Trenton Mercer New Jersey United States

William Franklin, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at this time a colony in British America, is the illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin, a leading figure in the city.

His mother's identity is unknown.

Confusion exists about William's birth and parentage because Benjamin is secretive about his son's origins.

In 1750, Ben had told his own mother that William was nineteen years old, but this may have been an attempt to make the youth appear legitimate.

William had been raised by Benjamin Franklin and Deborah Read, his common-law wife; William always called her his mother.

There is some speculation that Deborah Read was William's mother, and that because of his parents' common-law relationship, the circumstances of his birth were obscured so as not to be politically harmful to him or to their marital arrangement.

William had joined a company of Pennsylvania provincial troops in 1746 and fought in Albany in King George's War, obtaining the rank of captain in 1747.

As he grew older, he accompanied his father on several missions, including trips to England. Although often depicted as a young child when he assisted his father in the famed kite experiment of 1752, William was twenty-one years old at the time.

As a young man, William became engaged to Elizabeth Graeme, daughter of prominent Philadelphia physician Dr. Thomas Graeme and granddaughter of Pennsylvania's 14th Governor, Sir William Keith.

Neither family approved of the match, but when William went to London to study law about 1759, he left with the understanding that Elizabeth would wait for him.

While in London, Franklin sired an illegitimate son, William Temple Franklin, who was born on  February 22, 1762.

His mother will never be identified, and he is placed in foster care.

Later that year, Franklin had married Elizabeth Downes on September 4, 1762 at St George's, Hanover Square in London.

She was born in the English colony of Barbados to the sugar planter John Downes and his wife Elizabeth (née Parsons).

She had met Franklin while visiting England with her father in 1760.

William Franklin had completed his law education in England, and was admitted to the bar.

William and Benjamin Franklin became partners and confidants, working together to pursue land grants in what was then called the Northwest (now Midwest).

Before they left England, the senior Franklin had lobbied hard to procure his son an appointment, especially working with the Prime Minister Lord Bute.

In 1763, William Franklin had been appointed as the Royal Governor of New Jersey, due to his father's influence with the British Prime Minister.

He replaces Josiah Hardy, a merchant and colonial administrator.

On November 10, 1766, he signs the charter for Queen's College, which will develop as Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

The fifteen hundred Hessian troops under the command of Col. Johann Rall, camped in and around Trenton, are surprised at 8:00 AM by Washington's troops.

The Hessian regiments had supposedly let their guard down to celebrate the Christmas holiday, and Rall himself had been misled by John Honeyman, a spy of Washington who had convincingly posed as a loyalist.

The American Continental Army decisively defeats the Hessians, taking nine hundred and forty-eight prisoners while suffering only five wounded.

Rall, according to one account, was busy playing cards/chess the night before the attack at the home of Trenton merchant Abraham Hunt when he was handed a note from a local Loyalist who'd seen Washington's forces gathering.

Then, after receiving the message, he placed in his coat pocket without reading it.

While leading his troops in retreat from the battle of Trenton, Rall is struck by a musketball.

He dies later that day from his injuries.

The note informing the general of the attack is later found in his coat pocket.

Washington's stealthy Christmas Eve crossing of the Delaware, which had resulted in the killing or capturing of nearly a thousand Hessians, has not only significantly boosted the army's morale; it also brings Cornwallis out of New York.

He reassembles an army of more than six thousand men, and marches most of them against a position Washington has taken south of Trenton.

Leaving a garrison of twelve hundred at Princeton, Cornwallis now attacks Washington's position on January 2, 1777, and is three times repulsed before darkness sets in.

During the night, Washington once again stealthily moves his army, going around that of Cornwallis with the intention of attacking the Princeton garrison.

New Jersey becomes, on February 15, 1804, the last northern state to abolish slavery.

The first railroad charter in the United States had been issued February 6, 1815 to the New Jersey Railroad Company on behalf of John Stevens and others.

Based on turnpike charters, it had allowed the company to build between New Brunswick and Trenton, and had become a model for future railroad charters.

The company has never done anything, but the idea has evolved into the New Jersey Railroad (NJRR), chartered in 1832 as a parallel line to the C&A.

Beginning at Jersey City, closer to New York City, but limited to building south to New Brunswick due to the C&A's influence, the C&A is to build the part from New Brunswick south to Spotswood.

In November 1832, the NJRR acquires control of the Newark Turnpike, which parallels the planned alignment east of Newark, to avoid problems caused by competition.