1To Benjamin Franklin from William Franklin, 6 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society The Session of the Assembly which ended the 21st. Ulto. and the Xmas Holidays since, have so engrossed my Time, that I have not been able to write you fully as I intended. At present I have taken up the Pen principally to acquaint you that I have had a very amicable Session, contrary to the Expectation of every Body, and indeed contrary to the Intention of...
2From Benjamin Franklin to Sir Alexander Dick, 11 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New York Public Library My last Expedition convinc’d me that I grow too old for Rambling, and that ’twas probable I should never make such another Journey. ’Tis an uncomfortable Thing, the Parting with Friends one hardly expects ever again to see. This, with some occasional Hindrances, prevented my calling at Preston Fields after my Return from Glasgow: But my Heart was with you and your...
3From Benjamin Franklin to Agatha Drummond, 11 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Scottish Record Office I have lately received, in exceeding good Order, the valuable Present you have honoured me with, of Penn’s Picture. Please to accept my thankful Acknowledgments for the very great Favour, and for the abundant Civilities and Kindnesses receiv’d by me and my Friend during our pleasant Residence under your hospitable Roof at Blair Drummond. My best Respects to Lord...
4From Benjamin Franklin to Joshua Babcock, 13 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (letterbook draft): American Philosophical Society It was with great Pleasure I learnt by Mr. Marchant, that you and Mrs. Babcock and all your good Family continue well and happy. I hope I shall find you all in the same State when I next come your Way, and take Shelter as often heretofore under your hospitable Roof. The Colonel, I am told, continues an active and able Farmer, the most...
5From Benjamin Franklin to James Bowdoin, 13 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Massachusetts Historical Society; draft: American Philosophical Society In this letter, as in others later in the month, Franklin touched on a subject of crucial importance in the developing Anglo-American quarrel, the validity of the crown’s instructions to colonial governors. The issue had underlain the wrangling the year before between Governor Hutchinson and the House of...
6From Benjamin Franklin to Samuel Cooper, 13 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : British Museum; draft: American Philosophical Society I have now before me your several Favours of July 10, Aug. 23, and Nov. 5. A long Journey I took in the Summer and Autumn for the Establishment of my Health, prevented my answering sooner the two first. I hope the State of your Health also is mended by your Retirement into the Country, as mine has sensibly been by that Journey. You...
7From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Cushing, 13 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Public Record Office; incomplete draft: American Philosophical Society I am now return’d again to London from a Journey of some Months in Ireland and Scotland. Though my Constitution, and too great Confinement to Business during the Winter, seem to require the Air and Exercise of a long Journey once a Year, which I have now practiced for more than 20 Years past, yet I should not have...
8From Benjamin Franklin to Samuel Franklin, 13 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (letterbook draft): American Philosophical Society I received your kind Letter of Nov. 8. and rejoice to hear of the continued Welfare of you and your good Wife and four Daughters: I hope they will all get good Husbands. I dare say they will be educated so as to deserve them. I knew a wise old Man, who us’d to advise his young Friends to chuse Wives out of a Bunch; for where there were...
9From Benjamin Franklin to Catharine Greene, [13 January? 1772] (Franklin Papers)
ALS (letterbook draft; incomplete): American Philosophical Society [ First part missing :] I Send you a Copy of the Receipt, hoping that you may be a means of introducing so valuable a Manufacture into your Country; the more valuable, as the Cream is saved, and thence the Farm affords more Butter; at the same time that the Cheese is of so much greater Value. The principal Cause of its Goodness...
10From Benjamin Franklin to the Massachusetts House of Representatives Committee of Correspondence, 13 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from Jared Sparks, ed., The Works of Benjamin Franklin … (10 vols., Boston, 1836–40), VII , 543–5. On my return from a late tour through Ireland and Scotland, for the establishment of my health, I found your respected letter of June 25th, with the papers therein referred to, relating to the townships settled eastward of Penobscot River. I immediately waited on Mr. Bollan to consult...
11From Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, 13 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Miss Louise B. Wallace, Los Angeles, California (1955); incomplete draft: American Philosophical Society I received your kind Letters of Sept. 12. and Nov. 9. I have now been some Weeks returned from my Journey thro’ Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and the North of England, which besides being an agreable Tour with a pleasant Companion, has contributed to the Establishment of my Health; and...
12From Benjamin Franklin to Elizabeth Hubbart Partridge, 13 January 1772: fragment (Franklin Papers)
ALS (letterbook draft; incomplete): American Philosophical Society I received your angry-a-little Letter by Mr. Marchant, written to me “tho’ I had suffered a preceding one to remain two Years unanswered.” If I did so, which I doubt, I was exceedingly to blame, and must desire you to excuse me in consideration of the many I have to write and the little time I have for Writing. I am sure I...
13From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 13 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New Haven Colony Historical Society; draft: American Philosophical Society I receiv’d your Favour by Mr. Marchant, who appears a very worthy Gentleman, and I shall not fail to render him every Service in my Power. There is lately published in Paris, a Work intitled Zend-avesta , or the Writings of Zoroaster , containing the Theological, Philosophical and Moral Ideas of that Legislator,...
14From Benjamin Franklin to Samuel Ward, 13 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (letterbook draft): American Philosophical Society I thank you for recommending Mr. Marchant to me. I have had the Pleasure of a good deal of his Company in Scotland, and shall do every thing in my Power to serve him. I condole with you on the Loss of your amiable Partner. It must be a heavy one and hard to bear. I hope you will find Comfort in your Children. With great Esteem, I am, Dear...
