1715
(rev. 8/2/97)

Personal: During the school year 1715-1716, BF attended George Brownell's English school for his second and final year of formal schooling. Perhaps it was Sunday, 2 October, that BF heard the Rev. Increase Mather preach on the death of "that wicked old Persecutor of God's People, Lewis XIV." On 10 Oct, Uncle Benjamin Franklin arrived in Boston.

Massachusetts Politics: The Massachusetts General Court of 1715-1716 met three times in 1715: 25 May to 21 June; 20 July to 1 August; and 24 to 27 August. John Burrill, of Lynn, was elected Speaker, 25 May. Six months after the death of Queen Ann, since Massachusetts had received no document continuing former Gov. Joseph Dudley as the governor under George I, the Council took over the government, 1 February 1714/5. On 21 March, however, Governor Dudley received a new commission reinstating him, probably ad interim. The Impost and Tunnage Act, passed by the Massachusetts legislature on 23 July, revealed the Massachusetts legislators' hostility to English mercantilism and to the Navigation Acts. The legislature taxed English goods imported into Massachusetts. Naturally the English authorities found the act unacceptable. The Old Charter Party members supported both the act and a paper currency. They also opposed giving the governor a fixed salary.

Chronology:

6 Jan, Thursday. BF became 9.

14 March, Monday. "At a Meeting of the Free-holders ... of the Town of Boston," Josiah Franklin was elected a "Tythingman." 8th RRC 109; Seybolt, Town Officials 139.

25 May, Wednesday. John Burrill, of Lynn, was elected Speaker of the House. Nathaniel Byfield, Dr. John Clarke, and Elisha Cooke were among the councillors chosen by the representatives and the former council. Journals 1:2.

23 July, Monday. The General Court passed an act of impost and tunnage taxing every hundred pounds sterling of English merchandize twenty shillings and additionally taxing every ship that was not owned by Massachusetts citizens an additional twenty shillings for every hundred pounds of merchandise. Acts, Ma. 2: 11.

September 1715 to May 1716:

BF attended George Brownell's English school, 1715-16, which followed a non­classical curriculum, for his second and final year of formal school (Tourtellot 157­59). For Brownell, see 2 March 1713 and 27 Aug 1716.

11 Sept, Sunday. Increase Mather preached a sermon Jesus Christ is a Mighty Saviour in which he referred, 40-41, to Louis XIV: "How many have of late Years, & at this day, been cast into loathsome Dungions, & cruel Gallies, for their Religion? Has not the Dragon of France boasted, that he caused Twenty hundred thousand Persons to renounce their Religion." Date given at end, p. 64. See 17 Oct for Several Sermons.

29 Sept, Thursday. Sewall: "Mr. Pemberton was very sick of the Piles." Diary 2: 800.

2 Oct, Sunday. Increase Mather probably preached for Pemberton at the Old South. BF recalled: "The Father, Increase, I once when a Boy, heard preach at the Old South, for Mr. Pemberton; and remember his mentioning the Death of 'that wicked old Persecutor of God's People, Lewis XIV.' of which News had just been received; but which proved premature."

Since Louis XIV died on 1 September 1715, Franklin must have been nine or less when he heard Increase Mather. "I was some Years afterwards at his house at the North End, on some Errand to him, and remember him sitting in an easy Chair, apparently very old and feeble. But Cotton I remember in the Vigour of his Preaching and Usefulness." (P 20:286-87. Franklin to Samuel Mather, 7 July 1773.) See 13 October and 17 October.

Ralph Ketcham, BF (1965) 1, identified the date of Increase Mather's sermon as 2 Oct. I have not found his evidence but Sewall's note on Pemberton's illness on 29 September makes it likely that someone substituted for him on 2 Oct. Furthermore, Boston had rumors and then certain news of the death of Louis XIV about 2 Oct.

3 Oct, Monday. BNL: Under dateline London 11 Aug: "French Letters say, That the Precautions taken in England against the Pretender, has made his Friends despair of Success in the intended Invasion. Letters from France of Yesterday say, That the French King has been very ill, but is something better. The same Letters add, That they were very sad at the Court of France. Just now we have the Report, That the King of France is Dead."

4 Oct, Tuesday. Samuel Sewall: "Chadder arrives ... brings Certain News of the French King's Death, and that the Duke of Orleans is Regent." Diary 2: 801. Sewall annotated his diary of 15 October 1705 with a Latin clause written on 21 October 1715, "On occasion of the French King's death on the Lord's Day Augt. 21. 1715." Diary 1:530.

10 Oct, Monday, Uncle Benjamin Franklin (20 March 1650/1 to 17 March 1726/7) arrived in Boston (P 1:lii). Recalling the event in an autobiographical poem, he reported:

In seventeen hundred and fifteen,
Of August's calends twenty-sixt,
Bound for America unseen,
On board Nantucket sloop I fixt.
We lanced forth on the abyss,
And oft beheld great wonders there,
Where nought but sky and wayter is;
And only sun and stars appear.
October seventh or eighth we made
Distant discovery of Cape Codd,
At this good news we were all glade,
And I gave thanks unto my God.
At Marblehead we anchored first,
There the first house, grass, appple saw,
And there with cyder quenched my thirst,
Good as from apples they could draw.
But unto Boston we were bound,
On Lord's Day ere I saw that place,
And there a dear, kind Brother found,
Bless't with a Wife and Num'rous Race.
Four years they did me kindly Treat
But noe Imployment did present,
Which was to me a burden great
And could not be to their content.

Writing his sister Jane, 17 July 1771, Franklin remembered: "Our Father, who was a very wise man, us'd to say, nothing was more common than for those who lov'd one another at a distance, to find many Causes of Dislike when they came together; and therefore he did not approve of Visits to Relations in distant Places, which could not well be short enough for them to part good Friends. I saw a Proof of it, in the Disgusts between him and his Brother Benjamin; and tho' I was a Child still remember how affectionate their Correspondence was while they were separated, and the Disputes and Misunderstandings they had when they came to live some time together in the same House."

13 Oct, Thursday. Cotton Mather preached a lecture-sermon on the death of Louis XIV: Shaking Dispensations ... With Some Useful Remarks on the Death of the French King (Boston: B. Green for S. Gerrish, 1715). Evans 1763; Holmes 353.

17 Oct, Monday. The date of Increase Mather's preface to Several Sermons Wherein is shewed (Boston: B. Green, for N. Buttolph, 1715). Evans 1767; Holmes, Increase Mather 121. For Mather's reference to Louis XIV, see 11 Sept.

7 Dec, Wednesday: "That a Town Meeting be appointed to debate and declare whether they are for a Publick or a Private Bank." See 12 Dec.

12 Dec, Monday. "The free-holders and other inhabitants of Boston duly qualified" voted "to Endevour that a Publick Bank be promoted." RRC 8:115.