keeping there; he staid and learned the trade of a smith." And there ends the history of this adventurous youth.. Of his youngest son (Benjamin's great-great-grandfather), we know only that, in the days of Bloody Mary, he was a Protestant; which is not an insignificant fact. For, as it is only the best races that have the force of intelligence requisite to throw off ancient superstition, so it is the best specimens of the best races that are able to do so first. This worthy Franklin was he who kept his Bible tied open with tape under the lid of a stool. When he read it to his family, one of the children was stationed at the door to give notice of the approach of the official spy. When the alarm was given, the forbidden book was concealed by closing the lid and putting the stool in its place. Like Montaigne, he would "follow the right cause to the fire, but without the fire if he could." There was a tradition in the family, that a daughter of this wary Protestant slily stole the commission of one of the violent persecutors from his saddle-bags, and put a pack of cards in its tin case; upon producing which, to justify and announce his proceedings, the savage priest was discomfited. The youngest son of this dextrous Bible-reader (the great-grandfather of Benjamin) lived in less perilous times, but, being less wary than his father, got into trouble. Of him we are told that he was imprisoned for a year and a day, "on suspicion of his being the author of some poetry that touched the character of some great man." Thomas, the son of this imprisoned Franklin, and the grandfather of our Benjamin, was a man of peculiar worth, happy in his circumstances and in his children, as they were in their parents. "There were nine children of us," writes his son Josiah, "who were very happy in our parents, who took great care by their instructions and pious example to breed us in a religious way." Another of his sons (our Benjamin's good Uncle Benjamin, of whom more anon), when he was an old man in Boston, wrote in one of his poetry books, still in existence, three entries respecting his father, which I will here transcribe : 1. "MY FATHER'S BIRTH-PLACE AGE & DEATH. "Tho: Franklin was born at Ecton in Northamptonshire on 8 day of Oct, 1598. He married Mrs. Jane White Neece to Coll: White of Banbury, and had by her Nine children. He dyed at his son John's in Banbury on the 21 March 1681, in the 84 year of his Age." 2. "On the wall of my Father's parlour, at Ecton in Northamptonshire, Was written in Church-Text, Round about the Room, near the floor above it, the 16 and 17 verses of 3 John. God soe loved the world yt He gave his onley begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. "For God sent not his son into this world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved." 3. "EXPRESSIONS USED BY MY FATHER IN PRAYER. "31 ps 5. Holy Father into thy Hand we commit our spirits for thou hast redeemed them O Lord God of truth. "Command thine Augel to Encamp round about our Habitation. 24 psal. 7. "Give thine angels charge over us that noe Evil may come Nigh our Dwelling. 91 ps. 10. 11. "Thou Knowest our Down lying and riseing up. Thou art Acquainted with all our Wayes and knowest our Tho'ts affar off. 139 ps. 2. 3. "We Thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth Tho' thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent yet thou hast revealed them unto babes. Even so. Holy Father for soe it seemed Good in thy sight. 11 Mat. 25. 26. "Holy Father keep through thine own Name all those that are thine that none of them be lost. 17 Joh. 11. 12. "For We know that in us, that is in our flesh there dweleth noe Good thing. 7 Rom. 18. "2 Cor. 3. 5. We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but all our sufficiency is of thee. "We beleeve O Lord that thou art not slack concerning thy promise, but Long suffering to us-ward Not willing that we should perish. We are Looking for and hasting unto the day of God, for we know that day will come as a Thiefe in the Night. What maner of persons therefore ought We to be in all holy conversation and Godlines. 2 Pet. 3. 9. 10. 11. 12. "And 83 ps part 1. 2. 