouri Press | series=EBL-Schweitzer | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-8262-6601-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oO5fWi6dikC&pg=PA11 | access-date=June 1, 2023 | page=11}}</ref>

When denied the chance to write a letter to the paper for publication, Franklin adopted the pseudonym of "[[Silence Dogood]]," a middle-aged widow. Mrs. Dogood's letters were published and became a subject of conversation around town. Neither James nor the ''Courant''{{'s}} readers were aware of the ruse, and James was unhappy with Benjamin when he discovered the popular correspondent was his younger brother. Franklin was an advocate of free speech from an early age. When his brother was jailed for three weeks in 1722 for publishing material unflattering to [[Samuel Shute|the governor]], young Franklin took over the newspaper and had Mrs. Dogood proclaim, quoting ''[[Cato's Letters]]'', "Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=32}} Franklin left his apprenticeship without his brother's permission, and in so doing became a fugitive.<ref name="Seelye Selby 2018 p. 394">{{cite book | last1=Seelye | first1=J.E. | last2=Selby | first2=S. | title=Shaping North America: From Exploration to the American Revolution [3 volumes] | publisher=ABC-CLIO | year=2018 | isbn=978-1-4408-3669-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YgVnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA394 | access-date=June 1, 2023 | page=394}}</ref>

===Moves to Philadelphia and London===
At age 17, Franklin ran away to [[Philadelphia]], seeking a new start in a new city. When he first arrived, he worked in several printing shops there, but he was not satisfied by the immediate prospects in any of these jobs. After a few months, while working in one printing house, Pennsylvania governor [[Sir William Keith, 4th Baronet|Sir William Keith]] convinced him to go to London, ostensibly to acquire the equipment necessary for establishing another newspaper in Philadelphia. Discovering that Keith's promises of backing a newspaper were empty, he worked as a [[Typesetting|typesetter]] in a printer's shop in what is today the Lady Chapel of [[St Bartholomew-the-Great|Church of St Bartholomew-the-Great]] in the [[Smithfield, London|Smithfield]] area of London, which had at that time been deconsecrated. He returned to Philadelphia in 1726 with the help of [[Thomas Denham]], an English merchant who had emigrated but returned to England, and who employed Franklin as a clerk, shopkeeper, and bookkeeper in his business.<ref name="vandoren">[[Carl Van Doren|Carl]] Van Doren, ''Benjamin Franklin''. (1945). pages 252–253</ref>

===Junto and library===
[[File:Franklin - ita, 1825 - 766672 R (cropped).jpeg|thumb|''La scuola della economia e della morale'', an 1825 sketch of Franklin]]

In 1727, at age 21, Franklin formed the [[Junto (club)|Junto]], a group of "like minded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved their community." The Junto was a discussion group for issues of the day; it subsequently gave rise to many organizations in Philadelphia.<ref>{{cite journal | last1  = Mumford | first1 = Michael D. | s2cid = 143550175 | year = 2002 | title = Social innovation: ten cases from Benjamin Franklin | journal = Creativity Research Journal | volume = 14 | issue = 2| pages = 253–266 | doi = 10.1207/S15326934CRJ1402_11}}</ref> The Junto was modeled after English coffeehouses that Franklin knew well and which had become the center of the spread of Enlightenment ideas in Britain.<ref>David Waldstreicher, ed.,'' A Companion to Benjamin Franklin'' (2011) p. 30.</ref>{{sfn|Lemay|2005a|pp=92–94,123}}

Reading was a great pastime of the Junto, but books were rare and expensive. The members created a library, initially assembled from their own books, after Franklin wrote:

{{blockquote|A proposition was made by me that since our books were often referr'd to in our disquisitions upon the inquiries, it might be convenient for us to have them altogether where we met, that upon occasion they might be consulted; and by thus clubbing our books to a common library, we should, while we lik'd to keep them together, have each of us the advantage of using the books of all the other members, which would be nearly as beneficial as if each owned the whole.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Stuart A.P.|title=The library: an illustrated history|date=2009|publisher=[[Skyhorse Pub.]]|location=New York|isbn=978-1-60239-706-4|page=147|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/libraryillustrat0000murr}}</ref>}}

