Education
Though Mecom never attended school, she learned to read and write under the tutelage of Benjamin Franklin.
Though Mecom never attended school, she learned to read and write under the tutelage of Benjamin Franklin.
Mecom and Franklin corresponded throughout the course of their lives, and some of their letters survive. 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.
Several of them succumbed to an illness now believed to be tuberculosis.
The religious beliefs of the time taught people not to fear death. In fact, because many children did not live past the age of ten years (about 1/4 of the children born), children were taught not to fear death.
Only one of Mecom"s children outlived her. Edward Mecom died in 1765 after 38 years of marriage.
Although Jane Mecom and Benjamin Franklin corresponded for decades following his departure from their childhood home, letters written by Mecom before 1758 are lost.
Prior to that date, the only record of her writing is a slim book that she made to chronicle her life. Mecom named her chronicle "Book of Ages."
When Benjamin Franklin died in 1790, his will stipulated that Mecom should continue to live in her house, which was owned by Franklin, until she died. The house was later demolished to make room for a memorial to Paul Revere.