Notable Cousin · via the brothers’ maternal line
Benjamin Franklin
1706-1790 · Founding Father, polymath. Only person to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, and the U.S. Constitution.
Relationship
Benjamin Franklin is the Long brothers’ 1st cousin, 10 times removed.
Through Peter Folger of Nantucket (1617-1690), the family’s maternal-side common ancestor.
Most Recent Common Ancestor
Peter Folger (1617-1690). Nantucket settler, surveyor, interpreter of Wampanoag. This is the single shared ancestor that connects Benjamin Franklin to John, Perry, and Patrick. FamilySearch PID: 99BX-1P2.
Descent Tree
Both lines descending from the MRCA. Long chains (>6 generations) collapse the middle generations to keep the tree scannable. Click any PID to open the FamilySearch record.
Generation Recount
Sourcing confirmed
Sourcing confirmed (GREEN-verified). Peter Folger (99BX-1P2) is in the FamilySearch corpus at 48 sources. The verified chain runs through the maternal Gardner → Macy → Folger Nantucket marriages: Jedidah Folger → Eunice Gardner (convergence ancestor) → Peggy Macy → Frederick William Folger (1805, 42 FS sources) → Harriet Ann Folger (canonical PID KZDT-ZC5, 18 FS sources). Carol Perry’s parents. Francis S. Perry (L1V1-8D2) and Rachel Winter Swift (9JGN-43B), anchor the modern bridge. The Franklin side is primary-sourced by Franklin himself in Part One of the Autobiography, naming his mother Abiah Folger and her Peter Folger parentage. Chain verified via the FamilySearch relationship view.
The Polymath. A Life in Dates
Born January 17, Boston. Fifteenth of seventeen children. Father Josiah Franklin, tallow chandler. Mother Abiah Folger of Nantucket.
Attends school. Excels at reading, fails at arithmetic.
Enters Boston Latin School. Withdrawn after one year, father cannot afford it.
Works in father’s candle and soap shop. Hates it.
Apprenticed to brother James’s print shop. Falls in love with books. Teaches himself to write by reverse-engineering essays from The Spectator: reading, outlining from memory, rewriting, comparing to the original.
Writes fourteen anonymous letters as “Silence Dogood” published in James’s New-England Courant. Sensation in Boston.
Runs away to Philadelphia. Arrives with one Dutch dollar and a copper shilling. Buys three puffy rolls, walks up Market Street eating one.
Governor Keith sends him to London to buy printing equipment. Keith’s letters of credit are worthless. Stranded. Works as a printer in London.
Returns to Philadelphia. Works as clerk, then printer.
Publishes first Poor Richard’s Almanack. “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
Studies languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, German.
Founds the Union Fire Company, first volunteer fire company in Philadelphia.
Appointed Postmaster of Philadelphia.
Begins electricity experiments.
The kite experiment. Proves lightning is electrical. Invents the lightning rod.
Appointed joint Postmaster General for all British colonies.
Proposes the Albany Plan of Union , first formal plan to unite the colonies. Publishes the “Join, or Die” cartoon.
Sails to London as colonial agent for Pennsylvania.
Testifies before Parliament against the Stamp Act. Helps get it repealed.
Returns to Philadelphia. Elected to Second Continental Congress.
Committee of Five, helps draft the Declaration of Independence. Sails to France as American ambassador. Becomes the most famous American in Europe.
Negotiates the French alliance , the treaty that won the war. Without France, Yorktown doesn’t happen. The war the family’s Swift ancestor served in was won partly because its Folger cousin was in Paris.
Signs the Treaty of Paris ending the Revolution.
Returns to Philadelphia.
Oldest delegate at the Constitutional Convention. Carried to sessions in a sedan chair.
Dies April 17, Philadelphia. 20,000 attend funeral.
The Love of Books
Franklin taught himself to write by borrowing books he couldn’t afford, reading them overnight, and returning them before dawn. At twenty-five he founded America’s first lending library. He believed knowledge should be accessible to everyone, not locked behind wealth.
His autobiography , still in print after 230+ years, remains one of the most widely read American books ever written.
Abiah Folger
Abiah Folger (1667-1752), daughter of Peter Folger of Nantucket, married Josiah Franklin, a Boston tallow chandler, and raised his large family. Her son Benjamin became the most famous American of his century. History knows her name because of her son. It should know her name because she raised him.
External Links
- Wikipedia: Benjamin Franklin↗
- FamilySearch: Peter Folger (99BX-1P2) ↗
- Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography(1771-90), Part One, primary source for the Abiah Folger → Benjamin Franklin step (Franklin names his mother and her Folger parentage directly).
Sources
- Benjamin Franklin. Wikipedia
- Abiah Folger. Wikipedia
- Peter Foulger. Wikipedia
- Benjamin Franklin, “The Autobiography” (1771-90). Part One (on Abiah Folger. Peter Folger parentage)
- Nantucket Historical Association. Folger family papers
- Cousins audit § 2h, generation recount (research notes, 18 April 2026)