William Franklin | A refutation of a "grossly false" charge against his father

William Franklin

The Answer of his Excellency William Franklin, Esq; Governor of His Majesty's Province of New-Jersey, to the invidious Charges of the Proprietary Party, contained in a Libel, read by Mr. James Biddle, Clerk of the Common Pleas for the County of Philadelphia, on Saturday last, and afterwards published and industriously dispersed through the Province. [Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1765]

Letterpress broadside (317 x 206 mm) on a half-sheet of laid paper (watermark indistinct); lightly browned and foxed.

Writing here as governor of New Jersey, William Franklin refutes the allegations made by James Biddle that Benjamin Franklin had helped to plan and promote the Stamp Act and that William had prevented the New Jersey assembly in joining the general colonial protests against it. Biddle’s broadside, titled “To the Freeholders and Electors Of the Province of Pennsylvania,” was printed in Philadelphia by William Bradford (ESTC W1374; Evans 9915). Biddle wrote, “As another annual election is now approaching … You have seen too how the same faction have gratified an ambitious man in frequent embassies to England, under pretence of extinguishing a flame designedly kindled by himself! … Nay, that the stamp-act has been long a favorite scheme of his, is clear from a manuscript written by him about eight years ago.”

Here Franklin’s son responds, his answer datelined Burlingington, October 1, 1765: “Whereas a Report has, for some Time past, been circulated, That the Governor of this Province received the Letter sent by the Speaker of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, to the Speaker of the Assembly of New-Jersey, detained it in his Possession till the last Day of the late Meeting at Burlington, and by his Management, prevailed on the Assembly not to accept of the Invitation to send Commissioners to New-York. And whereas a Paper has been printed and published at Philadelphia, positively asserting, ‘That the Governor of New-Jersey has made strong Efforts to subdue the Spirit of Liberty in his Government, and arbitrarily refuses to give his Assembly an Opportunity to join the other Assemblies in decent Remonstrances against the Stamp Law, although Nine Tenths of the People of the Jerseys now vehemently desire it. …’ Now this is to assure the Public, that so far from my having received and detained the above mentioned Letter, I have not even yet seen it. …”

Franklin continues, “I should not have thought it necessary to give this publick Refutation of the Falshoods contained in the Report and Paper abovementioned, had they not been propagated and published with a View of taking Advantage of the present Commotions to excite a Difference between me and a People for whom I have a great Regard, and with whom I have lived in uninterrupted Harmony ever since my Arrival in the Government.”

Pivoting to the charges made against his father, William is even more zealous in his response: “As to what is contained in the said Paper relative to my Father's being concerned in the planning and promoting the Stamp Act, it is grossly false, and consequently a shameful Imposition on the People. Not a Gentleman of the Proprietary Party, even among those who scruple not to aver the Truth of it in Conversation, can, I am convinced, be found so hardened as to avow in Print, with his Name subscribed, that he believes it to be true, or to undertake to produce any Proofs in its Support.—My Father is absent—but he has left Friends enough on the Spot, who are both capable and willing to clear him of any Aspersions which the Malice of the Proprietary Party can suggest. To those Friends I leave the Defence of his Reputation, if it can need any, being determined to concern myself no farther with the Disputes of Pensylvania than as they relate to my Character, or have Reference to the publick Transactions of this Province.”

According to Franklin and Hall’s Workbook, Joseph Galloway paid them £2.5.0 on 3 October 1765 to print one thousand copies of William Franklin’s broadside Answer. Today, though, only perhaps four copies survive: ESTC records copies only at the Library Company of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania; and just two copies appear in Rare book Hub, none for more than fifty years: a copy at a sale conducted by Stan Henkels at Thos. Birch’s Sons, Philadelphia, in 1892, and an apparent Library Company duplicate sold at Parke-Bernet, 20 January 1970, lot 6. The Snider copy is likely the one sold in 1970.

REFERENCES

Miller 837; ESTC ; Evans 9973; Hildeburn 2125; Campbell 713; W36526