This did not suffice, however. Franklin conceived the idea of a [[subscription library]], which would pool the funds of the members to buy books for all to read. This was the birth of the [[Library Company of Philadelphia]], whose charter he composed in 1731.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 1006049|title = Benjamin Franklin and Eighteenth-Century American Libraries|journal = Transactions of the American Philosophical Society|volume = 55|issue = 9|pages = 1–83|last1 = Korty|first1 = Margaret Barton|year = 1965|doi = 10.2307/1006049}}</ref>

===Newspaperman===
{{further|Early American publishers and printers}}
[[File:Franklin the printer2.jpg|thumb|Franklin (center) at work on a [[printing press]] in a painting published by the [[Detroit Publishing Company]] in {{Circa|1914}}]]
Upon Denham's death, Franklin returned to his former trade. In 1728, he set up a printing house in partnership with [[Hugh Meredith]]; the following year he became the publisher of ''[[The Pennsylvania Gazette]]'', a newspaper in Philadelphia. The ''Gazette'' gave Franklin a forum for agitation about a variety of local reforms and initiatives through printed essays and observations. Over time, his commentary, and his adroit cultivation of a positive image as an industrious and intellectual young man, earned him a great deal of social respect. But even after he achieved fame as a scientist and statesman, he habitually signed his letters with the unpretentious 'B. Franklin, Printer'.<ref name="vandoren"/>

In 1732, he published the first German-language newspaper in America – ''Die Philadelphische Zeitung'' – although it failed after only one year because four other newly founded German papers quickly dominated the newspaper market.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa071299.htm|title=German Newspapers in the US and Canada|access-date=October 7, 2014|archive-date=September 12, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912040836/http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa071299.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Franklin also printed [[Moravian Church|Moravian]] religious books in German. He often visited [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania]], staying at the [[Moravian Sun Inn]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=John B. |last=Frantz |title=Franklin and the Pennsylvania Germans |journal=Pennsylvania History |year=1998 |pages=21–34 |url=https://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/view/25467/25236 }}</ref> In a 1751 pamphlet on demographic growth and its implications for the Thirteen Colonies, he called the [[Pennsylvania Dutch|Pennsylvania Germans]] "Palatine Boors" who could never acquire the "Complexion" of [[Anglo-Americans|Anglo-American]] settlers and referred to "Blacks and Tawneys" as weakening the social structure of the colonies. Although he apparently reconsidered shortly thereafter, and the phrases were omitted from all later printings of the pamphlet, his views may have played a role in his political defeat in 1764.{{sfn|Gleason|2000|pp=3–17}}

According to Ralph Frasca, Franklin promoted the printing press as a device to instruct colonial Americans in moral virtue. Frasca argues he saw this as a service to God, because he understood moral virtue in terms of actions, thus, doing good provides a service to God. Despite his own moral lapses, Franklin saw himself as uniquely qualified to instruct Americans in morality. He tried to influence American moral life through the construction of a printing network based on a chain of partnerships from the Carolinas to New England. He thereby invented the first newspaper chain.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}} It was more than a business venture, for like many publishers he believed that the press had a public-service duty.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Frasca | first1 = Ralph | year = 1997 | title = Benjamin Franklin's Journalism | journal = [[Fides et Historia]] | volume = 29 | issue = 1| pages = 60–72 }}</ref><ref>Ralph Frasca, ''Benjamin Franklin's Printing Network: Disseminating Virtue in Early America'' (University of Missouri Press, 2006) {{doi|10.1111/j.1540-6563.2007.00197_16.x}} online review by [[Robert Middlekauff]].</ref>

