The Loyal(ist) Son: The Story of Ben Franklin’s Son Taking Britain’s Side During the Revolutionary War

On this episode of Our American Stories, they say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree—but that wasn’t true for Ben Franklin and his only son. While Franklin became one of America’s most celebrated founding fathers, his son William remained loyal to the British Crown. In one of the most dramatic father-son divides in history, king and country collided with revolution and independence—the costs were massive. Here’s the astonishing story of how Ben Franklin and his son ended up on opposite sides of history.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And this next story is how the signing of the
Declaration of Independence divided the country and families, including one
founder's family. You know, it's been said that there's never

(00:33):
been more partisan division than right now in the country. Well,
we're going to take you through a story that questions
that narrative. Historians who study the matter differ as to
the number of Americans who sided with the Patriots and
the British Crown. But one thing is certain. Americans were
deeply divided. One third were for the war, one third

(00:56):
were against it, and one third were hiding under their
tables hoping it would pass. But the consequences for choosing
one side or another was not an ugly Facebook post
or a tweet storm. Here's one of the signers describing
what it was like putting name and pen to paper,

(01:18):
signing the Declaration of Independence an independence hall. This is
what Benjamin Rush said. A pensive and awful silence pervaded
the house as we were called up, one after another
to the table of the President of Congress to sign
what was believed by many at the time to be

(01:38):
our own death worn. Russia was there at our founding
and signed our birth certificate. Was right, you see, the
British government considered the Declaration of Independence a treason his document,
and treason was a capital crime. How divided was America?
One look at Benjamin Franklin's life tells the story. The printer, inventor, humorist, writer, newspaperman,

(02:04):
and diplomat was one of the driving forces of the
American Enlightenment, but his own home was torn apart by
America's First Civil War. Franklin's son, William, was illegitimate, but
that never stopped Benjamin from being the father his son deserved.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Indeed, William wasn't.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Told about his bastard child status until he was nineteen
old enough to absorb such a thing. William had all
the advantages that any son of ben Franklin could imagine.
He had classes for everything from Latin to dance, horsemanship
to the art of conversation. William even moved to London
to train for a life in the law. His father

(02:44):
ultimately used his influence to secure his son William, the
Royal governorship of New Jersey. Throughout the nineteen seventies. The
two men worked closely together. Neither could have imagined they'd
one day be forced to choose between king and country,
family and country. Ben Franklin had waited a long time

(03:06):
to decide, and he'd been distrusted by many on the
side of the revolution. He ultimately joined the cause of
the Patriots and urged his son to join too, But
William he had other ideas. He chose to stay on
the side of the Loyalists. That choice would lead to
William's arrest and land him in his new home, the

(03:27):
Litchfield Gowl, a prison that stood on the foothills of
the Bantam River in western Connecticut. Here's how Daniel Epstein
described that prison in his book The Loyal Son The War.
In Ben Franklin's house, it was infamous, a destination of
last resort for outlaws condemned to be hanged, convicted murderers

(03:51):
and sodomites, reprobates, and traders who had dishonoured their parole.
It smelled awful. The room was empty except for a
st stonewall chamber pot. The plank wooden floor was strewn
with straw. In the twilight from the high little window,
the prisoner searched the four corners in vain for a
chair to sit or a pallet to lie upon. It

(04:14):
was a noisy, filthy room, the very worst gal in America.
The son of Ben Franklin, governor of New Jersey, was
now living in a place that made Alcatraz look like
the Ritz Carlton. He would spend two years there. After
being released from jail in a prisoner exchange, William worked

(04:37):
on behalf of the Loyalists for a few years before
joining thousands of Americans who emigrated to England.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
He never returned home.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
A few years before his death, Ben Franklin received a
letter from his son. William was hoping for a face
to face meeting and a chance at reconciliation. The father
did not wait long to respond. Here's what Ben Franklin wrote.
Nothing has ever hurt me so much and affected me

(05:07):
with such keen sensation as to find myself deserted in
my old age by my only son, and not only deserted,
but to find him taking up arms against me. A
bit later, in that same letter, Ben Franklin, who was
in London at the time, concluded with these harsh words,

(05:30):
I shall be glad to see you when convenient, but
would not have you come here at the present. The
two would never reconcile. Ben Franklin, who died a wealthy man,
left his son virtually nothing in his will. The political
divide today is still about power in a distant city.

(05:52):
But the city isn't London. It's Washington, d C. Some
Americans think our federal government has grown too vast, unaccountable
to the people. They want power dispersed to the state
and closer to the American people. Others want more power
granted to Washington, d C. They want the federal government
to do more for more people in areas ranging from

(06:14):
healthcare to education. It's a fight we've been having since
our founding. Just a few years ago, my family went
to visit Independence Hall on a sunny day in Philadelphia,
and all we could see around us were Americans of
every conceivable race, class, age, color, and ethnicity, eating together

(06:36):
peacefully in restaurants of all kinds. Burmese, Chinese, Indian, Italian, Jamaican, Lebanese.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
It was what our founders hoped for that scene.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
We may be a divided nation, but the story of
the war in Ben Franklin's family is a stark reminder
of what kind of divisions we've endured, but America always
pulls through, somehow wronger, somehow better. The story of the
War in Ben Franklin's House, a celebration of the Declaration
of Independence and the founders and the price they paid

(07:12):
for founding this country. Here on Our American Stories, leehabeb
Here the host of Our American Stories.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
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Speaker 1 (07:35):
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