Franklin, William Temple

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William Temple Franklin (1762-1823) was the grandson of Benjamin Franklin through his illegitimate son, William. He acted as Benjamin Franklin’s secretary and wrote his grandfather’s biography. Apparently William Short and his friend William Smith did not have a high opinion of him.

Citation(s):

“William Temple Franklin to George Washington, 20 April 1789,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-02-02-0082. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 2, 1 April 1789 – 15 June 1789, ed. Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 90–91.]

George G. Shackleford, Jefferson’s Adoptive Son: The Life of William Short, 1759-1848 (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky Press, 1993), 31-32.