3. and the whole 7 ver." We have further glimpses of this good man in the old TithesBook sent by Thomas Carlyle to Edward Everett, a few years ago and deposited by Mr. Everett in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society. "A strange old brown manuscript," wrote Mr. Carlyle, "which never thought of traveling out of its native parish, but which now, so curious are the vicissitude and growth of things, finds its real home on your side of the Atlantic, and in your hands first of all. The poor manuscript is an old Tithes-Book of the parish of Ecton, in Northamptonshire, from about 1640 to 1700, and contains, I perceive, various scattered faint indications of the civil war time, which are not without interest; but the thing which should raise it above all tithes-books yet heard of is, that it contains actual notices, in that fashion, of the ancestors of Benjamin Franklin-blacksmiths in that parish! Here they are-their forgehammers yet going-renting so many 'yard lands' of Northamptonshire church-soil-keeping so many sheep, etc., etc.-little conscious that one of the demigods was about to proceed out of them. I flatter myself these old plaster-cast representations of the very form and pressure of the primeval (or at least prior-eval) Franklins will be interesting in America; there is the very stamp, as it were, of the black knuckles, of their hob-nailed shoes, strongly preserved to us, in hardened clay, and now indestructible, if we take care of it!" An examination of this strange brown manuscript is somewhat disappointing to an anxious seeker after information. It is the private record of a clergyman of the parish, in which he was accustomed to enter the sums received for tithes and the rent of his glebe-lands; the sums being usually expressed in algebraic language. The name Franklin occurs nearly two hundred times in it; but Nicholas Franklin, Thomas Franklin, and Thomas Franklin the younger, are the only Franklins mentioned. If we cannot perceive the stamp of their black knuckles, nor of their hob-nailed shoes, we can discover that those Franklins rented portions of the parson's glebe, and usually paid their rent and their tithes with the regularity of respectable householders; that Thomas Franklin kept sheep, cows, and bees, the tithe of the increase of which went to the parson; that Thomas Franklin, the younger, frequently received tithes and rents for the parson, who then sometimes styled him "Mr. Franklin," and apparently held him in high estimation as one of the pillars of the church; and that both Thomas Franklins occasionally had a bill to present to the parson for "smith's work.” The following are a few of the entries: "THOMAS FRANKLIN. "1646. Holdeth yardland in fee. it is said this of Th. Franklin & the 3 of John Hensman are but "Dec. 16. R for landgrass js vjd for milk iiijs "paid his bill the same day xjs "Euen with him hitherto. "1647. Sept. 21. R of him for small tithes XS vs iijd & paid his bill the same day xxvjs. xd. he had vjs vjd "1648. Nov. 22. R for 4 cowes & grass & I paid his bill iijs & ijs remaining due upo' a "1649. Febr. 8. R for 5 cowes & 2 yardland gross and ryland grass . "1651. Febr 20. R for small tithes of last yeer paid his bill 11. 03 "1652. July 10. his bill 11s. 03d. setts off ijs for rie straw & ixs iijd for small tithes of this yeer ixs vjd viijs xvjs "1665. March 25. "The Glebe thus letten "Tho. Franklin holdeth one yl till Michaelmas next. except fallowes medowes & comons we he now leaveth. is in arrere for rent due at Mich last & his rent now due . "Tho. Corbet holdeth 1 yl rent now due & 5 lands at the gate he entreth now on the fallowes medowes & "For 1673. R March 30. 1673. of Tho. Fr. the yonger "1674. Aug. 28. Tho. Franklin sen. brought us a pot of Tithe honey & ijs vjd for hives sold of which I gaue him back xviijd "For 1674. R May. 1 1675 of Tho. Franklin jun. for small tithes of half yl "For 1675. R for the same "For 1676. R. Apr. 28 1677 for small tithes of half yl. & for offerings at Eastor last ijd waxshot jd b "1675. March 26. The same day sent to my brother Rushworth, at his request, by Tho: Franklin, going to take seisin at Gillesborough 45s so rests in my hands 60£. "1677. May. Tho. Franklin gave John fro me a Guiny, & May ult. he received of the Carrier w I sent iiij.£. £ 4. 00. 00 4. 00. 00 iiijs iiijs iiijs iiijs iijd b 4.00.00. "MR. FREEMAN. "1675. March 6. paid in his name to Tho. Franklin for Mr. Catesbyes use for w bond is to be given "1678. Dec. 19. Tho. Franklin brought from Mr. Catesby a bag of "1679. March 26. Mat. Linwood int by Th. Fr. Memdum that for the 400£ we I owe Mr. Freeman xx£. 50.00.00 1.00.00 |