USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Volume II > Part 6
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at some time or other of making reprisal on my adversaries." He was however unanimously re-elected clerk at the next election.
In the Union Fire Company, Franklin agitated and carried through a scheme for raising money to build a battery for the defense of the river front, by means of a lottery, though twenty-two of the thirty members were non-combatant Quakers.
In 1742 Franklin invented a stove thereafter known as the "Franklin Grate," and issued a pamphlet explaining its use, but declined to take out a patent for his invention, alleging, "that, as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by inventions of ours; and this we should do freely and generously."
When a little over forty years of age, Franklin retired from business, keep- ing however an interest in his printing establishment, but leaving the manage- ment entirely to his partner, David Hall. At a later period Franklin's private fortune was estimated to be, next to that of Washington, the largest in the American colonies, and some of his valuable real estate on Market Street is still in the possession of his descendants.
Franklin's retirement from business did not, however, give him the leisure he expected, as he was soon made a member of the city council, an alderman, and justice of the peace. He was also elected a member of the Assembly. In 1752 he was named with Isaac Norris, speaker of the House, as a commission- er to treat with the Indians at Carlisle, and they successfully negotiated a treaty.
The project of establishing a hospital in Philadelphia was originally brought forward by Dr. Thomas Bond, but, on agitating the question, he was every- where asked, "Has Franklin been consulted, and what does he think of it?" thus illustrating the hold Franklin's public spirit and work had upon the com- munity. Franklin agitated the question in the newspapers, and the subscrip- tions soon becoming sufficient to accomplish the project, he presented in and carried through the Assembly a bill establishing and incorporating the Penn- sylvania Hospital.
Franklin's first experiments in electricity had begun in 1746 with a glass tube and other apparatus acquired from a Dr. Spence, who came from England to Philadelphia to lecture upon the subject. In 1752 Franklin wrote a paper on the identity of lightning and electricity, which was read before the Royal Society of London and published in the Gentlemen's Magasine, in an extra number or pamphlet, which ultimately reached five editions. One of these pamphlets hap- pened to fall into the hands of Count de Buffon, a French philosopher of con- siderable reputation, was translated into French, and created widespread inter- est. This pamphlet was afterwards printed in Italian, German, and Latin, and the theory of electricity which it propounded was generally adopted by the philosophers of Europe in preference to that of the Abbé Nollet, the preceptor in natural philosophy of the French royal family, who disputed the correctness of Franklin's conclusions. Dr. Franklin was elected a member of the Royal Society of Great Britain and a summary of his experiments was printed in their journal. The society also awarded to him the Sir Godfrey Copley medal in 1753, its delivery being accompanied by a most complimentary speech by its pres- ident, Lord Macclesfield.
In 1754, when another war with France was impending, Franklin, who had
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now become the most important man in the colony of Pennsylvania, was named as a commissioner to meet with representatives of the other American colonies at Albany, for the purpose of conferring with the chiefs of the Six Nations, in reference to the common defense. His Pennsylvania colleagues were Isaac Nor- ris, John Penn, and Richard Peters. On the journey to Albany, Dr. Franklin proposed to them and drew up a plan for the union of all the colonies under one government, for certain general purposes, including the common defense. The general government was to be administered by a President-general, appointed and supported by the Crown; and a Grand Council was to be chosen by the as- semblies of the several colonies. This plan, after some debate, was unanimously adopted by the Congress of Commissioners from the several colonies, and cer- tified to the Board of Trade and to the several assemblies, but was rejected. It was Franklin's belief that, if united, the colonies could defend themselves with- out troops from England, and therefore all necessity or excuse for taxation for this purpose by the home government would be obviated, and that the growing contention upon this subject, which eventually led to the war for independence, would be nipped in the bud. The Governor and Council again refusing assent to the Assembly's appropriation to carry on the war, unless the proprietary es- tates were exempted from their share of the burden, Franklin once more came to the rescue by drafting a bill to raise money on Loan Office certificates bear- ing interest, which was passed and the certificates readily sold.
