A brief biography on Benjamin Franklin, his life and his achivements.

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston Mass. on Jan. 17, 1706. He was the 15th child of 17 kids and the youngest boy in the family. His parents were Josiah and Abiah Franklin. Josiah Franklin owned a small soap and candle shop on Milk Street.

The law said that every child 8 years of age and up had to go to some kind of school at that time or learn a trade. Benjamin was still to young to learn a trade. His family was to poor to send him to school after buying 11 children's way; they could not afford to send Benjamin. But Benjamin, being the smartest of the children his parents knew they had to find a way to send him to school. At age 7 he had already taught himself to read out of the Bible. Three rich men in Boston came to the Franklin's house to see if all their children were in school that was old enough to go.

An illustration from Franklin's paper on "Water-sp...

Benjamin Franklin 1767

This (attributed to ) originally appeared during t...

That's when they saw Benjamin. He had just turned 8 and was not in school. Josiah explained he was too poor to send Ben to school but he wanted to. After they talked the rich men were astonished that Ben could read the Bible at age 8. They were going to tell the night watch men to start buying Josiah's candles for their lanterns. So the Franklin's could afford to send Ben to school. Since he could already read the Bible he was not going to a cheap school, but Latin school to learn to be a priest. Ben was excellent in reading, fair in writing and poor in math.

After two years of sending Ben to school Josiah could not afford to send him to school any longer. But being 10 now Ben could...