Ann Smith Franklin

Early Life and Background

Ann Smith was born on October 2, 1696, in Boston, Massachusetts, then a thriving hub of trade, religion, and print culture within British North America. Details of her family background and formal education are sparse, reflecting the general lack of documentation for women's early lives in colonial New England. Girls of this era rarely received the same schooling as boys, but many in artisan and merchant families acquired practical literacy and numeracy skills that would prove useful later in life.

Ann's path into the printing trade — one of the most demanding and male-dominated professions of the colonial period — suggests that she received an unusually solid education, whether through her family of origin or through direct instruction after her marriage. Her later career would demonstrate not only technical printing skills but also considerable business acumen, editorial judgment, and civic standing, all of which required a strong foundation in literacy and numeracy uncommon for women of her time.

Marriage and Entry into the Printing Trade

On February 4, 1723, Ann married James Franklin at the New North Church in Boston. James was an established printer and the elder brother of Benjamin Franklin, arguably the most famous American of the eighteenth century. James had trained Benjamin as an apprentice in his Boston print shop, but the arrangement ended acrimoniously, with young Benjamin famously running away to Philadelphia around 1723 — the same year James married Ann.

James Franklin had already built a reputation as an audacious and controversial printer through his newspaper the New-England Courant, known for its satirical wit and its willingness to criticize Boston's religious and political authorities, including its stance against smallpox inoculation during the epidemic of 1721. This controversial streak eventually led James into conflict with Massachusetts authorities, prompting the family's relocation to Newport, Rhode Island, in the late 1720s, where James sought a more welcoming environment for his printing business.

In Newport, Ann worked directly alongside James in the print shop, absorbing the full range of skills required for the trade: typesetting, operating the heavy wooden printing press, managing ink and paper supplies, and handling the business correspondence and financial dealings that kept a small colonial print shop afloat. This kind of informal, marital apprenticeship was essentially the only route by which women could enter the printing profession in colonial America, since formal apprenticeships were reserved exclusively for men and boys.

The Rhode-Island Gazette and Early Career

On September 27, 1732, Ann and James launched the Rhode-Island Gazette, the first newspaper published in the colony of Rhode Island. Ann served as assistant printer, deepening her hands-on experience with every stage of newspaper production. The paper, however, struggled to attract sufficient subscribers and advertisers in the relatively small colony, and it ceased publication on May 24, 1733, after less than a year.

Despite its short run, the Gazette proved to be an essential training ground for Ann. Her direct, sustained involvement in producing the paper meant that she developed genuine mastery of the printing trade — not merely as a helper, but as a skilled practitioner capable of managing every aspect of the business.

Widowhood and the Rise of "Widow Franklin"

James Franklin died on February 4, 1735 — his thirty-eighth birthday — leaving Ann widowed with several young children and a print shop to run. Rather than abandoning the family trade, as many widows in similar circumstances were forced to do, Ann made the bold decision to take over the business herself. She operated the shop under the imprint "Widow Franklin," a designation that publicly acknowledged both her marital status and her authority over the enterprise.

This decision represented a genuine historical first: Ann became the first woman in New England to personally operate a printing press and produce a newspaper. This distinction is significant because, while Elizabeth Glover had technically owned New England's first printing press back in 1638, she never operated it herself, delegating all hands-on work to hired printers. Ann, in contrast, took direct, active control of the physical and business operations of the print shop.

Running a colonial print shop was arduous work. It required physical strength to operate the heavy wooden press, technical skill in setting type letter by letter, and business acumen to negotiate contracts, manage credit, and maintain relationships with government officials and merchants — all in a trade where women were, by custom, expected to play no visible role. Ann also took on the responsibility of training her own children in the printing trade, ensuring that the family business could continue across generations.

Official Printer to the Colony of Rhode Island

In 1736, Ann's skill and reliability earned her appointment as official printer to the Colony of Rhode Island, a position she held until her death in 1763. In this official capacity, she printed the colony's charter, its laws and legislative acts, election ballots, and even paper currency — an extraordinary level of public trust and responsibility for a woman in eighteenth-century America.

One of her most significant printing commissions came in 1745, when she printed 500 folio copies of the Acts and Laws of Rhode Island, the largest single commission of her career. This substantial undertaking required precise, high-volume production of an official legal text, underscoring the confidence that colonial authorities placed in her capabilities as a printer.

The Rhode Island Almanack: A Literary First

In 1737, Ann published the first edition of her Rhode Island Almanack, which she continued to produce annually through 1741, ultimately releasing five editions. This achievement made her the first woman in America to write and publish an almanac, a genre that was enormously popular in colonial America and typically dominated by male authors such as Benjamin Franklin, whose own Poor Richard's Almanack became a bestseller during this same period.

Ann's almanac combined practical astronomical and calendrical information with cultural content, serving households throughout Rhode Island. Her success in this literary and commercial venture further cemented her reputation as a capable and versatile printer, extending her work beyond government contracts into original publishing.

The Newport Mercury and Editorship

In 1758, Ann co-founded the Newport Mercury with her son James Franklin Jr., which became Rhode Island's first genuinely successful and long-lasting newspaper, in contrast to the short-lived Rhode-Island Gazette of the 1730s. The paper covered local and international news, advertisements, and official announcements, quickly establishing itself as an essential publication for the Newport community.

Tragedy struck in 1762 when James Jr. died, leaving Ann — then sixty-five years old — to take full control of the newspaper. On August 22, 1762, she formally became sole editor and publisher of the Newport Mercury, a role that earned her recognition as the first female newspaper editor in America. Remarkably, despite her advanced age and the demands of the role, sources indicate that she never missed a single issue during her tenure as editor, a testament to her extraordinary work ethic and command of the printing business she had built over nearly three decades.

Personal Life

Ann's marriage to James Franklin produced several children, including James Franklin Jr., who worked alongside her in the print shop and co-founded the Newport Mercury before his death in 1762. Ann's family life was inseparable from her professional life, as was common for women in trade households during this period; her children were trained in the printing business from a young age, ensuring continuity of the family enterprise. Her connection to the broader Franklin family — including her famous brother-in-law Benjamin Franklin — placed her within one of colonial America's most significant printing dynasties, though she carved out her own distinct and independent legacy separate from her husband's and brother-in-law's fame.

Death and Legacy

Ann Smith Franklin died on April 16, 1763, in Newport, Rhode Island, at the age of sixty-six. Her obituary, published fittingly in the Newport Mercury — the very paper she had edited — praised her for her "great integrity," a recognition rare for women in colonial-era print but well-earned given her decades of reliable, high-quality work as a printer and editor.

Ann Smith Franklin's legacy rests on several extraordinary "firsts": she was the first woman to personally operate a printing press and produce a newspaper in New England; the first woman in America to write and publish an almanac; and the first female newspaper editor in the United States. Her appointment as official printer to the Colony of Rhode Island for over 25 years demonstrates the deep trust and respect she earned from colonial authorities in an era when women were almost entirely excluded from public professional life.

Her contributions were formally recognized more than two centuries later: in October 1986, she was inducted into the inaugural class of the Rhode Island Journalism Hall of Fame, and in 1998, she was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame, jointly honored alongside her husband James Franklin. These posthumous honors reflect her enduring significance as a pioneering figure in American printing, publishing, and journalism history — a woman who, faced with widowhood in a trade closed to women, built and sustained one of colonial Rhode Island's most important printing enterprises for nearly thirty years.