91From Benjamin Franklin to Sir Alexander Dick, 11 December 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New York Public Library I take the Opportunity of a Ship from this Place to Leith, once more to pay my Respects to my good Friend from this Side the Water, and to assure him that neither Time nor Distance have in the least weakened the Impression on my Mind, stampt there by his Kindness to me and my Son, while we were in Scotland. When I saw him last, we talk’d over the pleasant Hours we...
92From Benjamin Franklin to Mary Stevenson, 22 March 1762 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Stan. V. Henkels, Catalogue No. 1262 (July 1, 1920), pp. 15–16. I must retract the Charge of Idleness in your Studies, when I find you have gone thro’ the doubly difficult Task of reading so big a Book on an abstruse Subject and in a foreign Language. The Question you were about to ask is a very sensible one. The Hand that holds the Bottle receives and conducts...
93To Benjamin Franklin from Frederick Shinkle: Bill and Receipt, 13 December 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ADS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania To Frederick Shinkle 1762 January 8 To 1 pr. Breeches for Dunlaps Negroe £1. 7. – 1763 May. 13 To 1 pr. Breeches for Negroe 1. 7. – To Washing and altering 2 pr. Breeches – 7. 6
94To Benjamin Franklin from William Strahan, 18 August 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania I had the favour of yours of June 28th from New York last Friday. Next Morning I set out for Salisbury, where I had a little Business, and yesterday came from thence to this place, where my Wife has been these Six Weeks for her health, and I thank God not without Effect, for I found her greatly recruited. Here I propose to stay a few days, and leave her...
95To Benjamin Franklin from Elizabeth Henmarsh: Deed, 1 January 1763 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Department of Records, Recorder of Deeds, City of Philadelphia January 1, 1763 Abstract: In consideration of £100, Elizabeth Henmarsh of Philadelphia, widow, grants and sells to Benjamin Franklin a lot of land in Philadelphia, 16 ft. wide, north and south, and 73 ft. deep, bounded east by Sixth Street, south and west by lands of Isaac Zane, and north by land granted by Zane to James...
96William Strahan to David Hall, 10 August 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society (extract only printed here) The extract printed below is not in any strict sense a part of the Franklin Papers. It is included here, however, as a quite extraordinary tribute to Franklin’s personal qualities written by a British friend on the eve of his departure from England. Franklin and Strahan had carried on a business correspondence for fourteen years...
97From Benjamin Franklin to Sir Alexander Dick, 16 August 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library I am now here just on the Point of departing for America. I cannot go without taking Leave of one from whom I received so many Civilities, so much real Kindness. Accept my sincerest Thanks, and do me the Justice to believe that wherever I am, I shall, while I live, retain a grateful Sense of your Favours. I cannot hope ever to see you in America; but possibly some...
98From Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, 20 May 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I am just return’d from Virginia, and find your Favour of April 11. I purpose setting out with my Colleague Mr. Foxcroft for New England, the Beginning of next Month, and hope soon for the Pleasure of seeing you; but have no Expectation of bringing my Dame to undertake such a Journey; and have not yet ask’d her Opinion of Sally’s going. My Love to Brother...
99From Benjamin Franklin to Anthony Todd, 1 June 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library In my last of April 14. I acquainted you that I was then just setting out for Virginia, in order to settle Accounts with Mr. Hunter’s Executors who reside there, and to obtain the Ballance I conceiv’d due to the General Post-Office from his Estate of more than £400 Sterling, out of which they would have deducted a Demand of £372. 12 s . 8 d ., which I finally...
100From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 12 December 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Universitatsbibliothek Leipzig, Sammlung Kestner In the spring of 1763 Ezra Stiles began to experiment with the raising of silkworms at his home in Newport, R.I. When Franklin visited him in early July the minister’s 3,000 worms were just beginning to cocoon, and he had just finished the strenuous task of gathering up to five bushels of mulberry leaves each day from his own and...
