Ann Smith married printer James Franklin, elder brother of Benjamin Franklin, at the New North Church in Boston on February 4, 1723.
On February 4, 1723, Ann Smith married James Franklin at the New North Church in Boston. James was an established printer and the elder brother of the soon-to-be-famous Benjamin Franklin, who had at one time been apprenticed to James before the brothers had a notorious falling-out.
This marriage placed Ann directly into the world of colonial printing, a trade dominated almost entirely by men. James Franklin had already gained a reputation as a bold and sometimes controversial printer, having published the New-England Courant, one of colonial America's earliest independent newspapers, known for its satirical and often provocative content that ran afoul of Boston's religious and political authorities.
Marrying into this trade gave Ann direct exposure to typesetting, press operation, and the business side of publishing — skills she would have learned informally by working alongside her husband. This kind of hands-on apprenticeship was the primary way women could enter the printing profession in colonial America, since formal apprenticeships were reserved for men.
The marriage would prove pivotal not only for Ann's personal life but for the future of Rhode Island printing, as the couple later relocated to Newport, where James's earlier controversies in Boston made a fresh start appealing. Ann's partnership with James in the print shop laid the essential groundwork for her later, independent career as a printer and editor after his death.