Founding father, inventor, and diplomat are all terms usually applied to Benjamin Franklin
But why not loving husband? Turns out, his marriage to Deborah Reed was a bit complicated
Franklin's relationship with Reed began when he was only 17 years old. At first being nothing
more than a boarder in her home, he eventually proposed to her after six months' time. Did he
actually love her? Maybe, maybe not. Being that Franklin was, as we all know, ambitious beyond
description, it's not unfair to assume that it was more about fulfilling societal obligations
and following the yearnings of his heart. Either way, Franklin already had a promising future set up for himself
Pennsylvania's governor, William Keith, had agreed to help the young man start his own printing business
All Franklin needed to do was to travel to London to procure a press and promptly return
Simple enough, right? Well, in the end, nothing went the way it was supposed to. Essentially, the governor had lied to him about pretty much everything
There was no money, not even enough for a ride back across the Atlantic. Looks like the art of punking was invented long before Ashton Kutcher came along. Boo
So Franklin ended up stranded in London All the while Reed mother arranged for her daughter to marry another man a potter by the name of John Rogers Reed luck ended up being just about as lousy as Franklin Soon after marrying Rogers she found out that her new husband was already married to a
woman in London, so she left him and moved back in with her mother. Rogers eventually disappeared
after accruing massive debts and was rumored to have died in the West Indies. However, thanks to
bigamy laws at the time and the fact that it would be an expensive endeavor to prove Rogers was
actually dead. Reed was ineligible to remarry. Meanwhile, Franklin worked as a typesetter in
London before finally returning to Philadelphia in 1726. By 1730, he and his partner Hugh Meredith
had been named as the city's official printers, having bought and transformed the Pennsylvania
Gazette into a booming success. All was finally looking up for Franklin, until he found out that
he had fathered an illegitimate son. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, it's forever been a
mystery who the mother was or why he didn't marry her. The only thing we know for sure is that
Franklin decided to raise the child himself in search for a suitable wife. While most families
were not quick to give dowries to men with an illegitimate child one family was more than willing to make an exception Deborah Reed family On September 1 1730 Franklin and Reed entered into a common marriage Franklin was certainly grateful to be married but treated his wife more like a roommate than a romantic partner
Still, they did consummate their marriage. Their first child, Francis, was born on October 20
1732. Tragically, Francis died of smallpox in 1736, a loss that would haunt both Franklin and
Deborah for the rest of their lives. He had not been inoculated, despite his father being a
passionate advocate of the preventative treatment. Many historians agree that the reason for this
is that Francis was already suffering from another illness during the time in which he should have been inoculated. His weakened body simply wouldn't have been able to handle it
However, as suggested by the Smithsonian Magazine, it's possible that his lack of inoculation actually
stemmed from a disagreement between Franklin and Reed over whether or not they should subject him
to it. At the time, the general public was very divided on the merits of inoculation
being that it was a rather primitive process compared to modern-day vaccination
A number of those who underwent the procedure which involved a doctor making an incision in the skin of a healthy person and depositing actual fluid from another person smallpox sore ended up dying from the disease
According to the publication, it's possible that Reed viewed Frances as the only thing
that kept her tethered to her otherwise indifferent husband, and simply wouldn't allow the risk
of subjecting him to the morbid procedure. If it's true that Reed convinced him to not give Frances the inoculation, did he resent
her for it? While there's no direct evidence to support this, details of the subsequent years of their
marriage suggests that his love for her was rather lukewarm. Yes, they had another child together
Sarah, in 1743. In his autobiography, he described their time together as such
we throve together and have ever mutually endeavored to make each other happy. However
starting in 1757, he began to spend extended periods of time in London by himself. Though the
main reason for this was that Reed was afraid of traversing the sea. The fact that Franklin
didn't return home to be with her after she fell ill and suffered a major stroke in 1768
It sure doesn't make their love story seem worthy of an epic ballad. In the end, Franklin didn't sail back to the colonies until three months after her death