When General Braddock was sent with his two regiments of English troops to the defense of the frontier, the Assembly sent Franklin to meet him at Fred- ericktown, Maryland, and to settle with him the mode of conducting the cam- paign in Pennsylvania. Franklin arranged to procure wagons for transportation and a small package of supplies for each commissioned officer. After the de- feat of Braddock and the consequent threatening of the whole of Pennsylvania by the Indians and their French allies, Franklin was sent to take charge of the northwest frontier, and proceeded with the Provincial troops to Bethlehem and Allentown, where he superintended the erection of forts and the organization of the militia, and was elected their colonel.
In 1757 Franklin was sent to England as the agent of the Province of Penn- sylvania, to secure from the King and Ministry an adjustment of the differences between the Assembly and the Proprietaries in reference to taxation of the latters' estates. He remained there five years, accomplishing the object of his mission in June, 1760. He also acted later as the agent of the provinces of Massachusetts, New Jersey and Georgia. His advice and representations carried great weight with the British ministry, and it was due to his insistence that the successful expedition against Canada was fitted out and French dominion in North America broken. His famous "Canada Pamphlet" was one of the strongest he ever issued on any public question, and did much toward deciding the ministry to retain possession of Canada after that country had been ac- quired from the French. During the summer of 1761 Franklin visited the principal cities of the continent of Europe, and left England for home in Au- gust, 1762, having received, during his sojourn abroad, the degree of Doctor of Laws from the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh.
Franklin spent the next two years in America, serving a portion of the time as a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly of which, in 1764, he was elected
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speaker. He again sailed for England, November 7, 1764, as the agent of Penn- sylvania, and used his most strenuous endeavors to prevent the passage and enforcement of the Stamp Act. His famous examination at the bar of the House, when he did himself great honour, was largely instrumental in securing the repeal of the act. However, the various other means devised for the taxa- tion of the colonies kept Franklin in England until March 21, 1775, when, real- izing that all hope of compromising the disagreements between the colonies and the mother country was at an end, he sailed for home, and threw himself va- liantly into the struggle to accomplish by force what he had failed to accom- plish by diplomacy. He resumed once more his seat in the Pennsylvania As- sembly and became a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he proposed the "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union," and advocated and signed the Declaration of Independence. He was elected chairman of the Committee of Safety, was made Postmaster-general of the united colonies, and also chair- man of the convention to frame a constitution for the state of Pennsylvania.
In 1776 Franklin was selected, jointly with Arthur Lee and John Adams, as Commissioner to France to solicit the support of that country in aid of the Revolution. He sailed for France, October 27, and arrived at Paris, December 7, 1776. He was received and treated during his nine years stay there with the highest distinction, being held in greater reverence by the French people than any other foreigner of his time. To him personally should be ascribed the suc- cessful negotiation of the Treaty of Alliance signed at Paris, February 6, 1778, the terms of which were of immense importance to the United States. In Feb- ruary, 1779, he was made sole plenipotentiary of the United States at the court of France, and it was through his influence that vast sums were advanced by that country, without which the war for national independence could not have been prosecuted to a successful issue. His unique diplomacy secured for his country these indispensible favors and yet retained for it the respect and con- fidence of the givers. Toward the close of the year 1781, Franklin was named one of the commissioners to negotiate peace with great Britain, and, November 30, 1782, signed the preliminary treaty at Paris, and the definitive and final treaty, September 3, 1783. He then made application to Congress to be re- lieved, but it was not until March 7, 1785, that Congress adopted the resolution which permitted "The Honourable Benjamin Franklin to return to America as soon as convenient." Thomas Jefferson was appointed to succeed him. Prior to Franklin's departure from France, he negotiated, in 1783, the "Treaty of Amity and Commerce with Sweden," and in 1785 a similar treaty with Prussia, which has often been commended by writers on international law as embodying principles far ahead of his time.
September 13, 1785, Franklin reached Philadelphia. His countrymen were not disposed, however, to allow themselves to be deprived of his valuable ser- vices, and he was elected president of the Supreme Executive Council and chief- executive of the State of Pennsylvania, and was re-elected unanimously for sev- eral successive terms. In 1786 he wrote to a friend, "I have not firmness enough to resist the unanimous desire of my country folks, and I find myself harnessed again to their service for another year. They engrossed the prime of my life. they have eaten my flesh, and seem resolved to pick my bones." He was also a member of the convention which in 1787 framed the Federal Constitution, and
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to his influence, in conjunction with that of Washington and Hamilton, should be largely ascribed its final adoption by the several states. He died at his res- idence in Philadelphia, April 17, 1790. The last two years of his life, althoughi a period of great physical suffering, were actively employed with his pen. During this period he helped to organize and was the first president of the earliest society formed in America for the abolition of slavery, and wrote and signed a remonstrance against this iniquity which was presented to the United States Congress.