When he established himself in Philadelphia, shortly before 1730, the town boasted two "wretched little" news sheets, [[Andrew Bradford]]'s ''The American Weekly Mercury'' and [[Samuel Keimer]]'s ''Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences, and Pennsylvania Gazette''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bartleby.com/225/index.html|title=Vol. 15. Colonial and Revolutionary Literature; Early National Literature, Part I. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907–21|website=www.bartleby.com}}</ref> This instruction in all arts and sciences consisted of weekly extracts from ''Chambers's Universal Dictionary''. Franklin quickly did away with all of this when he took over the ''Instructor'' and made it ''The Pennsylvania Gazette''. The ''Gazette'' soon became his characteristic organ, which he freely used for satire, for the play of his wit, even for sheer excess of mischief or of fun. From the first, he had a way of adapting his models to his own uses. {{anchor|The Busy-Body}}{{anchor|The Busybody}}The series of essays called "[[The Busy-Body (pen name)|The Busy-Body]]," which he wrote for Bradford's ''American Mercury'' in 1729, followed the general [[Joseph Addison|Addisonian]] form, already modified to suit homelier conditions. The thrifty Patience, in her busy little shop, complaining of the useless visitors who waste her valuable time, is related to the women who address Mr. Spectator. The Busy-Body himself is a true Censor Morum, as [[Isaac Bickerstaff]] had been in the ''Tatler''. And a number of the fictitious characters, Ridentius, Eugenius, Cato, and Cretico, represent traditional 18th-century classicism. Franklin even used this classical framework for contemporary satire, as seen in the character of Cretico, the "sour Philosopher," who is clearly a caricature of his rival, Samuel Keimer.<ref>Cook, ''Colonial and Revolutionary Literature; Early National Literature, Part I. Colonial Newspapers and Magazines, 1704–1775'' (1917){{page needed|date=October 2022}}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2022}}

Franklin had mixed success in his plan to establish an inter-colonial network of newspapers that would produce a profit for him and disseminate virtue. Over the years he sponsored two dozen printers in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, New York, Connecticut, and even the Caribbean. By 1753, eight of the fifteen English language newspapers in the colonies were published by him or his partners.<ref>Ralph Frasca, ''Benjamin Franklin's Printing Network: Disseminating Virtue in Early America'' (2006) pp. 19, 196.</ref> He began in [[Charleston, South Carolina]], in 1731. After his second editor died, the widow, [[Elizabeth Timothy]], took over and made it a success. She was one of the colonial era's first woman printers.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Baker | first1 = Ira L. | s2cid = 143677057 | year = 1977 | title = Elizabeth Timothy: America's First Woman Editor | journal = Journalism Quarterly | volume = 54 | issue = 2| pages = 280–85 | doi=10.1177/107769907705400207}}</ref> For three decades Franklin maintained a close business relationship with her and her son [[Peter Timothy]], who took over the ''[[South Carolina Gazette]]'' in 1746.<ref>Ralph Frasca, "'The Partnership at Carolina Having succeeded, was Encourag'd to Engage in Others': The Genesis of Benjamin Franklin's Printing Network", ''Southern Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of the South'' (2006), Vol. 13 Issue 1/2, pp.&nbsp;1–23.</ref> The ''Gazette'' was impartial in political debates, while creating the opportunity for public debate, which encouraged others to challenge authority. Timothy avoided blandness and crude bias and, after 1765, increasingly took a patriotic stand in the growing crisis with Great Britain.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Smith | first1 = Jeffery A. | year = 1993 | title = Impartiality and Revolutionary Ideology: Editorial Policies of the 'South-Carolina Gazette,' 1732–1735 | journal = Journal of Southern History | volume = 49 | issue = 4| pages = 511–26 | doi = 10.2307/2208674 | jstor = 2208674 }}</ref> Franklin's ''Connecticut Gazette'' (1755–68), however, proved unsuccessful.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Frasca | first1 = Ralph | year = 2003 | title = 'I am now about to establish a small Printing Office&nbsp;... at Newhaven': Benjamin Franklin and the First Newspaper in Connecticut | journal = Connecticut History | volume = 44 | issue = 1| pages = 77–87 | doi = 10.2307/44369668 | jstor = 44369668 | s2cid = 254488378 }}</ref> As the Revolution approached, political strife slowly tore his network apart.<ref>Frasca, ''Benjamin Franklin's Printing Network,'' pp. 161–167.</ref>

