William Temple Franklin

William Temple Franklin, known as Temple Franklin, (22 February 1760 in London – 25 May 1823 in Paris) was a British-born American diplomat and real estate speculator. He is best known for his involvement with the American diplomatic mission in France during the American Revolutionary War. Beginning at the age of 16, he served as secretary to his grandfather Benjamin Franklin, who negotiated and agreed to the Franco-American Alliance.

The younger Franklin was also secretary for the American delegation that negotiated United States independence at the Treaty of Paris in 1783. He returned to Philadelphia with his grandfather afterward. Finding his prospects limited in the United States, he later returned to Europe, where he lived mostly in France.

William Temple Franklin, called Temple, was born in 1760, the illegitimate (and only) son of William Franklin, notably illegitimate as well, who sired him while a law student in London. His mother is unknown, and the infant was placed in foster care. His father William was the illegitimate but acknowledged son of Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, and raised in his household. William Temple Franklin's middle name is said to have been derived from his having been conceived while his father was studying at the Middle Temple.

Later in 1762, William married "respectably", to Elizabeth Downes in London, the daughter of a wealthy Barbados planter. After passing the bar, he returned to North America, but he continued to pay for the upkeep and later education of Temple.

In 1763, with the aid of his father Benjamin Franklin, William Franklin was appointed as the last colonial governor of New Jersey and went to North America. He left Temple in foster care. William's position as a Loyalist later put him at odds with his father, and they broke permanently over it. William Franklin was imprisoned during the Revolution and afterward forced into exile in Britain.

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