Franklin married, September 1, 1730, Sarah Read, of Philadelphia, and it proved to be a congenial and happy union. A son born to them died in child- hood, and the only surviving child was Sarah who, as already stated, became the wife of Richard Bache in 1767.
Richard and Sarah Bache had eight children. Their eldest son, Benjamin Franklin Bache, born in 1768, went to Paris with his grandfather in 1775, and there learned type-founding and printing, in addition to scholarly accomplish- ments, his grandfather sending him to school at Geneva and superintending his education elsewhere. He returned to Philadelphia and published first the General Advertiser, and afterwards the Aurora, opposing the administration of Washington and Adams. His son Dr. Franklin Bache, born in Philadelphia, 1792, graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1814, and was appointed a surgeon in the army, beginning the practice of his profession in Philadelphia in 1816. He was president of the American Philoso- phical Society, 1854-55; professor of chemistry in the Franklin Institute, 1826- 31 ; in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, 1831; and in the Jefferson Medi- cal College after 1841. He published a number of technical works, and died in 1864.
Another son Hartman Bache, a West Point graduate, was a noted military engineer, building the Delaware Breakwater. and other important public im- provements and was breveted brigadier-general for meritorious service during the Civil War.
Alexander Dallas Bache, another great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, was a noted mathematician and scientist. He also was a graduate of West Point, but in 1827 was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Penn- sylvania, and in 1836 president of Girard College, and in 1841 the first principal of the Philadelphia High School, which he organized. He was appointed sup- erintendent of the United States Coast Survey in 1843, and beside his valuable reports, published a number of scientific works and contributed many important papers to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Another of the eight children of Richard and Sarah Bache was Deborah, who, December 31, 1805, married William J. Duane. They also had eight chil- dren, of whom one was Dr. Richard Bache Duane, who prior to his death in 1875 was one of the most widely-known clergymen of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and left a large family, several of whom have since resided in New York, and occupied a position of prominence in that city. His eldest son James May Duane, is at present one of the partners of the well-known banking house of Brown Brothers and Company.
Another child of William J. and Deborah Duane was Elizabeth, (b. 1821, d. 1901) who married Major Gillespie, of the United States army, and who was
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thereafter known as Elizabeth Duane Gillespie. She occupied a prominent po- sition in the public and social world of Philadelphia for over forty years. Dur- ing the year 1864 she was prominent in the organization of the Sanitary Fair in the interest of the army; and in 1876 became president of the woman's branch of the Centennial Exposition. Through her influence in the musical world she brought about the institution of the Thomas Concerts at the Acade- my of Music, which were largely instrumental in first cultivating in the city of Philadelphia that taste for classical music which in more recent years have made Philadelphia a great musical centre. Late in life she published an auto- biographical work entitled "A Book of Remembrance," which contained in a most interesting form her recollections of a long life of public activity and close association with men and women of prominence both at home and abroad.
WILLIAM DUANE, the eldest child of William J. and Deborah Duane, was born February 7, 1808, died November 4, 1882. He studied law under Charles Chauncey, and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1833, at which he prac- ticed continuously until his death. He was a man of retiring disposition and of pronounced literary tastes, and in consequence rarely went into court, but con- fined his activities largely to the care of trust estates and to the publication of books and pamphlets on legal and literary subjects. One of these was a well- known work on the "Road Law of Pennsylvania." Another was entitled "Lijan, a collection of Tales and Essays." Shortly before the Civil War he represented his ward, the Seventh, in the common councils of the city of Philadelphia.
William Duane married November 6, 1833, Louisa Brooks, daughter of Sam- uel Brooks, one of the leading Philadelphia merchants of his time, and the grand- daughters of John Inskeep, who became mayor of Philadelphia in 1805.
Virginia, only daughter of William and Louisa Duane, was born September 9, 1834, and died unmarried, September 27, 1855.
