Appendix A: Before They Met
Timeline for Ben Franklin and George Whitefield
1706–1739
1706
Franklin:
Born in Boston January 6 (OS), youngest son of Josiah and Abiah (Folger) Franklin.
1714
Franklin:
Turns eight. Begins to attend school.
Whitefield:
Born in Gloucester, England, December 16 (OS), into an innkeeper’s family.
Fahrenheit invents scaled thermometer.
Queen Anne dies. George I is king.
1715
Franklin:
In his final formal year of schooling, at George Brownell’s English school.
Hears Increase Mather preach.
World:
Isaac Watts publishes Divine Songs for Children.
Louis XIV of France dies.
Musical comedies (“vaudevilles”) appear in Paris.
1716
Franklin:
Drops out of school when father can no longer afford it.
Whitefield:
Thomas Whitefield, George’s father, dies.
1717
Franklin:
Begins reading Plutarch, Defoe, and Cotton Mather.
Invents a pair of swim fins for his hands.
Briefly apprentices as a cutler.
1718
Franklin:
Is apprenticed to his brother James, a printer.
Blackbeard the pirate is captured (Franklin writes a ballad on the occasion).
William Penn dies.
1721
Franklin:
James Franklin, Ben’s brother, starts publishing the New-England Courant.
Smallpox epidemic in Boston; controversy over vaccination.
Ben briefly becomes “a thorough deist.”
World:
Bach writes Brandenburg Concertos.
Postal service is established between London and New England.
1722
Franklin:
Writes Silence Dogood letters.
World:
Moravians start religious community at Herrnhut.
Steele’s play The Conscious Lovers opens in London.
1723
Franklin:
Takes over the publishing of the Courant after James is jailed on contempt charges.
Runs away from apprenticeship, goes to New York and then to Philadelphia.
Arrives in Philadelphia on October 6, where he gains employment as a printer.
Takes lodging with John Read, whose daughter Deborah will later become his wife.
1724
Franklin:
Returns to Boston to get money from his father to start print shop but is denied.
Returns to Philadelphia and courts Deborah Read.
Travels to London to buy printing equipment.
Stranded in London; works at Samuel Palmer’s print shop.
Whitefield:
Elizabeth Whitefield, George’s mother, marries Capel Longden, an ironmonger.
World:
Jack Sheppard, highwayman, is executed in England.
1725
Franklin:
Publishes pamphlet: “A Dissertation upon Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain.”
Leaves Palmer the printer for the larger shop of John Watts.
Attends theater, reads voraciously, and hangs out at coffee houses.
Back in Pennsylvania, Deborah Read marries someone else.
1726
Franklin:
Returns to Philadelphia, keeping a journal of the ship’s passage.
Outhnes his personal “Plan of Conduct.”
Works for Thomas Denham, a merchant who had lent him the money to return home.
Enrolls at St. Mary de Crypt grammar school, where he enjoys reading plays and acting.
1727
Franklin:
Suffers first pleurisy attack, nearly dies.
Leaves job with Denham and is rehired by printer Keimer.
Helps to establish the Junto for “self-improvement, study, mutual aid, and conviviality.”
World:
In England, George I dies and is succeeded by George II.
England is at war with Spain (Gibraltar).
1728
Franklin:
Establishes a Philadelphia printing partnership with Hugh Meredith.
Deborah Read’s husband, John Rogers, steals a slave and absconds from Philadelphia.
Whitefield:
George’s mother leaves her husband.
World:
William Law publishes A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life.
The Beggar’s Opera opens in London.
1729
Franklin:
Writes “Busy-Body” essays.
Purchases the Pennsylvania Gazette from Samuel Keimer.
About this time, son William is born, the result of an affair.
Whitefield:
Drops out of school. Works at the Bell Inn.
World:
Jonathan Edwards becomes pastor in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Bach writes St Matthew Passion.
Stephen Gray experiments in electricity.
1730
Franklin:
Elected the official printer for Pennsylvania.
Begins common-law marriage with Deborah Read Rogers.
Buys out his printing partner, Hugh Meredith.
After fire destroys southern Philadelphia, starts promoting fire protection programs.
1731
Franklin:
Joins the St. John’s Freemasons Lodge.
Draws up the Library Company’s articles of association.
Sponsors his journeyman Thomas Whitmarsh as a printing partner in South Carolina.
Whitefield:
Family conflicts cause George to leave the Bell Inn and live with brother in Bristol.
Returns to studies at St. Mary’s.
On Christmas, receives Communion for the first time; has new spiritual commitment.
The London Merchant opens in London.
1732
Franklin:
Son is born: Francis Folger Franklin.
Publishes the first edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack on December 28.
Whitefield:
Enrolls at Pembroke College, Oxford University, working as a servitor to pay his way.
Begins praying three times a day and fasting weekly.
World:
Ninepins played in New York.
London theaters attract fourteen thousand customers a week.
1733
Franklin:
Son Francis is baptized at Christ Church.
Conceives of his “bold and arduous Project of arriving at moral perfection.”
Whitefield:
Invited to breakfast by Charles Wesley and introduced to the Holy Club.
Reads The Life of God in the Soul of Man by Henry Scougal.
World:
Georgia, last of thirteen colonies, is settled.
Franklin:
Is elected grand master of Masonic lodge.
Buys property on Philadelphia’s Market Street.
Bribes post riders to carry his Pennsylvania Gazette.
Whitefield:
Seeks salvation through severe discipline and good works, which causes a breakdown of his health from which he never fully recovers.
World:
Revival takes place in Northampton, Massachusetts, under Jonathan Edwards.
1735
Franklin:
Brother James Franklin dies; Benjamin sends his widow five hundred copies of Poor Richard’s Almanac for free so she can make money by selling them.
Gets involved in controversy over Presbyterian minister Samuel Hemphill.
Whitefield:
Becomes first of the Oxford Methodists to have a conversion experience.
World:
John Adams and Paul Revere are born.
Sale of spirits is prohibited in Georgia (lasted until 1742).
Franklin:
Named clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly.
Prints currency for New Jersey.
Son Francis dies of smallpox at age four.
Organizes the Union Fire Company.
Regularly attends meetings of Masonic lodge, Junto, and fire company.
Whitefield:
Completes his degree at Oxford.
Is ordained a deacon in the Church of England.
Preaches at his old grammar school.
Fills in as preacher in London.
World:
Wesleys are missionaries in Georgia.
1737
Franklin:
Appointed postmaster of Philadelphia.
Whitefield:
Voyage to Georgia is delayed.
Preaching draws crowds in Gloucester, Bristol, and London.
Uses press and publishing.
Discovers extemporaneous preaching December 28.
World:
Licensing Act restricts theater in London.
1738
Franklin:
Weathers a scandal over mock Masonic initiation ritual.
(February) Sails for America, serves in Georgia.
Begins plans for orphanage.
(September) Returns to England.
(December) Resumes preaching in London.
World:
John and Charles Wesley have conversion experiences.
Voltaire introduces French to Newton’s ideas.
1739
Franklin:
Franklin’s house is robbed.
Leads an environmental protest against slaughterhouses.
Meets George Whitefield.
Whitefield:
(January) Is ordained a priest in Church of England but finds many pulpits are now closed to him. Begins preaching outdoors.
Countess of Huntingdon begins supporting him.
(October) Arrives in Philadelphia for the first time.
Meets Ben Franklin.
World:
David Hume publishes A Treatise on Human Nature.
Tensions rise between England and Spain, erupting in the War of Jenkins’ Ear.