A bon vivant, Temple received his highest public appointment as Secretary to the American delegation at the Treaty of Paris in 1782 to 1783 largely through the influence of his grandfather.

Benjamin Franklin unsuccessfully lobbied Congress in the hope that Temple would be given a diplomatic post and believed that in time, his grandson would succeed him as Ambassador to France.

[6] His appeal was rejected for a variety of reasons, including political opposition to Benjamin Franklin and suspicions about Temple's relations with his Loyalist father, who had gone into exile in London.

Thomas Jefferson commiserated with Temple over his failure to secure a post but wrote a letter to James Monroe that raised questions about the young man's temperament and abilities.

He noted his father's steadfast defense of the Stamp Act and hoped that the British government might award him a diplomatic post.

[8] During 1784, Temple went to London and reconciled with his father, lengthened his stay several times, and returned to Paris at the end of the year.

[9] In January 1785, Temple received the first airmail in history when a letter from his father was brought across the English Channel by a hydrogen balloon, flown by Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries.

[10] Franklin sent the younger man to see government officials in Philadelphia, to try to recover expenses owed for his time in Paris, but his request was not granted.

In 1792, Franklin sold 12,000,000 acres (49,000 km2; 19,000 sq mi) of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase east of the Genesee River in New York state to The Pulteney Association, made up of three British investors.

He fathered a son, James William Franklin Sr., born on December 15, 1789, in Roaring River, North Carolina, who later married Nancy Amburgey and settled in Virginia, where he died in 1860.

Temple also had a daughter, Lucy Franklin, born in 1790, who married William Amburgey; they raised a family in Letcher County, Kentucky.

Another daughter, Sarah Ann Franklin, born on July 6, 1788, in Port Tobacco, Maryland, was believed to be the child of Temple and Abigail Brawner; she married Joseph Perrill Cooper, and they had several children.

[13] His close friend, George Fox, inherited many of the senior Franklin's papers and later donated them to the American Philosophical Society.