As it was mentioned previously, Peter Minuit (Units cost 25% less to purchase in Europe) is probably the best Founding Father whatever the game settings are.
Also, Founding Fathers like
- Alexander Hamilton (+3
per Town Hall)
- William Penn (+3 crosses per Town Hall)
scale well with a big empire. On Marathon speed and Huge maps, when building 50+ cities, Penn turns being a more valuable asset than Minuit. Hamilton will be of great use in all the small cities used to gather raw resources (tobacco, ore, etc.) to first build docks & warehouses then build political points to gather more founding fathers. Later, Lewis & Clark (Pioneers require 50% less Tools; +1

for Wagon Trains) give you bonuses for cities development while Benjamin Franklin (+3 Liberty Bells per Printing Press and Newspaper) and James Madison (+3 Guns per Armory, Magazine, and Arsenal) respectively help building up Liberty Bells and Guns in your settlements. On Quick speed and Small maps, Founding Fathers that provide an immediate un-scalable benefit like Thomas Hooker (Provides 3 Jesuit Missionaries) and Diego Velazquez de Cuellar (Provides 3 indentured servants) may be better.
Depending on your nation and leader choice, you should try to get FF that have good synergy with your trait, e.g. for John Adams, New England (+25% Liberty Bells in all settlements; -25% Crosses needed for immigration):
- Sor Juana (+3 Crosses per Church and Cathedral)
- Gabriel Lallemant (+50% production of Church and Cathedral)
- Gregorio de Mattos e Guerra (+2 Liberty Bells per Church; +3 Liberty Bells per Cathedral)
- William Penn (+3 Crosses per Town Hall; Strengthens relations with the natives)
- Lord Baltimore (Increases Cross production by the tax rate)
- John Winthrop (+1 Cross per Town Hall)
- Benjamin Franklin (+3 Liberty Bells per Printing Press and Newspaper)
Some of the FF seem very useless to me like Giovanni de Verrazano (Provides 1 Caravel) and Jacques Marquette (+1

for Scouts).