1The Busy-Body, No. 1, 4 February 1729 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The American Weekly Mercury , February 4, 1728/9. Franklin and Hugh Meredith decided in 1728 to start a newspaper in opposition to Bradford’s American Weekly Mercury . Samuel Keimer learned of this plan from George Webb, to whom Franklin incautiously revealed it when the former applied for employment as a journeyman, and forestalled the new printing firm by publishing, October 1,...