Early Life
Sarah "Sally" Franklin, the only daughter of Benjamin Franklin and Deborah Read, met Richard Bache while on a visit away from her parents. They were married on November 2, 1767. On August 12, 1769 she gave birth to their son, Benjamin Franklin Bache.
From the moment she set eyes on her grandson, Deborah Read Franklin fell in love with Benjamin, whom she called “her little kingbird.” She took to “Benny,” as she called him, as her very own. She and her husband had lost their only son, Francis Folger Franklin, at the age of four from smallpox. She and Benjamin had earlier taken in his illegitimate son, William Franklin, as an infant at the beginning of their marriage, and raised him in their household.
Benjamin Franklin Bache was baptized on August 30, 1769 in Christ Church in Philadelphia. His godmothers were his paternal aunt and Deborah Read Franklin. His godfathers were his uncle and grandfather Benjamin Franklin, who had a proxy at the ceremony, as he was on an extended diplomatic mission in England.
On December 19, 1774, Deborah Read died. Although he was at her funeral, the boy Benjamin regretted not having been at his grandmother's deathbed. In May 1775, at the age of five, Bache met his grandfather Benjamin Franklin for the first time when he returned from England. His grandfather’s arrival brought more tumult to his home, as Franklin had brought with him William Temple Franklin, his 15-year-old grandson, sired illegitimately in London by William Franklin. The youth was called Temple.
On October 29, 1776, Franklin took his two grandsons along on his diplomatic mission to France to negotiate a firm alliance. Bache was seven when their party boarded the USS Reprisal, and sailed for France. They suffered violent storms, and attacks by hostile British ships. Soon after arriving in France, Benjamin Franklin enrolled Bache in Le Coeur’s, a Parisian boarding school, after setting up his household in Passy. Bache attended Le Coeur's with other students from the British North American colonies, such as Charles Cochran, Jesse Deane, and John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams of Massachusetts. His cousin Temple, then 16, served as a secretary to Franklin during his mission, but later studied in France and Switzerland as well.
Bache was a good student at the University of Pennsylvania, having graduated in 1787; later at a school in Geneva, Switzerland, he won the school prize for translating Latin into French. Perhaps affected by being taken from his family at such a young age, as well as his grandfather's lengthy absences due to his diplomatic work, Bache appeared depressed and shy as an adolescent. Though he was sensible and reasonable, observers thought that he came across as cold, inexpressive, and lacking in imagination.
Read more about this topic: Benjamin Franklin Bache (journalist)
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)