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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 Richards 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.
BibliographyMorgan, Edmund.
Benjamin Franklin. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002;
Franklin, Benjamin.
Autobiography and Other Writings. 1961. Reprint Edition,
Selected and Edited With An Introduction by L. Jesse Hemisch, New York: Signet
Classic, 2001.
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