The Backstory: Thicker Than Blood: Ben Franklin Ditches His Royalist Son

The time honored saying goes . . never discuss politics or religion in polite company. That seems truer today than ever. But is it? You think politics breaks up family ties now more than ever? It’s hard to believe that, like us, politics could fracture a Founding Father’s family. Ben Franklin was incredibly close to his son . . until William, then NJ’s royal governor, declared his allegiance to the King and went to prison for it. He and Ben never spoke again.

Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: Are you with me here? Y'lliget politics these days, and

Speaker 1: you can't imagine more dysfunction even among family members. Ah,

Speaker 1: the good old days. When you think of the founding fathers,

Speaker 1: you think full on dedication to the revolutionary spirit. Right,

Speaker 1: But did you know one of the most iconic names

Speaker 1: in US history had a son who was a loyalist

Speaker 1: to the British crown for the entire war and they

Speaker 1: never spoke again. I'm Patty Steele. Ben Franklin's politics were

Speaker 1: thicker than blood. That's next on the backstory. We're back

Speaker 1: with the backstory. Benjamin Franklin was a little bit of

Speaker 1: a puzzle now. On the one hand, he loved England

Speaker 1: and his British heritage. He's a huge fan of the king,

Speaker 1: and he really loved the fancy life in the European courts,

Speaker 1: the high end manners, the intellectual stimulation, and especially hanging

Speaker 1: out with the gorgeous party girls of the British and

Speaker 1: French aristocracy. The ultimate ladies man. Believe it or not,

Speaker 1: that was Ben. But after years living over there as

Speaker 1: a diplomat from the colonies, he began to realize the

Speaker 1: Brits in particular looked down their noses at Americans thought

Speaker 1: of us as uncultured. On top of that, he began

Speaker 1: to fully understand what British rule was costing folks in America.

Speaker 1: So let's go back in time. When Ben was twenty

Speaker 1: four years old, a woman he was sleeping with gave

Speaker 1: birth to a baby boy, William. Ben wanted to raise

Speaker 1: William himself and make sure that being illegitimate didn't define him,

Speaker 1: so he entered into a common law marriage with Deborah,

Speaker 1: a former sweetheart, letting her know that he and baby

Speaker 1: William were kind of a package deal. She accepted that,

Speaker 1: and while Ben was in Europe, she ran his publishing

Speaker 1: business and was a terrific mother to William and the

Speaker 1: one surviving child they had together, a daughter named Sarah,

Speaker 1: but she was a girl and not nearly as interesting

Speaker 1: to Ben. He was incredible close to his son and

Speaker 1: made sure William had the best tutors and later schooling.

Speaker 1: But Ben wasn't much of a husband. He spent most

Speaker 1: of the years between seventeen fifty seven and seventeen seventy

Speaker 1: five in England and was the first ambassador to France

Speaker 1: from seventeen seventy six to seventeen eighty five. That's almost

Speaker 1: thirty years overseas with very little time at home, all

Speaker 1: without his wife, who hated the idea of ocean travel.

Speaker 1: During his years in England, Ben pretty much never saw Deborah.

Speaker 1: In fact, she died in seventeen seventy four while he

Speaker 1: was in England, having not seen Ben for the last

Speaker 1: ten years of her life. She had had several strokes

Speaker 1: in her last years, and Ben never returned home to

Speaker 1: see her despite her requests. So eventually, in the year

Speaker 1: before her death, she simply stopped writing to him, which

Speaker 1: he weirdly didn't understand now. As for William, Ben encouraged

Speaker 1: him to become active in public service as a royalist

Speaker 1: like himself in the seventeen forties. The two were exceptionally tight.

Speaker 1: In fact, a family friend described William as Ben's friend,

Speaker 1: his brother, his intimate, his companion. When Ben went to

Speaker 1: London in seventeen fifty seven, William went with him and

Speaker 1: studied law there that toured the country, made important friends,

Speaker 1: and attended the coronation of King George the Third in

Speaker 1: seventeen sixty one. But you see, that's where the trouble started.

Speaker 1: All that exposure to the British high life made William

Speaker 1: a believer. When he returned to America, he brought a

Speaker 1: British wife from an influential aristocratic British family, and he

Speaker 1: was appointed Royal Governor of New Jersey. Ben and William

Speaker 1: had shared so many interests, and both were brilliant and

Speaker 1: charismatic guys. But while William was becoming more devoted to

Speaker 1: the royal cause, his dad was becoming more of a revolutionary.

Speaker 1: Ben left England just as the first shots of the

Speaker 1: Revolutionary War were fired at Lexington and Concord in seventeen

Speaker 1: seventy five, and that conflict pulled the two apart, with

Speaker 1: Ben now an ardent patriot and William a committed loyalist.

Speaker 1: Ben tried to win William over early, even had some

Speaker 1: shouting matches when Ben tried to get William to step

Speaker 1: down as Royal governor and become a patriot. Of course,

Speaker 1: that didn't happen, and worst of all, Ben did manage

Speaker 1: to convert William's son, Temple to the patriot's cause. It

Speaker 1: was over between father and son. William was as devoted

Speaker 1: to the royal cause as his father was to the

Speaker 1: cause of independence, and Ben was prepared to totally banish

Speaker 1: his son from his life. As the revolution got under way,

Speaker 1: William was arrested by continental authorities and put in prison.

Speaker 1: In fact, the Continental Congress, which ran the colonies during

Speaker 1: the war, wouldn't even allow William to visit his wife

Speaker 1: as she was dying in seventeen seventy eight. Even though

Speaker 1: George Washington himself made a person appeal and Ben did

Speaker 1: nothing to help his son, he remained in prison for

Speaker 1: a little over two years. Even the end of the

Speaker 1: war in seventeen eighty three didn't fix things between the two.

Speaker 1: William was exiled from the brand new USA and he

Speaker 1: moved to England to rebuild his life there. But here's

Speaker 1: the thing. He really wanted to reconnect with his father.

Speaker 1: So William wrote to Ben, saying, I hope it's possible

Speaker 1: for us to revive that affectionate intercourse and connection which

Speaker 1: till the war had been the pride and happiness of

Speaker 1: my life. Ben replied, nothing has ever hurt me so

Speaker 1: much and affected me with such keen sensations as to

Speaker 1: find myself deserted in my old age by my only son,

Speaker 1: and to find him taking up arms against me in

Speaker 1: a cause wherein my good, fame, fortune in life were

Speaker 1: all at stake. He didn't really care that William was

Speaker 1: following his heart and his own path like his dad would.

Speaker 1: Ben wanted him to follow his Ben did agree to

Speaker 1: meet William in England later in seventeen eighty five, but

Speaker 1: when they first arrived at the meeting place, the first

Speaker 1: thing Ben did was ask his son to apologize for

Speaker 1: his loyalty to the king during the war, and William

Speaker 1: would not, and that finished that. Ben, in his will,

Speaker 1: disinherited William, saying I leave him no part of an

Speaker 1: estate he endeavored to deprive me of. Much like we

Speaker 1: see in our own disturbing political climate, it came down

Speaker 1: to ideology over blood. Benjamin and William Franklin never saw

Speaker 1: each other again. Hope you're enjoying The Backstory with Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty

Speaker 1: Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty's set.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the backstory with Patty Steele, the

Speaker 1: pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.