===Freemasonry===
In 1730 or 1731, Franklin was initiated into the local [[Masonic lodge]]. He became a [[Grand Master (Freemasonry)|grand master]] in 1734, indicating his rapid rise to prominence in Pennsylvania.<ref name=HC>[[History (U.S. TV channel)|The History Channel]], ''Mysteries of the Freemasons: America'', video documentary, August 1, 2006, written by Noah Nicholas and Molly Bedell</ref><ref name=freemasonry>{{cite web| url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/franklin_b/franklin_b.html|title=Freemasonry Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon website |publisher=Freemasonry.bcy.ca|access-date=September 21, 2009}}</ref> The same year, he edited and published the first Masonic book in the Americas, a reprint of [[James Anderson (Freemason)|James Anderson]]'s ''Constitutions of the Free-Masons''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Anderson |first1=James |last2=Franklin |first2=Benjamin |last3=Royster |first3=Paul |date=January 1, 1734 |title=The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1734). An Online Electronic Edition. |url=https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/25 |journal=UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications}}</ref> He was the [[Masonic lodge officers#Secretary|secretary]] of [[Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania|St. John's Lodge]] in Philadelphia from 1735 to 1738.<ref name=freemasonry/>

In January 1738, "Franklin appeared as a witness" in a manslaughter trial against two men who killed "a simple-minded apprentice" named Daniel Rees in a fake Masonic initiation gone wrong. One of the men "threw, or accidentally spilled, the burning spirits, and Daniel Rees died of his burns two days later." While Franklin did not directly participate in the [[List of hazing deaths in the United States|hazing that led to Rees' death]], he knew of the hazing before it turned fatal, and did nothing to stop it. He was criticized for his inaction in ''The American Weekly Mercury'', by his publishing rival [[Andrew Bradford]]. Ultimately, "Franklin replied in his own defense in the ''Gazette''."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Founders Online: A Defense of Conduct, 15 February 1738 |url=http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-02-02-0036 |access-date=January 17, 2024 |website=founders.archives.gov |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=says |first=Brother Hogarth |date=May 16, 2020 |title=Incredible History: Ben Franklin, Fake Masonry, and Accidental Death |url=https://forthright.space/2020/05/16/incredible-history-ben-franklin-fake-masonry-and-accidental-death/ |access-date=January 17, 2024 |website=Forthright |language=en}}</ref>

Franklin remained a Freemason for the rest of his life.<ref>Van Horne, John C. "The History and Collections of the Library Company of Philadelphia", ''The Magazine Antiques'', v. 170. no. 2: 58–65 (1971).</ref><ref>{{cite ODNB|id=52466|title=Franklin, Benjamin (1706–1790)|orig-year=2004|year=2014|last=Lemay|first=Leo}}</ref>

===Common-law marriage to Deborah Read===
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At age 17 in 1723, Franklin proposed to 15-year-old [[Deborah Read]] while a boarder in the Read home. At that time, Deborah's mother was wary of allowing her young daughter to marry Franklin, who was on his way to London at Governor Keith's request, and also because of his financial instability. Her own husband had recently died, and she declined Franklin's request to marry her daughter.<ref name="vandoren"/>

Franklin travelled to London, and after he failed to communicate as expected with Deborah and her family, they interpreted his long silence as a breaking of his promises. At the urging of her mother, Deborah married a potter named John Rogers on August 5, 1725. John soon fled to [[Barbados]] with her [[dowry]] in order to avoid debts and prosecution. Since Rogers' fate was unknown, [[bigamy]] laws prevented Deborah from remarrying.<ref name="Chylinska_2015">{{cite journal |last1=Chylinska |first1=Bozenna |date=January 2015 |title=The Colonial American Working Wife and Her Dear and Loving Husband Absent upon Some Employment: Deborah and Benjamin Franklin's Married Life |url=https://journals.theasa.net/images/contributor_uploads/01Chylinska.pdf |journal=Polish Journal for American Studies |volume=9 |access-date=May 4, 2024 |archive-date=June 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240629205036/https://journals.theasa.net/images/contributor_uploads/01Chylinska.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Constitutional Law Reporter 2018 w571">{{cite web | title=Deborah Read | website=Constitutional Law Reporter | date=November 28, 2018 | url=https://constitutionallawreporter.com/great-american-biographies/deborah-read/#:~:text=In%201725%2C%20Deborah's%20mother%20convinced,with%20Deborah%20and%20proposed%20marriage. | access-date=May 4, 2024}}</ref>

