early in the Reformation, and continued Protestants
through the reign of Queen Mary, when they were
sometimes in danger of trouble on account of their
zeal against popery. They had got an English Bible,
and to conceal and secure it, it was fastened open with
tapes under and within the cover of a joint-stool.
When my great-great-grandfather read it to his family,
he turned up the joint-stool upon his knees, turning
over the leaves then under the tapes. One of the
children stood at the door to give notice if he saw the
apparitor coming, who was an officer of the spiritual
court. In that case the stool was turned down again
upon its feet, when the Bible remained concealed under
it as before." The family continued Church of Eng-
land folk with the exception of Franklin's father and
uncle, who were led to change their faith during the
reign of King Charles II, by the obvious tendency of
the court toward Romanism, and the severity of the
parliamentary laws against the independent sectaries.
"When some of the ministers that had been outed for
non-conformity holding conventicles in Northampton-
shire, Benjamin and Josiah adhered to them, and so
continued all their lives." Just prior to the death of
Charles, or immediately after the accession of James,
when affairs looked so hopeless for the Puritans, "some
considerable men" of Josiah Franklin's acquaintance
planned a removal to New England, "and he was pre-
vailed with to accompany them thither, where they ex-
pected to enjoy their mode of religion with freedom."

Josiah Franklin, shortly after his arrival in America,
became a member of the Old South Church, and his

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