Charles Williams Duane, only son of William and Louisa Duane, was born December 20, 1837, and is still living. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with the degree of A. B. in 1858, and studied theology at the Episcopal Seminary at Alexandria, Virginia, for the ensuing three years, after which he was ordained a minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He was for five years rector of Zion Church, Philadelphia; for fourteen years rector of Trinity parish, Swedesborough, New Jersey, one of the oldest in that State ; for eight years rector of St. Andrew's Church, West Philadelphia ; and for seven- teen years rector of Christ Church, Boston, often called the Old North Church, upon the steeple of which the lights were placed which prompted the historic ride of Paul Revere in the American Revolution.
During his incumbency of the pulpit of Christ Church, Boston, which lasted from 1893 till 1910, Mr. Duane was one of the trustees of the Franklin fund bequeathed by Dr. Benjamin Franklin to the citizens of Boston, to be used, to- gether with the accumulations of one hundred years, in the establishment of a great public charity. In accordance with the terms of Dr. Franklin's will, an institution known as "The Franklin Union," for the education of the working classes, has been erected and endowed with this fund, and is now actively con- ducting that useful work.
Charles Williams Duane married (first) June 1, 1864. Helen Frances Lincoln, who died in 1867, and (second) September 1, 1870, Emma Cushman Lincoln.
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both of them daughters of Ezekiel Lincoln, a leading Philadelphia merchant of the earlier half of the last century, and also descendants of Samuel Lincoln, one of the earliest settlers of the Massachusetts Bay colony, and of Dr. Andrew Eliot, of Boston, the leading clergyman of the revolutionary period in that city.
Virginia Duane, daughter of Charles Williams and Helen Frances Duane, was born April 25, 1865, and died May 21, 1865.
RUSSELL DUANE, son of Charles Williams and Helen Frances Duane, was born in the rectory of Trinity church, Swedesborough, New Jersey, June 15, 1866. He graduated from Harvard University with the degree of A. B. in 1888, and studied law at the Harvard Law School, the Law School of the Uni- versity of Virginia, and the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he received the degree of LL.B. in 1891, and was then admitted to the Philadelphia bar, at which he has since practiced continuously. At his class commencement in the law school, Mr. Duane was appointed by the faculty to deliver the law oration, and having selected as his subject "The Case of the Sayward," he presented a new and original argument in behalf of the claims of the United States in the Behring Sea controversy with Great Britain. In the spring of 1892 a copy of the American Law Register and Review in which Mr. Duane's address was afterwards published, happened to come into the pos- session of James G. Blaine, then Secretary of State, and this led to the appoint- ment of Mr. Duane as one of the junior counsel for the government in the Behring Sea Arbitration proceedings. In pursuance of this appointment, Mr. Duane prepared a portion of those sections of the case of the United States which related to the two questions of measure of damages and of maritime jurisdiction.
Mr. Duane is now senior member of the law firm of Duane, Morris & Heck- scher, and since his admission to the bar has devoted himself to the general practice of the law. Mr. Duane is a member of the auxiliary law faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, and has on several occasions delivered courses of lectures at the Law school on court procedure and the conduct of jury trials. He has also published several magazine articles on legal questions, and delivered public addresses on subjects relating to politics, education and international law.
Mr. Duane has also taken an active part in politics. In 1895 he was an un- successful candidate for election to city councils from the seventh ward. In the presidential campaign of 1896 he made numerous speeches against free sil- ver in three states, and has frequently spoken on the stump in other campaigns. He was one of the original members of the Committee of Seventy, organized in 1904 for the purpose of bringing about reforms in the government of the city of Philadelphia, and is now a member of the executive committee of that or- ganization. In 1906 he acted as city chairman of the Lincoln party in the gub- ernatorial campaign of that year.
Mr. Duane is a director and general counsel of the Philadelphia Life Insur- ance Company, vice-president and director of the Broad Street Realty Com- pany, a manager of the Society of the War of 1812, and a member of the board of trustees of the Evening Home and Library Association. He is also a member of the American Philosophical Society, the Philadelphia Club, the University Club, the Penn Club, the Junior Legal Club, the Harvard Club of
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Philadelphia, the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the American Bar Association, the Pennsylvania State Bar Association, the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity, the So- ciety of the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of the War of 1812, and the Con- temporary Club.