101From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 24 March 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I condole with you most sincerely on the Death of our good Mother; being extreamly sensible of the Distress and Affliction it must have thrown you into. Your Comfort will be, that no Care was wanting on your Part towards her, and that she had lived as long as this Life could afford her any rational Enjoyment. ’Tis, I am sure, a Satisfaction to me, that I...
102From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Becket, 17 December 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Columbia University Library I have received yours of Sept. 12. with the Pamphlets, as mentioned. I have before acknowledged yours of June 24, which came duly to hand with the Books &c. I approve of your continuing Les Arts et Metieres. The Directors of the Library Company thought the Books you sent them rather higher charg’d than usual; they had therefore, before I came home, fallen on...
103To Benjamin Franklin from Mary Stevenson, 30 August 1763 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: American Philosophical Society I have two Letters to thank you for since I wrote to you from Bromley, which tho short gave me pleasure as they assured me of your Welfare and the continuance of your Regard for your Polly. I now have the pleasure of returning your Friend’s Musick with the desir’d supplement. Mr. Stanley begg’d I would present his best Respects to you, and tell you how...
104To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Collinson, 9 September 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I reced both Yours from Boston —it is a Pleasure to hear from the Man I Love. I Submit the Inclosed to your perusal. Your Free remarks on them will be acceptable. I that Live so remote am not so good a Judge of the Reasonabl[n]ess and practibility of Them. They were drawn up at the breaking out of the Cherokee Warr and presented to those at the Helm. Its...
105From Benjamin Franklin to Catharine Greene, 23 January 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I received with great Pleasure my Dear Friend’s Favour of December 20. as it inform’d me that you and yours are all well. Mrs. Franklin admits of your Apology for dropping the Correspondence with her, and allows your Reasons to be good; but hopes when you have more Leisure it may be renew’d. She joins with me in congratulating you on your present happy...
106To Benjamin Franklin from John Sargent, 12 August 1762 (Franklin Papers)
Copy (incomplete), MS minutes: Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania By our Friends here I am enabled to convey the enclosed Trifles to you, which are the best I could meet with at present and cost 5 Guineas each. You remember the Intention viz, for the two best Performances at the general Meeting or Publick Act of your College or Seminary. The Subject of one to be, in a short English...
107From Benjamin Franklin to Lord Kames, 17 August 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Scottish Record Office I am now waiting here only for a Wind to waft me to America, but cannot leave this happy Island and my Friends in it, without extream Regret, tho’ I am going to a Country and a People that I love. I am going from the old World to the new; and I fancy I feel like those who are leaving this World for the next; Grief at the Parting; Fear of the Passage; Hope of the...
108To Benjamin Franklin from Sargent Aufrere & Co., 8 January 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS and copy: Historical Society of Pennsylvania Mr. Barclay is not come to Town yet, and it is uncertain whether we may be able to confer with him, and give you the result time enough for your writing by this packet, we will therefore take our own Resolution, and undertake to pay, ourselves, what part of the Colony’s drafts on you (by means of the deficiency of the Stock) you shall not have...
109From Benjamin Franklin to Catharine Greene, 6 June 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Mary A. Benjamin, New York City (1962); copy: American Philosophical Society On my Return from Virginia lately, I found your agreable Favour of April 24. by which I had the Pleasure of learning that you and Mr. Greene and your little ones were well. Your Invitation is extreamly obliging, and certainly I could not have forgiven myself if I had pass’d thro’ New England without calling to...
110From Benjamin Franklin to [Thomas Holme], 30 March 1762 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from John Bigelow, ed., The Works of Benjamin Franklin (Federal edition, N.Y. and London, 1904), XII , 281–3. I am favored with yours of the 27th instant, enclosing a bank note of £20, which makes £70 now repaid by Overal. I acquainted you in mine by last Saturday’s post that I had reason to think the whole sum to be repaid would not be so great as I before computed it,...
