William Neil Franklin was born on August 24, 1902, in Morristown, Tennessee. He graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1924, after which he served briefly in the military and taught for a year in Newport, Tennessee. Franklin then went on to Princeton University to receive his master's in 1926 and his Ph.D. in 1929 in history. He taught at Southern Methodist University from 1928 to 1932. He then moved to Knoxville, married Evelyn Gibbs (1905-1994) in July 1931, and taught at Maryville College while lecturing at the University of Tennessee. He also served on the editorial board for the Southern Historical Association. In 1936, Franklin accepted a position as a special examiner for the new National Archives building in Washington, D.C., and moved his family to nearby Alexandria, Virginia. Franklin became chief of the Division of the Navy Department Archives in 1943, as well as chief of the Diplomatic, Legal, and Fiscal Branch in 1963. After serving as an archivist for the Territorial Papers Branch beginning in 1966, he officially retired in the summer of 1972. He died at age 80 on October 29, 1982.