SARAH FRANKLIN BACH
A.D. 1744 - 1808

One of the most popular women of her day in her native city was Sarah Franklin. She was born in 1744 the daughter of Benjamin and Deborah Read Franklin in the city of Philadelphia. Carefully educated by her father, she was said to be as broadly educated as any woman in the Colony. As a girl, she is said to have been plain, almost ugly, but with a sense of humor and a wittiness which, combined with her good nature and kindness, make her generally popular.

Of her girlhood there is little to tell. She lived a rather uneventful life until she was twenty years old. At this time her father was sent to England in a representative capacity. The incident leading up to this was the first introduction Sarah had to politics, a subject that remained a keen interest of hers throughout her life.

Some of Miss Franklin’s letters to her father during his absence in England have been preserved and give insight into the strong feeling that agitated the American people of the day. They also show us the intimacy between father and daughter.

Sarah was married in October, 1767 to Richard Bache, a merchant of Philadelphia, who had come to the colony several years before from Yorkshire, England. For several years, Mr. and Mrs. Bach lived with Deborah Franklin, while Benjamin was in England. They stayed with her until she died of paralysis in December, 1774, while her father was still in England as agent of the Province of Pennsylvania. Sarah was called upon to take the place of her mother in the family as homemaker before and during the Revolution.

Sarah Franklin Bach was well known for her own patriotism and public spirit. She was useful to both her family and her country in a time of personal and national turmoil. Sarah developed cancer in 1807 and passed away in October, 1808 at the age of sixty-four.