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 fter
your visit to Benjamin Franklin House, you may wish to embark on
the Franklin Trail - a series of sites in the United Kingdom associated
with Benjamin Franklin.
The Franklin Trail is being developed in concert with the Tercentenary
Commission in Philadelphia.
Please follow the Trail, and check back often for more additions.
- Royal Society of Arts
- Royal Institution
- Pensilvania [sic] Coffee House, Birchin
Lane
- Ecton Village
- Twyford House, Hampshire
- Erasmus Darwin House, Staffordshire
- Soho House
- Blair Drummond
Royal Society
of Arts
Benjamin Franklin was the Royal Society of Arts' first international
member! He took an active role in the Society during his London
years and today we collaborate in many ways, including visitation.
It was founded in 1754 by William Shipley. In 1956, the society
instituted a Franklin Medal to commemorate the 200th anniversary
of Franklin's membership of the society. Based at Rawthmell's Coffee
House in Covent Garden during Franklin's time, the society is now
housed in a 1770s building designed by Robert Adam. The Society
confers the Benjamin Franklin Medal 'on individuals, groups and
organisations who have made profound efforts to forward Anglo-American
understanding in areas closely linked to the RSA's agenda. Distinguished
members of the society have included Karl Marx, William Hogarth
and Richard Attenborough. The Society is on John Adam Street just
behind the Strand.
Web: www.thersa.org
Royal Institution
The Royal Institution was established in 1799, and can be found
on Albemarle Street, which houses the Faraday rooms in honour of
Michael Faraday. Faraday carried out major work in the fields of
electricity soon after our very own Benjamin Franklin was studying
its effects (Faraday was born a year after Franklin died). He also
made great in-roads into the fields of electrochemistry and electromagnetism
and became Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution.
The Faraday Museum is currently closed at the moment and will not
reopen until late 2007.
Web: www.rigb.org
Pensilvania
[sic] Coffee House, Birchin Lane
On Tuesday 19 April 1757, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to his
sister Jane Mecom (nee Franklin), a week before he was due to set
sail on his voyage to London. He said: "Direct your letters
to be left for me at the Pensilvania Coffee House in Birchin Lane,
London." He gave these same instructions to various other colleagues,
including Samuel Ward, and Reverend Ezra Stiles. He also wrote many
letters to his close family while in London and gave the address
of the coffee house and not 36 Craven Street.
Benjamin suspects a spy is at work at the coffee house!
Amazingly, in a letter addressed from Benjamin Franklin to his
very close friend Joseph Galloway (an American Loyalist and member
of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives) on Saturday, 27 September
1766, Franklin informs Galloway: "I have been told that one
Williamson of Pensilvania [sic] who is here, reads letters at the
Coffee-house, said to be from you to me, or from me to you... I
cannot judge whether they may not be forgeries." Benjamin obviously
felt his or his friends' letters had been corrupted and goes on
to voice his disdain in the same letter: "For which reason
I would wish you to write no more to me by that course, as I apprehend
some scoundrel maybe employed there in the scandalous office of
prying into, and perhaps making bad or false copies of our correspondence."
Ecton Village
In July 1758, Benjamin Franklin, his son William and
Ben's servant Peter, visited the village of Ecton in Northamptonshire.
The Franklins had come to visit their ancestral roots and find out
who their distant relatives were. First they visited a run down
building which was the family's homestead and Benjamin soon discovered
in the parish register that the Franklin family owned a plot of
thirty acres since at least 1555. He said, 'I learnt that the family
had lived in the same village, Ecton in Northamptonshire, for 300
years.'
Franklin was so touched by this estate that he wrote
a letter to his sister Jane Mecom on 1 March 1766, 'I have indeed
had some thoughts of re-purchasing the little on in Northamptonshire
that was our grandfather's, and had been many generations in the
family...'
The Franklin family then went into the churchyard
to look for their descendents' gravestones. Benjamin uncovered the
graves of his uncle and aunt. The gravestone inscription read: Here
lyeth the Body of Thomas Franklin who Departed this Life January
the 6th. Anno Domini 1702, in the Sixty Fifth year of his age.
Web: www.ectonvillage.co.uk
Twyford
House, Hampshire
In December 1771, Benjamin Franklin resided in the
beautiful setting of Twyford House and wrote his autobiography here.
He was visiting the Bishop of St Asaph, Dr Jonathan Shipley, who
voiced very pro-American views during the American Revolution. It
was during these turbulent times that he became a good friend of
Franklin.
Benjamin obviously enjoyed his leisurely stay at the
house and wrote in 1771 to Dr Shipley's wife, Anna Mourdant Shipley,
'1000 thanks for all your kindnesses, and for the happy days I enjoyed
at Twyford.'
Later in that same year in a letter to Dr Shipley
he remarked: 'I now breathe with reluctance the smoke of London,
when I think of the sweet air of Twyford.'
Web: www.hants.gov.uk/localpages/central/winchester/twyford
Erasmus
Darwin House, Staffordshire
While in Paris, Benjamin Franklin corresponded with
scientists, such as the physician Erasmus Darwin - a member of the
Lunar Society. The two men both made a phonetic alphabet and shared
ideas on human speech and language.
Erasmus Darwin had a lot of respect for Benjamin and
wrote in 1787, 'Whilst I am writing to a philosopher and a friend,
I can scarcely forget that I am also writing to the greatest statesman
of the present, or perhaps of any century.'
Web: www.erasmusdarwin.org
Soho House
Soho House is a museum located outside Birmingham,
which was once home to the manufacturer and engineer Matthew Boulton.
It was lived in by Boulton for forty three years until his death
in 1809. Next to the house was the Soho Manufactory, an early factory
where a wide range of goods were produced.
During his time in the house, Boulton entertained
some of the leading industrialists and manufacturers of his age.
The likes of Wedgewood, Watt and Priestley were all entertained
in the dining room of Soho House. Amongst those who met there were
those men who formed what became known as the Lunar Society. This
was a group of men who met on the occasion of the full moon to discuss
matters of science and industry. Benjamin Franklin was amongst those
who met with the society, often journeying to Birmingham to join
in with their meetings.
Web: www.birmingham.gov.uk/sohohouse.bcc
Blair Drummond,
Stirling
While Benjamin Franklin toured Scotland in 1759, he
visited Lord Kames at Blair Drummond for five days. Ben remarks
in a letter to his son William on how well Lord Kames and his lady
looked after him on his stay.
Franklin was fascinated by Scottish airs, and remarked
that when a musician named James Oswald played tunes on his cello,
the crowds fell in love with it so much that he witnessed "tears
of pleasure in the eyes of his auditors". The house Franklin
knew has now been demolished and replaced with a mid-Victorian mansion
with a park and gardens that are open to the public.
Web: www.blairdrummond.com
Researchers: Matt Caro, Frances Chan, and John
Harte
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