Mrs. Deborah Franklin had to
boldly fling herself into her common law husband's rancorous 1765 political battles with the colonial proprietors of Pennsylvania (the
True and Absolute Proprietaries) and with many others. He wanted the Proprietaries to pay their taxes even though their were almost feudal landholders. Much of this conflict was because of Ben Franklin's pragmatic approach to the Stamp Act which did not go over very well in Philadelphians nor with the Penns. Things got so heated in Philly that a group of
twenty of Franklin's supporters (
going as the White Oak Boys) had to come to guard his new home while he was in London. His wife Deborah guarded the upstairs from the mob, while the White Oak Boys took the downstairs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamp_Act_1765