FRtR > Biographies > Benjamin Franklin > His Autobiography 1706-1757 - Notes

Benjamin Franklin


His Autobiography 1706-1757


Notes

*** Quote ***

Notes:

  1. The country-seat of Bishop Shipley, the good bishop, as Dr. Franklin used to style him.--B.
  1. After the words "agreeable to" the words "some of" were interlined and afterward effaced.--B.
  2. Here follow in the margin the words, in brackets, "here insert it," but the poetry is not given. Mr. Sparks informs us (Life of Franklin, p. 6) that these volumes had been preserved, and were in possession of Mrs. Emmons, of Boston, great-granddaughter of their author.
  3. I fancy his harsh and tyrannical treatment of me might be a means of impressing me with that aversion to arbitrary power that has stuck to me through my whole life.
  4. "A printing-house is always called a chapel by the workmen, the origin of which appears to have been that printing was first carried on in England in an ancient chapel converted into a printing-house, and the title has been preserved by tradition. The bien venu among the printers answers to the terms entrance and footing among mechanics; thus a journeyman, on entering a printing-house, was accustomed to pay one or more gallons of beer for the good of the chapel; this custom was falling into disuse thirty years ago; it is very properly rejected entirely in the United States."--W. T. F.
  5. The "Journal" was printed by Sparks, from a copy made at Reading in 1787. But it does not contain the Plan. --Ed.
  6. I got his son once L500.--[Marg. note.]
  7. Nothing so likely to make a man's fortune as virtue. --[Marg. note.]
  8. This is a marginal memorandum.--B.
  9. In the Middle Ages, Franklin, if such a phenomenon as Franklin were possible in the Middle Ages, would probably have been the founder of a monastic order.--B.
  10. See the votes.--[Marg. note.]
  11. See the votes to have this more correctly. --[Marg. note.]
  12. See votes.
  13. My acts in Morris's time, military, etc.--[Marg. note.]
  14. This dialogue and the militia act are in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for February and March, 1756. --[Marg. note.]
  15. The many unanimous resolves of the Assembly-- what date?-- [Marg. note.]
  16. Here terminates the Autobiography, as published by Wm. Temple Franklin and his successors. What follows was written in the last year of Dr. Franklin's life, and was first printed (in English) in Mr. Bigelow's edition of 1868.--ED.