Benjamin Franklin House

Built circa 1730, for sixteen years between 1757 and 1773 this was the home of U.S. Founding Father Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and it is the only house in which he lived that still survives today. He lived here as the lodger of the widow Mrs Margaret Stevenson though tradition has it that to all outwards appearances he was the head of the household. During his time here, frequent visitors to the house reflected his diverse interests: Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder; the Irish statesman and philosopher, Edmund Burke; the philosopher and founder of the Associationist School of Psychology, David Hartley; Chancellor of Exchequer and Founder of the Hellfire Club, Sir Francis Dashwood; the writer and diarist, James Boswell; the economist Adam Smith; Bishop Jonathan Shipley; and, the political theorist and revolutionary, Thomas Paine....