Franklin

The short-lived state of Franklin in what is now eastern Tennessee demonstrated the confused nature of politics on the western slopes of the Appalachians in the late 18th century. Men and women from the backwoods of the Caro-linas, Virginia, and Pennsylvania came to the region in the tumultuous years following the REVOLUTIONARY War (1775-83). To the south, the Chickamauga, led by Dragging Canoe, fought their advance. These Native Americans also came to the Tennessee Valley to start new lives.

North Carolina had ceded the lands to the federal government, but when the state did not receive payments for its war debt, it reclaimed the territory. Despite this claim, in August 1784, delegates from the far western counties of North Carolina met in Jonesborough to organize the state of Franklin. In March 1785 John Sevier accepted the governorship of the infant state. The loyalty of many of the inhabitants of Franklin rested on the fact that they had settled illegally on land that North Carolina had set aside for the Indians. The Franklinites launched several raids against the CHEROKEE. The situation remained complicated. Sevier represented land speculators from the East, and eventually he sought to maneuver the region back into North Carolina. Sevier was even elected to the North Carolina Senate in 1789. Conflict over land claims also led to some fighting between individuals holding deeds under the state of Franklin and those who had North Carolina deeds. By 1790 the state of Franklin had ceased to function. North Carolina established control over the area until it became part of the new state of Tennessee in 1796. Sevier served as Tennessee’s first governor.

Further reading: Wilma Dykeman, Tennessee: A Bicentennial History (New York: Norton, 1975).

Franklin, William (1731-1813) government official A Loyalist and last governor of colonial New Jersey, William Franklin was the son of Benjamin Franklin and an unknown mother. Benjamin and Deborah Read, Franklin’s common-law wife, always treated him like a legitimate child. Although privately tutored and put to work in Franklin’s print shop, he longed to leave home. When his father prevented him from sailing on a privateer (see also privateering) during King George’s War, he enlisted in the Royal American Regiment. Although only 16, by 1747 he had served with distinction on the New York FRONTIER and was commissioned captain of a company of grenadiers. That year he assisted his father in raising Pennsylvania’s volunteer militia. In 1748 he accompanied Conrad Weiser to the Ohio Valley to negotiate with NATIVE Americans and in the early 1750s was sufficiently involved in his father’s electrical experiments that when Benjamin received his honorary doctorate from Oxford in 1762, William obtained a master’s degree.

A political supporter of his father, William served as the elder Franklin’s clerk when he left for England in 1757 in an effort to remove Pennsylvania’s proprietary Penn family and replace them a with royal governor. William’s behavior in England was as impressive as it had been in Pennsylvania. He became governor of New Jersey in 1762, and at first he was successful. He urged the improvement of roads and bridges, supported the colony’s college, and punished European Americans who infringed on Native American rights. However, when Britain passed the Stamp Act (1765), Franklin felt it his duty to uphold the law. His father, now an agent for several colonies in England, denounced him as “a thorough government man.” When the Revolutionary War (1775-83) broke out, William and New Jersey’s Loyalist assembly were overthrown by the Provincial Congress. “An enemy to the liberties of this country,” William was imprisoned in Connecticut for two years until he was exchanged on November 1, 1778. His wife had died in the meantime, and his health suffered greatly after 250 days served in solitary confinement.

Franklin immediately went to New York upon his release, where he organized the Board of Associated Loyalists, of whom he served as the first president. The board cared for thousands of refugees while planning military ventures in cooperation with the British army. The guerrilla tactics Franklin urged were responsible for much of the vicious, small-scale warfare in southern New York and northern New Jersey that accompanied the last years of war.

Leaving North America in August 1782, William received a generous pension and compensation for his losses from the British government. In 1785 he briefly met his father on the latter’s return from France to the United States, but he received as an inheritance some worthless land in Nova Scotia to which the elder man retained title. Benjamin sarcastically noted in his will that since William remained loyal to England, English land was all he deserved. William helped other Loyalists receive reimbursement for sufferings, married Mary D’Evelyn, and lived in London until his death.

Further reading: Sheila L. Skemp, William Franklin: Son of a Patriot, Servant of a King (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).