Russell Duane married, at Philadelphia, June 14, 1899, Mary Burnside Mor- ris, a descendant of Anthony Morris, the second mayor of Philadelphia, and of Captain Samuel Morris, the bodyguard of Washington and earliest com- mander of the First City Troop, Philadelphia Cavalry, and of Justice Burnside, of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. They have three children :- Morris Duane, born March 20, 1901 ; Sarah Franklin Duane, born July 4, 1904; Frank- lin Duane, born October 24, 1905, died March 5, 1910.
Charles Williams and Emma Cushman Duane have two surviving children, viz .: William Duane, born February 17, 1872, and Louisa Duane, born Janu- ary 9, 1879. A third, Helen Frances Duane, born January 26, 1874, died on January 26, 1879.
Louisa Duane graduated from Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the degree of A. B., in 1902.
William Duane, born in Philadelphia, February 17, 1872, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with the degree of A. B. in 1892; from Har- vard University with the degree of A. B. in 1893; and from the University of Berlin with the degree of Ph. D. in 1897. During the succeeding winter he taught classes in physics at Harvard University, and from 1898 until 1907 filled the chair of physics in the faculty of the University of Colorado. In 1907 he was elected, as the first incumbent, to fill a chair of original research in physics founded by Andrew Carnegie and connected with the University of Paris, which he still holds. Dr. William Duane has made several original discoveries con- nected with the by-products of radium and the transmission of vision by elec- tricity. He has published numerous magazine articles on scientific subjects, and has delivered many public lectures among others one at the Brussels Exposition in September, 1910. William Duane married, at Philadelphia, December 28, 1899, Caroline Elise Ravenel. They have three children :- William Duane, born October 18, 1900; Arthur Ravenel Duane, born November 17, 1901 ; and Charles Prioleau Duane, born July 28, 1909.
MRS. ROBERT BRUCE RICKETTS
MRS. ROBERT BRUCE RICKETTS, née Elizabeth Reynolds of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, is descended from the following Revolutionary soldiers: William Reynolds; his son David Reynolds; Lieutenant Abraham Smith; Captain Jos- seph Fuller ; his son Joshua Fuller ; and William Holberton.
WILLIAM REYNOLDS was born in Gloucestershire, England, in 1596, and in 1615, married Ruth -. Of his ancestors little is known. It is stated that he came, by way of Bermuda, to the state of Massachusetts, where he was a member of the church of Salem. In 1637 he bought for two shillings sixpence, certain lands at Providence, Rhode Island, and is said to have engaged in busi- ness with Roger Williams. He was the second of the thirteen signers to the compact, which is as follows: "We, whose names are hereunder desire to inhab- it the town of Rhode Island and do promise to subject ourselves in active and passive obedience to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for the pub- lic good of the body, in an orderly way, by the major assent of the present in- habitants, masters of families, incorporated together into town fellowship, and such others whom they admit unto them". Arnold, in his "History of Rhode Isl- and," states that these signers were the second comers. It is worthy of more than passing note that this declaration meant what it said; religious liberty in Rhode Island was apparently of first importance after an orderly government had been established. When the fundamental law of this nation was later es- tablished, the influence of Rhode Island was potent in securing a constitutional declaration which guaranteed to the freeman of all times in this land, the right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. July 27, 1640, William Reynolds and thirty-eight others signed an agreement for a firm govern- ment. This was a more elaborate document than the first, but it preserved all the details of the first compact. November 17, 1641, Reynolds and twelve oth- ers complained in a letter to Massachusetts, of the "insolent and riotous carriage of Samuel Gorton and his company," and as petitioners desired Massachusetts to "lend us a neighborlike helping hand, etc." Again, January 27, 1644, he and others of Providence testified as to the outrage on Warwick settlers by Massa- chusetts. January 27, 1645, William Reynolds sold Robert Williams all his houses and homeshare and three small pieces of meadow; on the same date he sold to William Field a share of six acres on Fox's Hill; and April 27, 1646, he sold to Thomas Lawton his valley containing eighty acres, and three acres of meadow, "provided that in any case hereafter the town shall be put to any charge about Indians, that he or they that doth possess the land shall pay their share". After the sale of his land at Providence, Rhode Island, it is supposed he settled at Kingston, Rhode Island, where he passed away.
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