Franklin was born in Boston. After two years of school he stayed home as an apprentice in his father's candle-making shop. Two years after starting to work at his father's shop, he went to work at his brother James' printing shop. While working there, Franklin secretly wrote articles for the newspaper and labelled them as being by "Mrs. Silence Dogood". He quarrelled with his brother and at age 17 ran away to Philadelphia, then to London and then back to Philadelphia.