Francis Folger Franklin [SEP] father
Francis Folger Franklin
Francis Folger Franklin (October 20, 1732 November 21, 1736) was the eldest son of Founding Father of the United States Benjamin Franklin and Deborah Read.
In 1736, four-year-old Francis contracted the smallpox virus and died shortly thereafter.
Benjamin Franklin, who had been inoculated earlier in his own life, had intended for his son to be inoculated as well. However, due to an illness affecting Francis at the time planned for his inoculation, the procedure was postponed.
Read on September 1, 1730. They took in Franklin's recently acknowledged young illegitimate son, William, and raised him in their household. They had two children together. Their son, Francis Folger Franklin, was born in October 1732 and died of smallpox in 1736. Their daughter, Sarah "Sally" Franklin, was born in 1743 and grew up to marry Richard Bache, have seven children, and look after her father in his old age.
Deborah's fear of the sea meant that she never accompanied Franklin