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American History

What All History Lovers Should Know About Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin - The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
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Portrait of William Franklin. Mather Brown/Wikipedia Commons/Public Domain.

21. Benjamin Franklin Had An Illegitimate Son

Benjamin Franklin’s oldest child was a son by the name of William who was born in 1730. While no one known who William’s biological mother is, we do know that Deborah raised William as her own child. When William was little, Deborah would spend a lot of time with him, however, as he got older, Deborah’s relationship will William became strained. In fact, by the time that William was a teenager, Deborah and William barely spoke to each other.

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