Franklin returned in 1726 and resumed his courtship of Deborah.<ref name="Chylinska_2015"/> They established a [[common-law marriage in the United States|common-law marriage]] on September 1, 1730. They took in his recently acknowledged illegitimate young son and raised him in their household. They had two children together. Their son, [[Francis Folger Franklin]], was born in October 1732 and died of [[smallpox]] in 1736. Their daughter, [[Sarah Franklin Bache|Sarah "Sally" Franklin]], was born in 1743 and eventually married [[Richard Bache]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Benjamin Franklin and women|date=2000|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|last=Tise|first=Larry E.|isbn=0585382778|location=University Park, Pa.|oclc=49414692}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Hayden |editor-first=Horace Edwin |date=1906 |title=Genealogical and Family History of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys Pennsylvania |volume=I |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H8c4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA71 |location=New York |publisher=Lewis Publishing Company |pages=70–72 |via=[[Google Books]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Parton |first=James |author-link=James Parton |date=1864 |title=Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin |volume=II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Os5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA629 |location=New York |publisher=Mercer Brothers |pages=629–631 |via=[[Google Books]] }}</ref>{{refn|group=Note|name=Scott|Major General [[Hugh L. Scott]] was a descendant of Franklin. The family line ran from Scott to Elizabeth Hodge (mother) to Sarah Bache (grandmother) to Dr. William Bache (great-grandfather) to Sarah Franklin Bache (great-great grandmother) to Franklin (great-great-great grandfather.){{sfn|Hayden|1906|pp=70–72}}{{sfn|Parton|1864|pp=629–631}}}}

Deborah's fear of the sea meant that she never accompanied Franklin on any of his extended trips to Europe; another possible reason why they spent much time apart is that he may have blamed her for possibly preventing their son Francis from being [[variolation|inoculated]] against the disease that subsequently killed him.<ref>{{cite news |last=Coss |first=Stephen |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/benjamin-franklin-estranged-wife-nearly-two-decades-180964400/ |title=What Led Benjamin Franklin to Live Estranged From His Wife for Nearly Two Decades? |work=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] |date=September 2017 }}</ref> Deborah wrote to him in November 1769, saying she was ill due to "dissatisfied distress" from his prolonged absence, but he did not return until his business was done.<ref>November 1769 [http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=16&page=230a Letter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615055537/http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=16&page=230a |date=June 15, 2018 }} from Deborah Read to Ben Franklin, ''franklinpapers.org''</ref> Deborah Read Franklin died of a stroke on December 14, 1774, while Franklin was on an extended mission to Great Britain; he returned in 1775.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Coss |first1=Stephen |title=What Led Benjamin Franklin to Live Estranged From His Wife for Nearly Two Decades? |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/benjamin-franklin-estranged-wife-nearly-two-decades-180964400/ |website=Smithsonian |access-date=February 26, 2021 |date=September 2017}}</ref>

===William Franklin===
{{Main article|William Franklin}}
[[File:WilliamFranklin.jpeg|thumb|[[William Franklin]] (1730–1813), Franklin's son, whose mother was unknown, was born out of wedlock on February 22, 1730]]
In 1730, 24-year-old Franklin publicly acknowledged his illegitimate son [[William Franklin|William]] and raised him in his household. William was born on February 22, 1730, but his mother's identity is unknown.<ref>Skemp, S. L. ''William Franklin: Son of a Patriot, Servant of a King'', Oxford University Press US, 1990, {{ISBN|0-19-505745-7}}, p. 4.</ref> He was educated in Philadelphia and beginning at about age 30 studied law in London in the early 1760s. William himself fathered an illegitimate son, [[William Temple Franklin]], born on the same day and month: February 22, 1760.<ref>{{cite web |title=William Temple Franklin Papers |url=http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mole/f/franklin/wtf.htm |website=American Philosophical Society |access-date=February 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090507094002/http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mole/f/franklin/wtf.htm |archive-date=May 7, 2009 }}</ref> The boy's mother was never identified, and he was placed in foster care. In 1762, the elder William Franklin married Elizabeth Downes, daughter of a [[Planter class|planter]] from [[Barbados]], in London. In 1763, he was appointed as the last [[List of colonial governors of New Jersey|royal governor]] of New Jersey.

