Life Before Second Marriage
Franklin proposed to fifteen-year-old Read in 1724 when he was seventeen years old, but her mother would not consent to the marriage, citing Franklin's pending trip to England and financial instability. While Franklin was away in England, having been stranded there by Sir William Keith's failure to follow through on promises of support, Read married John Rogers, who fled soon after. Because of this, Benjamin and Deborah were not free to marry formally. John Rogers disappeared into history, after spending Deborah's dowry, incurring much debt, and using the marriage to further his own schemes.
Read more about this topic: Deborah Read
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“One cannot be a good historian of the outward, visible world without giving some thought to the hidden, private life of ordinary people; and on the other hand one cannot be a good historian of this inner life without taking into account outward events where these are relevant. They are two orders of fact which reflect each other, which are always linked and which sometimes provoke each other.”
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