I HAVE amufed myfelf with collecting fome little anecdotes of my family. You may remember the enquiries I made, when you were with me in England, among fuch of my relations as were then living; and the journey I undertook for that purpose. To be acquainted with the particulars of my parentage and life, many of which are unknown to you, I flatter myself, will afford the fame pleasure to you as to me. I fhall relate them upon paper: it will be an agreeable employment of a week's uninterrupted leifure, which I promise myself during my prefent retirement in the country. There are alfo other motives which induce me to the undertaking. From the bofom of poverty and obfcurity, in which I drew my firft breath and spent my earliest years, I have raised myself to a ftate of opulence and to fome degree of celebrity in the the world. A conftant good fortune has attended me through every period of life to my prefent advanced age; and my defcendants may be defirous of learning what were the means of which I made ufe, and which, thanks to the affifting hand of Providence, have proved fo eminently fuccefsful. They may alfo, fhould they ever be placed in a fimilar fituation, derive fome advantage from my narrative. When I reflect, as I frequently do, upon the felicity I have enjoyed, I fometimes fay to myfelf, that, were the offer made me, I would engage to run again, from beginning to end, the fame career of life. All I would afk fhould be the privilege of an author, to correct, in a second edition, certain errors of the firft. I could wish, likewise, if it were in my power, to change fome trivial incidents and events for others more favourable. Were this however denied me, ftill would I not decline the offer. But fince a repetition of life cannot take place, there is nothing which, in my opinion, fo nearly refembles it, as to call to mind all its circumftances, and, to render their remembrance more durable, commit them to writing. By thus employing myself, I fhall yield to the inclination, fo natural in old men, to talk of themselves and their exploits, and may freely follow my bent, without being tirefome to thofe who, from refpect to my age, might think themselves obliged to listen to me; as they will be at liberty to read me or not as they pleafe. In fine and I may as well avow it, fince nobody would believe me were I to deny it-I fhall perhaps, by this employment, gratify my vanity. Scarcely indeed have I ever heard or read the introductory phrafe, "I may fay without anity," but fome ftriking and characteristic inftance of vanity has immediately followed. The generality generality of men hate vanity in others, however ftrongly they may be tinctured with it themfelves for myfelf, I pay obeifance to it whereever I meet with it, perfuaded that it is advantageous, as well to the individual whom it governs, as to those who are within the fphere of its influence. Of consequence, it would in many cafes, not be wholly abfurd, that a man fhould count his vanity among the other fweets of life, and give thanks to Providence for the bleffing. And here let me with all humility acknowledge, that to Divine Providence I am indebted for the felicity I have hitherto enjoyed. It is that Power alone which has furnished me with the means I have employed, and that has crowned them with fuceefs. My faith in this refpect leads me to hope, though I cannot count upon it, that the divine goodness will ftill be exercised towards me, either by prolonging the duration of my happiness to the close of life, or by giving me fortitude to fupport any melancholy reverfe, which may happen to me, as to fo many others. My future fortune is unknown but to him in whofe hand is our destiny, and who can make our very afflictions fubfervient to our benefit. One of my uncles, defirous, like myself, of collecting anecdotes of our family, gave me fome notes, from which I have derived many particulars refpecting our ancestors. From thefe I learn, that they had lived in the fame village (Eaton in Northamptonshire), upon a freehold of about thirty acres, for the space at least of three hundred years. How long they had refided there prior to that period, my uncle had been unable to discover; probably ever fince the inftitution of furnames, when they took the appellation of Franklin, B 2 Franklin, which had formerly been the name of a particular order of individuals* This petty estate would not have fufficed for their fubfiftence, had they not added the trade of Blackfmith, which was perpetuated in the family down to my uncle's time, the eldest fon having been uniformly brought up to this employment: a cuftom which both he and my father obferved with refpect to their eldest fons. In the researches I made at Eaton, I found no account of their births, marriages, and deaths, earlier than the year 1555; the parish register not extending farther back than that period. As a proof that Franklin was anciently the common name of an order or rank in England, fee Judge Fortescue, De laudibus legum Anglia, written about the year 1412, in which is the following paffage, to fhew that good juries might easily be formed in any part of England: Regio etiam illa, ita refperfa refertaque eft poffefforibus “terrarum et agrorum, quod in ea, villula tam parva reperiri non poterit, in qua non eft miles, armiger, vel pater-familias, qualis ibidem franklin vulgariter nuncupatur, magnis ditatus poffeffionibus, nec non libere tenentes et alii valecti "plurimi, fuis patrimoniis fufficientes, ad faciendum juratum, in forma prænotata." 86 "Moreover the fame country is fo filled and replenished "with landed menne, that therein so small a thorpe cannot "be found wherein dwelleth not a knight, an esquire, or fuch a householder as is there commonly called a franklin, en"riched with great poffeffions; and alfo other freeholders "and many yeomen, able for their livelihoodes to make a jury "in form aforementioned." OLD TRANSLATION. Chaucer too calls his country gentleman a franklin, and after defcribing his good housekeeping, thus characterises him: This worthy franklin bore a purfe of fiik, This This regifter informed me, that I was the youngeft fon of the youngest branch of the family, counting five generations. My grandfather, Thomas, who was born in 1598, lived at Eaton till he was too old to continue his trade, when he retired to Banbury in Oxfordshire, where his fon John who was a dyer, refided, and with whom my father was apprenticed. He died, and was buried there: we faw his monument in 1758. His eldest fon lived in the family houfe at Eaton, which he bequeathed, with the land belonging to it, to his only daughter; who, in concert with her husband, Mr. Fisher of Wellinborough, afterwards fold it to Mr. Efted, the prefent proprietor. My grandfather had four furviving fons, Thomas, John, Benjamin, and Jofias. I fhall give you fuch particulars of them as my memory will furnish, not having my papers here, in which you will find a more minute account, if they are not loft during my abfence. Thomas had learned the trade of blacksmith under his father; but poffeffing a good natural understanding, he improved it by study, at the folicitation of a gentleman of the name of Palmer, who was at that time the principal inhabitant of the village, and who encouraged in like manner all my uncles to cultivate their minds. Thomas thus rendered himself competent to the functions of a country attorney; foon became an effential perfonage in the affairs of the village; and was one of the chief movers of every public enterprize, as well relative to the county as the town of Northampton. A variety of remarkable incidents were told us of him at Eaton. After enjoying the esteem and patronage of lord Halifax, he died, January 6, 1702, precifely four years before I was born. The recital that was made us of his life and character, by fome aged perfons of |