Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, in what was known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Benjamin was the fifteenth child and last child of his father Josiah Franklin. Josiah was a soap and candle maker and had 17 children, 7 with his first wife, Anne Child, and 10 with his second wife Abiah Folger. When Benjamin was 10 years old, he was taken away from Boston Latin School to work with his father making candles. Josiah Franklin apprenticed Ben at age 12 to his brother James in his printing shop. Ben really enjoyed this job despite his brother's harsh treatment. James refused to publish his brother's writings, so Ben adopted the assumed name Mrs. Silence Dogood, and "his" 14 imaginative and witty letters were published in his brother's newspaper, The New England Courant, in the interest of readers. . James was horrified when he discovered the letters were from his brother, Ben abandoned his apprenticeship soon after. Ben fled to New York, but ended up settling in Philadelphia, which was his base for the rest of his life. Benjamin Franklin furthered his printing education in Philadelphia, staying at the home of John Read in 1723, where he met and dated Read's daughter Deborah. The following year Benjamin left for London under the patronage of Pennsylvania governor William Keith, but felt cheated when letters of introduction never arrived and he was forced to find work at local printers. Once Benjamin had a job in London, he was able to enjoy all the pleasures of the city, such as going to the theatre, going to cafés and was able to continue his lifelong passion for reading. In his first pamphlet “A Dissertation on Freedom and Necessity,… half the paper… life”, he even proposed marriage to a widow named Madame Helvetius, at the age of 74, but she rejected him. After nearly a decade in France, Benjamin returned to America in 1785. He was elected to represent Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention, which drafted and ratified the new United States Constitution, and also had the honor of participating in the election of George Washington , in April 1789, as our country's first president. On April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the home of his daughter Sarah Bache, Benjamin Franklin died at the age of 84. Benjamin had been suffering from gout and had been complaining about food for some time, completing the final addition to his will just over a year and a half before his death. He shared the stone on his grave with his wife and it read simply: "Benjamin and Deborah Franklin 1790." Works Citedh http://www.biography.com