Sargent Aufrere & Co. to Charles Norris, 9 July 1762
Sargent Aufrere & Co. to Charles Norris
LS and duplicate: 3Historical Society of Pennsylvania
9th July [1762]
Sir,
The foregoing is what we wrote yesterday, since which we are favoured with yours of the 18 May covering a bill value £2500 to Reimburse us for the Bills we paid that were drawn on Mr. Franklin,4 and by the Carolina Captn. Friend who proposes Clearing out for your Colony next week we shall send you an Exact state of that Account.5 We have the pleasure of informing you that just now the Lords of the Treasury have agreed to Issue their Warrant for £190,000 to be divided amongst the Colonys agreable to the last years Division, and the remaining £10,000 to be divided hereafter as it may appear to be due.6 When we receive these Warrants you shall be duely advised thereof by the first Conveyance and also when the Money is paid, which may probably be some months first. We must request when you draw any more Bills on us you will please to furnish us with a list thereof, expressing the Number, date, sum and to whom payable to prevent any mistake, which will very much Oblige Sir Your very humble Servants
Sargent, Aufrere & Co
Addressed: To / Mr. Charles Norris / In / Philadelphia
Endorsed: recd: July 8. 9. 10. 1762 Messrs Sargent Aufrere & Compa: advising the reception of the Trustees Letters of May. 11th. 12th.8 and 18th. and the Amo of Parliamentary Recd per
3. The LS follows, on a single sheet, a letter of July 8, which is not printed here because it relates entirely to the parliamentary grant for 1760, in which BF was not concerned. The duplicate is on a sheet by itself and is marked “Copy.”
4. The trustees’ letter of May 18 not found; on the Assembly’s order to the trustees to reimburse Sargent Aufrere, see above, pp. 12–13 n.
5. For this account, see below, pp. 134–5. On the voyage of the Carolina, Capt. James Friend, on which BF sailed home, see the document immediately below.
6. On Jan. 20, 1761, the House of Commons voted £200,000 to reimburse the colonies for their expenditures during the campaign of 1760. The Treasury released only £190,000, however, because Mass. and Conn. said that they had performed extraordinary services during the campaign and deserved a larger share than they had received from the earlier grants. Therefore £10,000 was reserved pending the determination of their claims. Pa. received £24,988 0s. 6d. (after all the fees and commissions were paid) from the grant for 1760, but it was later discovered that the province had been overpaid £10,947 and in 1764 the Assembly was obliged to divide this amount among the other colonies. 8 Pa. Arch., VII, 5514, 5583; Pa. Col. Recs., IX, 47–51; Sargent Aufrere to Charles Norris, July 30, 1762, Hist. Soc. Pa.
7. So dated at the end of the MS here printed, in the same hand as the signature, but no such dating appears in the duplicate. Probably the letter was dictated on the 9th and signed on the 10th. The double dating obviously caused some confusion when the letter reached Philadelphia, as is shown by the endorsement and by Isaac Norris’ statement to the Assembly (see the document immediately below). No other letter from Sargent Aufrere dated July 10 has been found.
8. In their letter of July 8 (mentioned in the first note above) Sargent Aufrere acknowledged receipt of the trustees’ letters of May 11 and 12.