From Boyhood to Manhood | Page 9

see that one of the
most inconsistent men on earth is the father who will not accept the
situation he has created for himself. The Franklins are not made of that
sort of stuff; neither are the Folgers [referring to his wife's family],
whose fervent piety sanctifies their good sense, so that they would
rather please the Lord than all mankind."
Mr. Willard was seen, and he endorsed the act as perfectly proper, and
in complete harmony with a felt sense of parental obligation. Therefore,
Benjamin was wrapped closely in flannel blankets, and carried into the
meeting-house in the afternoon, where he was consecrated to the Lord
by the pastor.
On the "Old Boston Town Records of Births," under the heading,
"Boston Births Entered 1708," is this: "Benjamin, son of Josiah
Franklin, and Abiah, his wife, born 6 Jan. 1706."

From some mistake or oversight the birth was not recorded until two
years after Benjamin was born; but it shows that he was born on Jan. 6,
1706.
Then, the records of the "Old South Church," among the baptism of
infants, have this: "1706, Jan. 6, Benjamin, son of Josiah and Abiah
Franklin."
Putting these two records together, they establish beyond doubt the fact
that Benjamin Franklin was born and baptized on the same day. The
Old South Church had two pastors then, and it is supposed that Dr.
Samuel Willard officiated instead of Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton,
because the record is in the handwriting of Doctor Willard.
We are able to furnish a picture of the house in which he was born. It
measured twenty feet in width, and was about thirty feet long,
including the L. It was three stories high in appearance, the third being
the attic. On the lower floor of the main house there was only one room,
which was about twenty feet square, and served the family the triple
purpose of parlor, sitting-room, and dining-hall. It contained an
old-fashioned fire-place, so large that an ox might have been roasted
before it. The second and third stories originally contained but one
chamber each, of ample dimensions, and furnished in the plainest
manner. The attic was an unplastered room, which might have been
used for lodgings or storing trumpery. The house stood about one
hundred years after Josiah Franklin left it, and was finally destroyed by
fire, on Saturday, Dec. 29, 1810. The spot on which it stood is now
occupied by a granite warehouse bearing the inscription,
"BIRTHPLACE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN."
Mr. Franklin had three children when he left Banbury, and four more
were given to him during the first four years of his residence in Boston,
one of whom died. Soon after the birth of the seventh child Mrs.
Franklin died.
So young and large a family needed a mother's watch and care, as
Josiah Franklin found to his sorrow. The additional burden laid upon
him by the death of his wife interfered much with his business, and he
saw fresh reasons each day for finding another help-mate as soon as
possible. To run his business successfully, and take the whole charge of
his family, was more than he could do. In these circumstances he felt
justified in marrying again as soon as possible, and, with the aid of

interested friends, he made a fortunate choice of Abiah Folger, of
Nantucket, a worthy successor of the first Mrs. Franklin. He married
her a few months after the death of his first wife. The second Mrs.
Franklin became the mother of ten children, which, added to those of
the first Mrs. Franklin, constituted a very respectable family of
seventeen children, among whom was Benjamin, the fifteenth child.
His "Autobiography" says: "Of the seventeen children I remember to
have seen thirteen sitting together at the table, who all grew up to years
of maturity and were married." Of the second wife it says: "My mother,
the second wife of my father, was Abiah Folger, daughter of Peter
Folger, one of the first settlers of New England, of whom honorable
mention is made by Cotton Mather in his ecclesiastical history of that
country, 'as a godly and learned Englishman.'"
Josiah Franklin was an admirer not only of his wife, Abiah, but of the
whole Folger family, because they were devoutly pious, and as
"reliable as the sun, or the earth on its axis." They were unpolished and
unceremonial, and he liked them all the more for that. He wrote to his
sister in a vein of pleasantry, "They are wonderfully shy. But I admire
their honest plainness of speech. About a year ago I invited two of them
to dine with me; their answer was that they would if they could not do
better. I suppose they did better, for I never saw them afterwards, and
so had no opportunity