Benjamin Franklin was a British American polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a leading writer, printer, political philosopher, politician, Freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. As the first U.S. ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation.
About Benjamin Franklin in brief
Benjamin Franklin was a British American polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a leading writer, printer, political philosopher, politician, Freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. As the first U.S. ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious. His life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, and his status as one of America’s most influential Founding Fathers, have seen Franklin honored more than two centuries after his death on the fifty-cent piece, the USD 100 bill, warships, and many towns, counties, educational institutions and corporations, as well as numerous cultural references. Benjamin Franklin was born at Ecton, Northamptonshire, England on December 23, 1657, the son of blacksmith and farmer Thomas Franklin and Jane White. His father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler, soaper, and candlemaker.
Benjamin’s father and all four of his grandparents were born in England. His mother, Mary Folger, was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts Bay Colony, on August 15, 1667, a former indentured servant and schoolteacher among the first among the Puritan family. Benjamin was Josiah’s fifteenth child overall and his tenth and final son overall, Abiah Franklin. He married his first wife, Anne in about 1683; they had four children before emigration, and had four more after that. He died on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after a long illness. He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Philadelphia, with his second wife, Mary Morrell Folger Folger. He had a total of 17 children with his two wives, including Benjamin Franklin, who was born on July 9, 1677, in the Old South Meeting House in Old South, New Jersey, and would eventually have ten children with Reverend Samuel Willard Willard. He also had a son, Peter, who became a miller and miller among the Pilgrims, and a son-in-law, Peter Folger Pilger, who died on July 16, 1683. He later had a daughter, Mary, who came from a family of millers and millers, and was among the last of the Puritans to be born in New England in 1688. He wrote Poor Richard’s Almanack, which he authored under the pseudonym “Richard Saunders’”.
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This page is based on the article Benjamin Franklin published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