111[Keziah Folger Coffin?]: Genealogy of the Folger Family, 18 [December] 1763 (Franklin Papers)
AD : Historical Society of Pennsylvania Franklin’s interest in his family background and connections extended throughout his life. In 1739 he had sought and received from his father information about the family name and his paternal line; in England he had visited Ecton, Banbury, and Birmingham and had looked up the records of his ancestors, met as many as possible of his and his wife’s living...
112Oxford University: Record of Degree of Doctor of Civil Law, 30 April 1762 (Franklin Papers)
MS Register of Convocation, University Archives: Oxford University The “Heads of Houses” at Oxford University had voted, Feb. 22, 1762, to confer on Franklin the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law “whenever He shall please to visit the University.” Above, p. 59. The ceremony took place at a special Convocation on April 30, 1762. No copy of the diploma survives and the only official record...
113From Benjamin Franklin to Joshua Babcock, 5 September 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library Returning hither from Portsmouth, I find your agreeable Favour of Augt. 19. containing your kind Invitation to Westerly, where I am sure I could pass some Days with great Pleasure; but doubt whether it will be in my Power. I perceive the Artifice of your Eloquence, which in some degree saves me from being carried away by its Force. You promise me the Communication...
114From Benjamin Franklin to [John Ellicott], 22 September 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library In coming thro’ New York to this Place, I made a second Enquiry after Mrs. Holland, and was assur’d there was not nor had been in that Place any such Person. As I return I shall notwithstanding cause an Advertisement to be printed in the Newspapers, if possible by that means to gain Intelligence of her. I will likewise cause another to be printed in the Virginia...
115From Benjamin Franklin to Isaac Norris; Pennsylvania Assembly Committee of Accounts: Report, 9, 15, and 19 February 1763 (Franklin Papers)
I. Draft: American Philosophical Society. II. ALS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania. III. Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1762–1763 (Philadelphia, 1763), pp. 28–9. On Feb. 9, 1763, Franklin drafted a letter to serve as preface to a statement of his expenses as agent of the Assembly in England (Document I). After considering the draft, however, he must have...
116From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 24 February 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society We din’d at Bristol, and got here last Night in good time; the River was hard and firm, and we got well over. Sir John Sinclair came to us and very obligingly offer’d his Chariot and four for the rest of the Journey. This Morning we set out for Brunswic. The Thing I wanted to mention to you, but forgot, was; that in the Hurry of our Arrival from Chester I...
117To Benjamin Franklin from John Winthrop, 29 September 1762 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Benjamin Franklin, Experiments and Observations on Electricity (London, 1769), p. 434. There is an observation relating to electricity in the atmosphere, which seemed new to me, though perhaps it will not to you: However, I will venture to mention it. I have some points on the top of my house, and the wire where it passes within-side the house is furnished with...
118From Benjamin Franklin to Charles Norris and Thomas Leech, 9 January 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS and copy: Historical Society of Pennsylvania When your Drafts upon me first came to hand, the Form appearing new to me and very particular, containing as I thought an Alternative at my Choice to pay the Money in 30 Days or in 12 Months, I accepted some of them with the long Day, expecting that a Letter from you would explain your Intention in that Form; but receiving no Line on the...
119To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Collinson, 8 June 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society The Going away of Ships are So uncertain, and I am So Frequent out of Town—I write this Letter to my Dear Friend premature because I do not Inclose a receipt for the Box which I expect to do in my Next if I am not out of Town when the Ship Sails. The Box comes by Capt. Friend in the Carolina. In it is Books and Catologues for Lib: Company, Some for J:...
120From Benjamin Franklin to Mary Stevenson, 10 June 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Dartmouth College Library I wrote to my dear Friend’s good Mama to day, and said I should hardly have time to write to you; but finding a spare half Hour, I will indulge myself in the Pleasure of spending it with you. I have just receiv’d your most agreable Epistle of March 11. The Ease, the Smoothness, the Purity of Diction, and Delicacy of Sentiment, that always appear in your Letters,...