Sarah Franklin, generally called Sally, was born in Philadelphia on September 11, 1743, the daughter of printer, inventor, and civic organizer Benjamin Franklin and Deborah Read Franklin. She was the couple’s only daughter to survive childhood. Her brother Francis had died of smallpox in 1736, before her birth, while her older half-brother William was already growing toward adulthood. Sally entered a household made increasingly prosperous and prominent by her father’s printing business, scientific experiments, public offices, and wide intellectual connections.

Her education followed the expectations placed upon a merchant’s daughter rather than the classical course normally reserved for sons. She learned reading, writing, arithmetic, sewing, spinning, knitting, embroidery, and household management. Franklin also paid for dance lessons, and Sally became accomplished in music, particularly the harpsichord. A French edition of Samuel Richardson’s novel Pamela may have assisted her study of French.

Benjamin Franklin’s long absences shaped Sally’s adolescence. He departed for Britain in 1757 as a colonial agent, leaving Deborah to oversee their daughter’s education. Father and daughter corresponded, but Deborah provided the daily stability of the Philadelphia home. Sally grew up amid visitors, political conversation, books, printing, and her mother’s work as the practical center of the Franklin household. She also absorbed the civic habits for which her parents were known.

On October 29, 1767, Sally married Richard Bache, an English-born merchant active in Philadelphia and New York. Members of her family worried about Bache’s finances and motives, and the marriage initially displeased her absent father. The couple nevertheless made their home with Deborah Franklin and began a family that eventually included eight children. Marriage ended Sally’s formal youth and placed her in charge of an expanding household.