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. Only one of Mecom's children outlived her, her daughter, Jane Collas. Her husband, Edward Mecom died in 1765 after 38 years of marriage, leaving no will, and leaving Mecom in debt. Life and work To earn money, Mecom boiled soap and took in boarders. Mecom ran a boarding house for members of the House of Representatives in Boston in the 1750s which was likely where she began hearing about current political issues and forming opinions on them, which she more readily began to share in her correspondence with Benjamin Franklin. In November 1766, she and her daughters Jenny and Polly established a small shop to sell caps and bonnets that they created using materials sent from London by a friend of Benjamin Franklin. Her skills in needlework and her brother's fame kept her products circulating among wealthier people. The shop failed when colonists boycotted imported products due to the Townshend Act, a decision Benjamin Franklin could only encourage. In June 1768, she tried to open her business a second time and failed again. By August 1768, Benjamin Franklin's political views had grown more radical in support of American politics and nonimportation, while Mecom still detested the aggression of both sides at the time. Although Mecom is not widely believed to have been supportive of the American cause until 1774, evidence from Franklin's replies to Mecom suggest that she was writing in favor of nonimportation and American patriotism by January 1769. In 1769, Mecom moved to Philadelphia and returned to Boston in 1770, missing much of the rioting that took place in the city and the Boston Massacre. When the British invaded Boston in 1775, Mecom fled to Rhode Island to live with Catherine Greene, wife of the governor of Rhode Island. She then moved to Philadelphia to live with Franklin, which marked the first time they had seen each other in 11 years. In 1777, she returned to live with the Greenes or her granddaughter, Jenny Flagg Greene until 1779 when she could safely return to Boston. It was Mecom's homemade soaps that Franklin used to woo the French, presenting the image of a humbled, "homespun" American. No letters passed between Franklin and Mecom between 1780 and 1782, but Franklin did secure an annuity for