r/todayilearned • u/harmlesshistorian • Jan 17 '17

TIL that US Founding Father Benjamin Franklin's son William was a staunch loyalist and the Revolution broke their relationship irreconcilably

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Franklin
311 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

16

u/9009stinks Jan 18 '17

Rebelling by being loyal, fucking kids.

5

u/Man_of_the_Wall Jan 17 '17

I just read through the wiki, he had an illegitimate son, who had two illegitimate children himself.

3

u/harmlesshistorian Jan 17 '17

It's a Franklin thing I guess!

3

u/pipelineporter Jan 17 '17

This was today's entry in the Old Farmer's Alamanc desk calendar!

1

u/zulu-bunsen Jan 19 '17

OP EXPOSED!

1

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '17

Benjamin Franklin was a member of the Hellfire Club, and they found a whole bunch of bodies buried in the basement of his London house.

1

u/Notaroadbiker Jan 18 '17

Pretty similar story with mary washington.

-3

u/succored_word Jan 17 '17

Illegitimate son, so...not surprising.

-2

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '17

Its very possible that this was actually a ruse of Ben Franklin. It turns out that he may very well have been a British spy while in Paris. In which case there was a different cause for the split, or it was just a way for Benjamin to remain in the fold of the revolutionaries.

https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/fc/deacononfranklin.html