Franklin Porter was born on June 9, 1869, in Providence, Rhode Island to Jonathan and Esther Porter. (Rhode Island). He was a silversmith from Danvers, Massachusetts, and has work displayed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. (MFA Boston). He first learned the trade at the Rhode Island School of Design and received technical training from precision tool and machinery manufacturer Brown and Sharpe. (Boettcher 89). He opened his first workshop and storefront in Bristol Ferry, Rhode Island where he lived at the time. (Boettcher 89).

He married Ethel Chase in 1893, and they had two children, Helen and Eddie. (Rhode Island) (1920 United States Federal Census). In 1914, he and his family moved to Middleton, Massachusetts where he picked up work as a mechanic. They later moved to Danvers, Massachusetts in 1919, where they became caretakers of the historic Judge Samuel Holten House. After being laid off in 1924, he pursued silversmithing full-time using his shed as a workshop. (Boettcher 90). He died at 66 in 1935. Porter trained his daughter, Helen Porter Philbrick as his protegee. She was born on February 23, 1910. (Massachusetts). She is most known for making a replica of a rare communion cup originally made by Paul Revere. She wrote a memoir Journeys with a Real Jack in the Pulpit; a book about her father’s work, At the Sign of the Hammer; and co-authored two books about gardening. Helen studied fine arts at Wheaton College, and later went to the Boston School of Occupational Therapy to study weaving. She inherited the business after her father passed away, but she was unable to take over due to her schooling. She married Reverend John Philbrick (1910-1984) in 1937, shortly after graduating from the Boston School of Occupational Therapy. (Massachusetts) (Boettcher 90). She never pursued silversmithing full time but continued to do work on the side for family, friends, and leisure. (Boettcher 90). She died at 101 in 2011. (Ancestry).