NOTES I BENJAMIN FRANKLIN The lecture on Franklin was very carefully prepared. It was based on a sermon or lyceum lecture which had previously been given in several places and it was twice rewritten throughout. In its final form it was read before the Parker Fraternity, a club instituted by the members of the Twenty-Eighth Congregational Society for "social, literary and philanthropic purposes," on October 6, 1858. Parker's notes show that he depended for his facts and quotations chiefly upon Sparks's edition of Franklin's writings, which together with Sparks's Life of Franklin, had been published in 1844. The present editor has had before him, first, twentyeight pages of manuscript marked by Parker, "Pencil Notes on Dr. Franklin, 1856." Second, the lecture written out completely by Parker. It is entitled, "Life and Character of Dr. Franklin," and is written on one side of the page only, with occasional notes on the margin or on the blank page. This manuscript is bound in a leather cover and stamped in gilt letters —" Dr. Franklin." Third, the lecture copied for the printer by Parker's literary executor, Mr. Lyman. This manuscript differs from the original in several places. There are some sentences or whole paragraphs that apparently are taken from the earlier sermon or lecture, and the division into paragraphs is quite different. Finally, the present editor has had before him the editions of the lecture published in Boston, in 1870, and by Miss Cobbe in England in the same year. The text of these volumes follows Mr. Lyman's manuscript though some further changes in arrangement were 387 made, probably in the proofreading, both by Mr. Lyman and Miss Cobbe. Page 1, note 1. Parker was in error in this location of Franklin's birthplace. In a note written on the edge of his manuscript and printed in both the American and the English editions of "Historic Americans," Parker cited as his authority certain reminiscences recorded in Drake's History and Antiquities of Boston. He found there [page 492] the statement that "Franklin himself told Mrs. Hannah M. Crocker, as she told me (Drake) in 1828, that he was born at the sign of the Blue Ball, on the corner of Union and Hanover Streets." Again [on page 638], he found the testimony of Mrs. H. A. T. Lewis who "well remembers hearing when she was young that Franklin was born at the sign of the Blue Ball in Hanover Street." "It is important," says Parker in his note, "to note these authorities because a building in Milk Street is marked and is popularly known as "The Birthplace of Franklin." Mr. Justin Winsor in the Memorial History of Boston sums up the results of later and more thorough research as follows: "The exact place of his [Franklin's] birth has long been a matter of antiquarian controversy. Franklin is said to have told Mrs. Hannah Crocker that he first saw the light at the Sign of the Blue Ball' on the corner of Hanover and Union Streets. It seems, nevertheless, to be fully proved that he was really born on Milk Street, nearly opposite the Old South Church. According to the records of the city archives, Franklin's father occupied a modest wooden house on this site from the time of his arrival from England in 1685 until 1712, when Benjamin was six years of age. In the latter year the elder Franklin bought and removed to the house on Hanover Street called the Blue Ball' and Benjamin's earliest recollections were no doubt connected with this residence. |