A [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] to the king, William Franklin saw his relations with father Benjamin eventually break down over their differences about the [[American Revolutionary War]], as Benjamin Franklin could never accept William's position. Deposed in 1776 by the revolutionary government of New Jersey, William was placed under house arrest at [[Proprietary House|his home]] in [[Perth Amboy, New Jersey|Perth Amboy]] for six months. After the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], he was formally taken into custody by order of the [[Provincial Congress of New Jersey]], an entity which he refused to recognize, regarding it as an "illegal assembly."<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Skemp | first1 = Sheila L. |author-link1=Sheila L. Skemp| year = 1985 | title = William Franklin: His Father's Son | journal = [[Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography]] | volume = 109 | issue = 2| pages = 145–178 }}</ref> He was incarcerated in Connecticut for two years, in [[Wallingford, Connecticut|Wallingford]] and [[Middletown, Connecticut|Middletown]], and, after being caught surreptitiously engaging Americans into supporting the Loyalist cause, was held in solitary confinement at [[Litchfield, Connecticut|Litchfield]] for eight months. When finally released in a prisoner exchange in 1778, he moved to New York City, which was occupied by the British at the time.<ref>{{cite web |title=Franklin, William |url=http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0819491.html |website=Info Please |publisher=The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia |access-date=February 9, 2020}}</ref>

While in New York City, he became leader of the Board of Associated Loyalists, a quasi-military organization chartered by King [[George III]] and headquartered in New York City. They initiated guerrilla forays into New Jersey, southern Connecticut, and New York counties north of the city.<ref>Fleming, Thomas, ''The Perils of Peace: America's Struggle for Survival'', (Collins, New York, 2007) p. 30.</ref> When British troops evacuated from New York, William Franklin left with them and sailed to England. He settled in London, never to return to North America. In the preliminary peace talks in 1782 with Britain, "...&nbsp;Benjamin Franklin insisted that loyalists who had borne arms against the United States would be excluded from this plea (that they be given a general pardon). He was undoubtedly thinking of William Franklin."<ref>Fleming, p. 236.</ref>
{{Unreliable source?|reason=1, the writer cannot know what Franklin was thinking; 2, the source is a children's book which may take liberties with history |date=November 2021}}

===Success as an author===
[[File:The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle Vol 1, January, 1741.jpg|thumb|The January 1741 edition of ''The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle'', Franklin's magazine]]
In 1732, Franklin began to publish the noted ''Poor Richard's Almanack'' (with content both original and borrowed) under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, on which much of his popular reputation is based. He frequently wrote under pseudonyms. The first issue published was for the upcoming year, 1733.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Poor Richard's Almanack – Benjamin Franklin Historical Society |url=http://www.benjamin-franklin-history.org/poor-richards-almanac/ |access-date=December 23, 2023 |language=en-US}}</ref> He had developed a distinct, signature style that was plain, pragmatic and had a sly, soft but self-deprecating tone with declarative sentences.<ref>{{Cite web|date=August 20, 2014|title=Benjamin Franklin – Biography and Literary Works of Benjamin Franklin|url=https://literarydevices.net/benjamin-franklin/|access-date=February 7, 2022|website=Literary Devices|language=en-us}}</ref> Although it was no secret that he was the author, his Richard Saunders character repeatedly denied it. "Poor Richard's Proverbs," adages from this almanac, such as "A penny saved is twopence dear" (often misquoted as "A penny saved is a penny earned") and "Fish and visitors stink in three days," remain common quotations in the modern world. Wisdom in folk society meant the ability to provide an apt adage for any occasion, and his readers became well prepared. He sold about ten thousand copies per year—it became an institution.{{sfn|Van Doren|1945|p=109}} In 1741, Franklin began publishing ''The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle for all the British Plantations in America.'' He used the [[heraldic badge]] of the Prince of Wales as the cover illustration.

Franklin wrote a letter, "[[Advice to a Friend on Choosing a Mistress]]," dated June 25, 1745, in which he gives advice to a young man about channeling sexual urges. Due to its licentious nature, it was not published in collections of his papers during the 19th century. [[Federal judiciary of the United States|Federal court]] rulings from the mid-to-late 20th century cited the document as a reason for overturning obscenity laws and against censorship.<ref>{{cite book|editor=Carl Japikse|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8I3bAlV25kC&pg=PA8|title=Fart Proudly: Writings of Benjamin Franklin You Never Read in School|publisher=Frog Books|year=2003|isbn=978-1-58394-079-2|page=8}}</ref>