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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—PennsylvaniaFRANKLIN, Benjamin
(1706—1790)
FRANKLIN, Benjamin, (uncle of Franklin Davenport), a Delegate from Pennsylvania; born in Boston, Mass., January 17, 1706; attended the Boston Grammar School one year; was instructed in elementary branches by a private tutor; employed in a tallow chandlery for two years; learned the art of printing, and after working at his trade in Boston, Philadelphia, and London established himself in Philadelphia as a printer and publisher; founded the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1728, and in 1732 began the publication of Poor Richard’s Almanac; State printer; clerk of the Pennsylvania general assembly 1736-1750; postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737; a member of the provincial assembly 1744-1754; a member of several Indian commissions; elected a member of the Royal Society on account of his scientific discoveries; deputy postmaster general of the British North American Colonies 1753-1774; agent of Pennsylvania in London 1757-1762 and 1764-1775; Member of the Continental Congress 1775-1776; signed the Declaration of Independence; president of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention of 1776; sent as a diplomatic commissioner to France by the Continental Congress and, later, Minister to France 1776-1785; one of the negotiators of the treaty of peace with Great Britain; president of the executive council of Pennsylvania 1785-1788; president of the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania; delegate to the Federal Convention in 1787; died in Philadelphia, Pa., April 17, 1790; interment in Christ Church Burial Ground.
Bibliography
Morgan, Edmund. Benjamin Franklin
. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002; Wright, Esmond. Franklin of Philadelphia
. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986.
Brands, H.W. The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
. New York: Doubleday, 2000.
Franklin, Benjamin. Autobiography and Other Writings
. 1961. Reprint, selected and edited with an introduction by L. Jesse Hemisch, New York: Signet Classic, 2001.
———. Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
. 1868. Reprint, edited by John Bigelow, with the illustrations of Thomas Hart Benton, Franklin Center, Pa.: Franklin Library, 1984.
———. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
. 1896. Reprint, Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 1996.
———. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin
. 25 volumes. Edited by Leonard W. Labaree and William B. Willcox. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959.
Franklin, Benjamin, and Richard Saunders. Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1733: For the Year of Christ
. Bedford, Mass.: Aplewood Books, 2002.
Granger, Bruce Ingham. Benjamin Franklin, an American Man of Letters
. 1964. Reprint, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1988.
Humes, James C. The Wit & Wisdom of Benjamin Franklin
. Warsaw, Poland: Gramercy Books, 2001.
Isaacson, Walter. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.
———. A Benjamin Franklin Reader
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.
Jennings, Francis. Benjamin Franklin, Politician
. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996.
Laska, Vera. Benjamin Franklin, The Diplomat
. New York: Eilert Print Co., 1982.
McMaster, John Bach. Benjamin Franklin
. Introduction by Larzer Ziff. New York: Chelsea House, 1980.
Middlekauff, Robert. Benjamin Franklin and His Enemies
. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
Morgan, Edmund. Benjamin Franklin
. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
Srodes, James. Franklin: The Essential Founding Father
. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishers, 2002.
Van Doren, Carl. Benjamin Franklin
. 1939. Reprint, Birmingham, Ala.: Palladium Press, [2001].
Waldstreicher, David. Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution
. New York: Hill and Wang, 2004.
Wood, Gordon S. Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
. New York: Penguin Press, 2004.
Wright, Esmond. Franklin of Philadelphia
. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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