Benjamin Franklin's Bastard (41 page)

William Franklin remarried in England and lived out the rest of his life there, never returning to America. He continued to champion the Loyalist cause, lobbying for reparations for financial losses the Loyalists incurred during the war, and although recompense was made for civilian losses, Benjamin Franklin fought successfully against compensating those who “bore arms against [us].” In other words, William.

Temple Franklin, following in his grandfather’s and father’s footsteps, fathered an illegitimate daughter with William’s new sister-in-law, but then abandoned the family, leaving his seventy-year-old father to claim the child as his own. Before his death in 1813, William Franklin followed in his father’s footsteps once again by disinheriting his son in favor of his granddaughter/adopted daughter, Ellen.

The identity of Temple Franklin’s birth mother also remains unknown.

Acknowledgments

MY THANKS GO OUT
to the folks at the Historical Society of Philadelphia, who put in considerable effort to deliver unreadable text in readable form; to everyone involved with the Massachusetts Interlibrary Loan System, who got me just the right material at just the right time; to my agent Kris Dahl at ICM, for opening new doors and adding a fresh and insightful point of view to this work; to my editor Jennifer Brehl at William Morrow, who never quits until it’s right; to her indefatigable assistant Emily Krump; and to my family of early readers who egged me on without mercy—you know who you are.

About the Author

SALLY CABOT
lives in Brewster, Massachusetts, with her husband, Tom. A lifelong resident of New England, she is active in the local historical society and creates tours that showcase the three-hundred-year history of her village.

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Credits

Cover design by Emin Mancheril
Cover photograph © by Elisabeth Ansley/Trevillion Images

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN’S BASTARD.
Copyright © 2013 by Sally Cabot. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

ISBN 978-0-06-224192-4

EPub Edition © MAY 2013 ISBN: 9780062241948

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