Josiah Franklin Sr. (December 23, 1657 – January 16, 1745) was an English businessman and the father of

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a m ...

. Born in the village of Ecton,

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, Josiah was the ninth child of blacksmith Thomas Franklin (b. 1598), and his first wife, Jane White. Thomas was the son of Henry Franckline (b. 1573) and Agnes Joanes. Thomas Franklin remarried and had more children. Josiah Franklin worked as a fabric dyer in Ecton. Franklin immigrated to the

American colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centur ...

in 1682. He married twice and had 17 children: ten boys and seven girls. In

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

, he was a member of the

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs it ...

Old South Church Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts, (also known as New Old South Church or Third Church) is a historic United Church of Christ congregation first organized in 1669. Its present building was designed in the Gothic Revival style by Char ...

where he served as a tithingman.

Marriage to Anne Child

Josiah Franklin married his first wife, Anne Child, in 1677 and they had seven children: Lawrence, Elizabeth, Samuel, Hannah, Josiah Jr., Joseph (1688–1688), Joseph II (1689–1689). Ann She died from complications giving birth to Joseph II. Upon moving to

, Josiah took up the trade of

tallow Tallow is a rendered form of beef or mutton fat, primarily made up of triglycerides. In industry, tallow is not strictly defined as beef or mutton fat. In this context, tallow is animal fat that conforms to certain technical criteria, inclu ...

chandler Chandler or The Chandler may refer to: * Chandler (occupation), originally head of the medieval household office responsible for candles, now a person who makes or sells candles * Ship chandler, a dealer in supplies or equipment for ships Arts ...

and soap boiler because the trade he was born to was not in demand in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian province ...

Marriage to Abiah Folger

In November 1689, Josiah Franklin married his second wife, Abiah Folger, in the Old South Church. Abiah of Nantucket, Massachusetts, was the daughter of

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

and Mary ''Morrill'' Foulger. Peter Foulger was a schoolmaster, a miller and a surveyor. Abiah bore Josiah 10 children: John (1690), Peter (1692), Mary (1694),

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

(1697), Sarah (1699), Ebenezer (1701), Thomas (1703), Benjamin (1706), Lydia (1708), and Jane (1712).

Benjamin Franklin

Josiah insisted that each of his sons must learn a trade. He had great dreams of Benjamin becoming a minister, but Josiah could only afford to send his son to school for two years. As his young Benjamin loved to read, Josiah apprenticed him to his brother James, who was a printer. Later, Benjamin Franklin borrowed books from his friends and taught himself

arithmetic Arithmetic () is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers—addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th c ...

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...

, and philosophy. Benjamin had a very strong relationship with his father, who had a great influence on Benjamin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Franklin, Josiah Benjamin Franklin 1657 births 1745 deaths Burials at Granary Burying Ground Kingdom of England emigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony People from Ecton, Northamptonshire