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of vanity has immediately followed. The generality of men hate vanity in others, however ftrongly they may be tinctured with it themselves; for myfelf, I pay obeisance to it wherever I meet with it, perfuaded that it is advantageous, as well to the individual whom it governs, as to those who are within the fphere of its influence. Of confequence, it would in many cafes, not be wholly abfurd, that a man fhould count his vanity among the other fweets of life, and give thanks to providence for the bleffing.

And here let me with all humility acknowledge, that to divine providence I am indebted for the felicity I have hitherto enjoyed. It is that power alone which has furnified me with the means I have employed, and that has crowned them with fuccefs. My faith in this refpect leads me to hope, though I cannot count upon it, that the divine goodness will ftill be excrcifed towards me, either by prolonging the duration of my happiness to the clofe of life, or by giving me fortitude to fupport any melancholy reverfe, which may happen to me, as to fo many others. My future fortune is unknown but to him in whofe hand is our destiny, and who can make our very afflicti ons fubfervient to our benefit.

One of my uncles, defirous like myself, of collecting anecdotes of our family, gave me fome notes, from which I have derived many particulars refpecting our ancestors. From thefe I learn, that they had lived in the fame village (Eaton in Northamptonshire) upon a freehold of about thirty acres, for the fpace at leaft of three hundred years. How long they bad refided there prior to that period, my uncle had been unable to discover; probably

ever fince the inftitution of furnames, when they took the appellation of Franklin, which had formerly been the name of a particular order of individuals *.

This petty eftate would not have fufficed for their fubfidence, had they not added the trade of blackfmith, which was perpetuated in the family down to my uncle's time, the eldest fon having been uni

*As a proof that Franklin was anciently the common name of an order of rank in England, fee Judge Fortef cue, De laudibus legum ngliæ, written about the year 14.2, in which is the following paffage, to fhew that good juries might eafily be formed in any part of England:

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"Regio etiam illa, ita refperfa refertaque eft poffeffori"bus terrarum et agrorum, quod in ea, villulatum parva reperiri non poterit, in qua non eft miles, armiger, vel pater familias, qualis ibidem frenklin vulgaritur nuncupatur, magnis ditatus poffeffonibus, nec non libere, "tencutes at alii valeci plurimi, fuis patrimoniis fuffici"entes, ad faciendum juratam, in forma prænotata.”

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* Moreover, the fame country is fo filled and replenifh"cd with landed menne, that therein fo fmall a thorpe ❝ cannot be found wherein dwelleth not a knight, an ef"quire, or fuch a householder as is there commonly called "a franklin, enriched with great poffeffions; and alfo "other freeholders and many yeomen, able for their "livelihoods to make a jury in form aforementioned,”

OLD TRANSLATION.

Chaucer too calls his country gentlemen a franklin, and, after defcribing his good houfekeeping, thus characterifes him:

This worthy franklin bore a purfe of filk,
Fix'd to his girdle, white as morning milk.
Knight to the fire, firft juftice to th' alize,
To help the poor the doubtful to advife.
In all employments, generous, just he prov'd,
Renown'd for courtefy, by all belov'd.

formerlybrought up to this employment: a cuftom which both he and my father obferved with refpect to their eldeft fons.

In the researches I made at Eaton, I found no account of their births, marriages and deaths, earlier than the year 1555; the parish register not extending farther back than that period. This regifter informed me, that I was the youngest son of the youngest branch of the family, counting five generations. My grandfather, Thomas, who was born in 1598, living at Eaton till he was too old to continue his trade, when he retired to Banbury in Oxfordshire, where his fon John, who was a dyer, refided, and with whom my father was apprenticed. He died, and was buried there: we faw his monument in 1758. His eldeft fon lived in the family houfe at Eaton, which he bequeathed, with the land belonging to it, to his only daugh ter; who, in concert with her hutband, Mr. Fisher of Wellingborough, afterwards fold it to Mr. Efted, the prefent proprietor.

My grandfather had four furviving fons, Tho mas, John, Benjamin, and Jofias. I fhall give you fuch particulars of them as my memory will furnish, not having my papers here, in which you will find a more minute account, if they are not loft during my abfence.

Thoinas had learned the trade of a blackfimith under his father; but poffeffing a good natural understanding, he improved it by ftudy, at the folici tation of a gentleman by the name of Palmer, whe was at that time the principal inhabitant of the village, and who encourged in like manner all my uncles to improve their minds. Thomas thus rendered himfelf competent to the functions or a coun

try attorney; foon became an effential perfonage in the affairs of the village; and was one of the chief movers of every public enterprize, as well relative to the country as the town of Northampton. A variety of remarkable incidents were told us of him at Eaton. After enjoying the esteem and patronage of Lord Halifax, he died Jan. 6, 1702, precisely four years before I was born The re

cital that was made us of his life and character, by fome aged perfons of the village, ftruck you, remember, as extraordinary, from its analogy to what you knew of myself. "Had he died," faid you," just four years later, one might have fuppofed a tranfmigration of fouls."

John, to the best of my belief, was brought up to the trade of a wool-dyer.

Benjamin ferved his apprenticeship in London to a filk-dver. He was an induftrious man I remember him well; for, while I was a child, he joined my father at Bofton, and lived for fome years in the houfe with us. A particular affection had always fubfifted between my father and him; and I was his godfon. He arrived to a great age. He left behind him two quarto volumes of poems in manufcript, corfifting of little fugitive pieces addreffed to the friends. He had invented a fhorthand, which he taught me, but having never made ule of it, I have now forgotten it. He was a man of piety, and a conftant attendant on the best preachers, whofe fermons he took a pleasure in writing down according to the expeditor y method he had devifed. Many volumes were thus collected by him, he was alfo extremely fond of politics, too much fo perhaps for his fituation. Iately found in London a collection which he had mago

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DR. FRANKLIN.

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of all the principal pamphlets relative to public affairs, from the year 1641 to 1717. Many volumes are wanting, as appears by the series of numbers; but their still remain eight in folio, and twenty four in quarto and octavo. The collection had fallen into the bands of a fecond-hand bookfeller, who, knowing meby having fold me fome books, brought it to me. My uncle, it feems, had left it behind him on his departure for America, about fifty years ago. I found various notes of his writing in the margins. His grandfon, Samuel is now living at Boston.

Our humble family had early embraced the Reformation. They remained faithfully attached during the reign of Queen Mary, when they were in danger of being molefted on account of their zeal against popery. They had an English Bible, and, to conceal it the more fecurely, they conceived the profpect of fastening it, open, with pack-threads acrofs the leaves, on the infide of the lid of a clofe ftool. When my great-grandfather wished to read to his family, he reverfed the lid of the close-stool upon his knees, and paffed the leaves from one fide to the other, which were held down on each by the pack-thread. One of the children was ftationed at the door, to give notice if he faw the proctor (an officer of the fpiritual court) make his appearance: in that cafe, the lid was reftored to its place, with the Bible concealed under it as before. I had. this anecdote from my uncle Benjamin.

The whole family preferved its attachments to the Church of England till towards the close of the reign Charles II. when certain minifters, who had been ejected as non-conformifts, having held conventicles in Northamptonshire, they were joinVOL. I.

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