Benjamin Franklin / Deborah Read

Deborah Read

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston in what was then known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The family business was the making of soap and candles. His father, Josiah Franklin was a strict disciplinarian, and a prolific maker of children. From wife number one—Anne Child, seven children were born. From wife number two—Abiah Folger, ten children were born. Of the seventeen children, Benjamin Franklin was the fifteenth. With so many mouths to feed, it was not surprising that Josiah would expect his son to earn his keep even at the age of ten.

Ben Franklin

Josiah: For this reason, which I’m sure you are still too young to fully understand, I am removing you from school to learn our trade.

Benjamin: Oh, I do understand, Father. School is very easy for me and I find the master repeats each lesson several times which sometimes makes me sleepy. I say goodbye to Boston Latin if it pleases you.

Josiah: Why is it, son, that every time we have a serious chat, I have the feeling you are finding humor in my words. I don’t think you will have time to get sleepy dipping wax all day.

Benjamin: I welcome the challenge, Father.

Benjamin, however, had too active a mind to meet the challenge of candle making. Every day he would make suggestions for new ways to do the ancient task. At first Josiah would encourage his son’s suggestions but after two years, which may have seemed like five, Josiah turned Ben over to his brother James who had a small print shop of his own. At twelve years old, Ben had already had dreams of becoming a sea captain. The glories of fighting with pirates on the open seas fired his imagination.

James: First and foremost, no daydreaming on the job. A shop can be a dangerous place for a boy with his mind in the clouds.

Benjamin: How dangerous can it be sweeping the floor every two hours and wiping down the machines?

Ben liked working for his brother although he found James to be a bit stuffy and was just as hard a task master as their father. When James refused to publish any of his brother’s writing, Ben adopted the pseudonym Mrs. Silence Dogood. Under that name, he sent his brother letters which were both fanciful and witty. Unknowingly James published a dozen or so in his newspaper The New England Courant and learned that his readership enjoyed letters. But James was angry when it was discovered the letters were his brother’s, and told Ben that no more of his letters would be published. In anger, Ben terminated his apprenticeship shortly afterward, heading first to New York, but then deciding to settle in Philadelphia, which became his home base for the rest of his life.

Deborah Read: (a young girl sees a fully-grown teenager walking down the street with a loaf of bread under each arm and a third in his mouth. She stifles a laugh and speaks) Hello there.

Franklin: Now tell me if you can. What is making you laugh, my pretty?

Deborah Read: (continuing to giggle) You are. Pray tell, are you running away from home?

Franklin: I’m not running; I’m stepping proudly.  In these bags are all that I possess in the world and I’ve moved to Philadelphia to escape a brain-deadening apprenticeship at home.

Read: And where do you call home?

Franklin: Far to the north where most summer plants cannot survive the cold of winter. My home used to be Boston. Now I'm a happy Philadelphian.

Read: I would guess from the ink that you have not managed to clean from your hands that it has not been long that you have been liberated from your printing chores.

Franklin: And you would be correct. Those chores any monkey could learn. And now I’m free. I don’t mind print setting as long as the words I set are my own.

Read:  I see. So you are a budding revolutionary who has recently gained his independence.

Franklin: I wouldn’t expect a child to understand.

Read: Me? A child? I’ll have you know that I’ve already completed my fifteenth year! You can’t be much farther along.

Franklin: Men age differently. Each of our years is stacked with much more life experience and enlightenment than the female of the species.

Read: Well then, Father Time, how old are you?

Franklin: I’m nineteen.

Read: So you are a liar as well as a thief.

Franklin: All right, I’m seventeen and I did not steal these loaves.

Read: Yes, I know. The baker set out a pan of rolls to cool outside and you saw your name on three of them. And what might that name be Mr. Printer?

Franklin: I’m Ben Franklin. And who is it that has appointed herself my interrogator?

Read: I’m Deborah Read with an “a”.

Franklin: So you write Read with an “a” but does Deborah read?

Read: Oh dear, is that an example of the brilliant quips you wish to preserve in print?

Franklin: (seeing he has met his match) Haven’t slept well for a few nights. Running away from home requires constant planning.

Read: (reaches over to take two of Ben’s bundles) Follow me. I’ll help you with the next stage of your flight from boredom. 

Yes indeed Deborah Read helped Ben get established in Philadelphia. Ben was given lodging in the home of John Read and continued his acquaintance and soon courtship with the bright and comely Deborah. With a few years of printing experience behind him, he was hired again in the printing trade. Within the year, Ben’s talents came to the attention of the Governor of Pennsylvania, William Keith convinced the young man to go to England on his behalf and bring back a printing press. Ben was told that letters of introduction would be sent. Whether the governor forgot to send the letters or he thought better of the idea, Ben was stranded in London. Only a brilliant and fun-loving young man like Ben Franklin would be thrilled at this turn of events. He procured employment, again in a printing shop and began to enjoy his life in London. Ben was a changed man when he returned from London. He realized something important about himself. No matter how far he was from home, no matter how strange he felt in his environment, he could use his wits and do quite well. London had made him forget his betrothal vows to Deborah. Mrs. Read had suspected as much, when she promised her daughter in marriage to John Rogers. Ben’s arrival back in Philadelphia brought his mind back to marriage so he proposed to a couple of women whose financial status he admired but like Mrs. Read, they saw no future in being Mrs. Franklin. He knew that Deborah was married, that her husband had gone through her dowry and disappeared and was believed to be dead. It was not a chance meeting for the former betrothed.

Deborah: Well as I live and breathe, look what the cat dragged in. You certainly took your blessed time coming back to America.

Ben: I can explain that. I needed to wait for the letters of introduction to arrive so that I could purchase the printing presses. While I waited, my money ran out so I had to procure employment. The governor never sent me anything so I had to save enough money for a return passage. And that’s just how it was.

Deborah: Don’t you worry your little head. I’m happily married now so I don’t need to depend on the likes of you.

Ben: That’s not what I heard. I believe that gambling Mr. Rogers used you for a fool and when there was no more money, he just made himself scarce.

Deborah: He’s scarce because he’s dead!

Ben: I’ll bet you a sack of sweets that you can’t prove that.

Deborah: Goodbye Mr. Franklin.

Ben: Now just wait. What happened to that little girl that welcomed me to Philadelphia?

Deborah: She grew up and got married and became a widow and got a lot of learning in the process.

Ben: Well I still want you to be my wife. I don’t need a woman with a dowry. You can be a hard worker, I know. And I can earn in the printing trade anytime and anywhere. Will you marry me Deborah Read?

Deborah: Nobody is going to marry us in an official way.

Ben: We’ll just get married in our own way.

Well they did get married in their own way and they worked hard to develop a business trade in printing.