Sarah "Sally" Franklin Bache was born on September 11, 1743, in Philadelphia. One of three children, she was Deborah Read and Benjamin Franklin’s only daughter. She received a good education for a young woman at the time, though her educational focus on traditional domestic trades, like needlepoint and knitting, was often a source of contention between Sally and her father, as she ardently sought the same education as her brothers (Tise 62). Franklin’s diplomatic duties as a representative of the Pennsylvania Assembly and Ambassador to France required his presence in England and France for a great deal of her life; she was 13 years old when he departed in 1757 and 41 years old when he returned to serve as the President of Pennsylvania in 1785. Franklin avoided political conversation with his daughter on account of her sex, though this fact did not prevent her political agency in America. 

Sarah Franklin married Richard Bache, a young merchant from Yorkshire, England, on October 29, 1767, ignoring her father’s concern over the young man’s financial situation and motivations for marrying. Richard Bache’s financial woes remained a recurring issue throughout their lives, though Franklin overcame his initial hesitations regarding their marriage. Sally and Richard had eight children, seven of whom survived to adulthood, including Benjamin Franklin Bache, who founded the Philadelphia Aurora. 

When Deborah Read Franklin passed away in 1774, Bache assumed her role as a political hostess in the Franklin home. She navigated this complex intersection of domesticity and politics with such ease that the Marquis de Chastellux wrote to Benjamin Franklin that "if there are in Europe any women who need a model of attachment to domestic duties and love of their country, Mrs. Bache may be pointed out to them" (Papers of Benjamin Franklin 34:249-50). Demonstrating the challenges of her position as a prominent hostess during a time of great political and economic unrest, Bache sought to balance her duty to maintain the status and appearance of her home and wardrobe with the ever-worsening economic climate. She was solely responsible for upholding the status of the Franklin estate while attending to the political and social consequences of flagrant displays of luxury during a time of economic hardship.

As the Revolutionary War increased in severity and proximity to Philadelphia, Bache relocated her family from their home twice—once to Goshen Township in Chester County in December 1776 and again to Bucks County from September 1777 until October 1778. Bache’s responsibility for her father’s estate and her new motherhood increased the stress of these events. When the British victory at Brandywine caused her to leave Philadelphia in September 1777, she had given birth to her daughter, Elizabeth, merely seven days prior (Conger 337). This personal experience of displacement and the anxieties of proximity to the war contributed to Bache’s growing political agency and her hatred of the British army, demonstrated by her letter to her father stating she "never shall forget or forgive them for turning me out of House and home in the middle of winter" (Papers of Benjamin Franklin 23:361-62). 

Upon her return to Philadelphia, Bache took on the mantle of public activism. In 1780, she and Esther De Berdt Reed established the Ladies Association of Pennsylvania. This association—the first female voluntary association in the United States—sought to support the Continental Army through fundraising activity, as outlined in the widely circulated "Sentiments of an American Woman" broadside. This organization and publication, Vivian Bruce Conger argues, "asserted women had a stake in the Revolutionary cause" (Conger 341). Bache and Reed organized an extensive door-knocking campaign, ultimately raising over $300,000 Continental dollars during a time of great financial strife. Upon consultation with George Washington regarding the Continental Army’s most dire needs, Bache and Reed used the money to purchase fabric and organized a movement to sew shirts for the Continental soldiers. Ultimately, the association donated over two thousand shirts, not only directly affecting soldiers’ daily lives, but also establishing new modes of feminine political action, which inspired the creation of similar associations in multiple states.

Bache cared for her father Benjamin Franklin until his death in 1790, at which point she inherited the majority of his estate as his sole surviving legitimate child. Included in this substantial inheritance was a portrait of Louis XVI studded with 408 diamonds, which was a gift from Louis XVI himself to Franklin (Baetjer 171). Despite her father’s wishes to maintain the integrity of this piece, Bache and her husband sold a significant portion of the diamonds, followed by the portrait itself, after falling into financial troubles in 1792. In 1794, the Bache family relocated to a farm on the Delaware River just outside of Philadelphia. Sarah Franklin Bache died of cancer on October 5, 1808, at the age of 65.

By establishing the first women’s voluntary association in the United States, Bache defined a new, impactful mode of social agency for women, combining the traditionally feminine skills of the domestic sphere with the traditionally masculine political sphere. She recognized the potential of feminine social networks and women’s civic participation to shape not only her local community and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but also America as an emerging nation. Women’s voluntary associations appeared across America and emerged as a keystone of women’s activism and political activity.