Jane Mecom

Who was Jane Mecom?

Jane Franklin Mecom was the youngest sister of Benjamin Franklin. Mecom and Franklin corresponded throughout the course of their lives, and some of their letters survive.

Though Mecom never attended school, she learned to read and write under the tutelage of Benjamin Franklin. At the age of fifteen, she married Edward Mecom, a poor saddler who moved into the Franklins' family home, the Blue Ball. While it has been suggested that Benjamin Franklin gave Mecom a spinning wheel as a wedding gift, the historian Jill Lepore argued that this was a misreading of a joke made by Franklin in a letter to his sister. Jane and Edward Mecom had twelve children: Josiah Mecom I, Edward "Neddy" Mecom, Benjamin "Benny" Mecom, Ebenezer Mecom, Sarah "Sally" Mecom, Peter Franklin Mecom, John Mecom, Josiah Mecom, Jane Mecom, James Mecom, Mary "Polly" Mecom, and Abiah Mecom.

One son, Benjamin, disappeared during the Battle of Trenton. Two of her sons struggled with mental illness. Mecom made efforts to keep her children out of debtors' prison, the almshouse, and asylums. Several of them succumbed to an illness now believed to be tuberculosis.