Colonial Patronage

OW did Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate son, William, become governor of New Jersey in 1762? The circumstances surrounding his appointment were the subject of contemporary comment, remain obscure, and are of continued interest to historians. Two letters do exist from William Franklin to Lord Bute, however, each seeking an American appointment and neither previously entered into the historical record, even by the indefatigable editors of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin. William Franklin's letters and the surrounding circumstances contribute something to the Franklin story as well as illuminate the workings of mid-eighteenth-century patronage and influence. Benjamin's advice to the young that they should achieve success by hard work and self-improvement was certainly relevant to those who like himself came from the ranks of the honest poor and aspired at first to become independent artisans. This is the Benjamin Franklin who entered American memory and imagination. But by the 176os Franklin moved among the middling and upper ranks and in official circles. Among these groups, family and social connections, closeness to government, and the places that these connections and this closeness could provide were prime considerations, something hardly hinted at by Franklin in his Autobiography and public writings. Benjamin acted to keep William close to him, in his web of contacts, even dependent on him. Certainly William's illegitimacy added to the risks he faced in moving outside his father's sphere and venturing, for example, into a career in colonial politics that depended on fighting elections or into a business career. As Sheila L. Skemp has written, his and his father's enemies seldom missed an opportunity to use his illegitimacy to attack the credibility and character of both father and son.1 In London his father's position gave William direct experience of the work

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• Believing the Ladies Had Great Influence”

  Catherine Allgor•American Political Thought•2015

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