Sources and Abbreviations

This chapter provides a comprehensive chronology of Benjamin Franklin's life from his birth in 1706 to his death in 1790, documenting major personal, professional, and political milestones across his 84 years.

The chronology traces Franklin's trajectory from his childhood apprenticeship in Boston through his early career as a printer in Philadelphia, his scientific experiments with electricity in the 1740s–50s, his long diplomatic tenure in London beginning in 1757, his role in the American Revolution, his service in France securing crucial alliances and negotiating the peace treaty, and his final years in Philadelphia culminating in his work at the Constitutional Convention and his election as president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. Key turning points include his runaway to Philadelphia in 1723, his establishment of his own printing business in 1728, his groundbreaking electricity work in the mid-1740s, his kite experiment in 1752, his appointment as colonial agent to London in 1757, his dismissal as postmaster in 1774 following the Hutchinson letters scandal, his departure for France in 1776, and the negotiation of the peace treaty in 1782. The chronology also records personal events such as his common-law marriage to Deborah Read in 1730, the births of his children William, Francis, and Sarah, the death of Francis in infancy, Deborah's death in 1774, his estrangement from his loyalist son William, and his last meeting with William in 1785.