15From Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Williams, Sr., 13 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Since my last, which I think was by Jonathan, I have receiv’d yours of July 8, and 12. Aug. 5, Sept. 19. and Oct. 3. My not answering sooner was owing to my Absence in Ireland and Scotland on a Tour of between 3 and 4 Months, by which my Health was much benefited: And since my Return this is the first Ship to Boston that I have heard of. In yours of July 8....
16From Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Williams, Jr., 13 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I received yours of Sept. [ blank ] and Nov. 4. It gave me great Pleasure to hear of your safe Arrival and Entring on Business with such Appearance of Success. I wish you every kind of Prosperity. Agreable to your Request after making a rough Sketch of the Account which I now send to your Father, I paid the Ballance appearing in my Hands £83 3 s. 9½ d. to...
17From Benjamin Franklin to John Winthrop, 13 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (letterbook draft): American Philosophical Society I have received by Mr. Marchant the 52 s. you sent by him. I hope you received the Transactions for 1770. A new Volume is expected soon, which I shall forward by the first Opportunity. The enclos’d I have just receiv’d from Dr. Price, into whose Hands I put your Paper, which he has now return’d to me. Let me know if you would have me give...
18To Benjamin Franklin from Anthony Tissington, 15 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I hope this will find you well in Craven Street, after a Summer of rambling, in which I have been so unfortunate as not to see you; in your first ramble thro’ Derbyshire I was in Scotland; in your last, at home, and sick of not seeing you. I am my Self very well, my Wife yet poorly; wishes to hear that Mrs. Stevenson holds stout; and yesterday sent a Turkey...
19To Benjamin Franklin from Hannah Walker, 15 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I Humbly beg Leave to Congratulate you on the Happy return of your Birth Day and wish you a great many returns in health and Happiness to the great Comfort of all your good Family and to all those as have felt the Effects of your Benevolent Hand as I my Self think I am bound in Duty to Congratulate So good a Friend on So happy occasion. My Family joyns me...
20To Benjamin Franklin from Richard Jackson, [16 January? 1772] (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I return you Monsr. D Anquetil’s Voyage, which I found reason to wish to read more attentively than I at first intended to have done. The Evident carelessness and Ignorance of the Author in many Points and his palpable Malignity against the whole English Nation, in general, notwithstanding he is obliged to confess the Civility he received from Particulars,...
21To Benjamin Franklin from Elizabeth Montagu, [January?] 16, [1772?] (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society Mrs. Montagu presents her compliments to Dr. Franklyn, and is afraid he will think her troublesome in desiring the favour of his company on Sunday next the 19th, as well as on this day sennight. Mr. Bolton, who has promised to dine with Mrs. Montagu on sunday, will be best rewarded for his civility by meeting Dr. Franklyn, and so great an Artist as Mr....
22To Benjamin Franklin from William Outram, 17 January 1772: résumé (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society <London, January 17, 1772: Has been commissioned by the Rev. Mr. Dunlap to take care of buying and shipping a good armonica for Dunlap’s son Benjamin, organist in his father’s church in Virginia, and to ask Franklin where such an instrument might be had; should be obliged to have the information addressed to him at the bar of the Virginia Coffee House. > A...
23Mrs. R. W. Viny to Margaret Stevenson, 17 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Editors now and then encounter a document that seems designed to train them in humility, and the one below is a case in point. The circumstances surrounding Mrs. Stevenson’s and Franklin’s projected visit to the Vinys are as obscure, thanks to the writer’s prose, as they are insignificant. But the letter does throw some light on how acquaintances of humble...
24To Benjamin Franklin from Miss Martin, 20 January 1772: résumé (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society <General Post Office, January 20, 1772; a note in the third person. Asks Franklin to accept a copy of an Irish almanac which she has received that day. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson join her in compliments.> She has not appeared before, and no other correspondence of hers with BF is extant. We have discovered little about her except that she knew him reasonably well....
25To Benjamin Franklin from John Hope, 23 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania I was honoured with yours of the 11th in Course of Post But defered acknowledging the Receipt of it till the box of plants arrived—which box came to hand yesterday and I hope I shall be able to save a few of them. By an odd accident the medal has not been got ready and it may be still some weeks before it is. But as soon as it is ready, it shall be...
26To Benjamin Franklin from Sargent, Chambers and Co., 25 January 1772: résumé (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society <Mincing Lane, January 25, 1772, in the third person. The firm has received instructions by Mr. Bache to withdraw Franklin’s account, which with interest amounts to £149 16 s. 1 d. ; what does he wish to have done with the money? > For the mercantile firm, formerly Sargent Aufrere, see above, IX , 359 n; XIII , 295 n. The withdrawal was part of a present of...
27To Benjamin Franklin from Jonathan Shipley, 25 January [1772–75?]: résumé (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society <Jermyn Street, January 25, [1772–75? ], in the third person and the Bishop’s hand. Invites Franklin to dinner tomorrow.> BF ’s acquaintance with the Bishop of St. Asaph and his family began, as far as we know, in the summer of 1771; we are therefore assigning this invitation to what seems to be the earliest likely date.
28From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 28 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (letterbook draft): American Philosophical Society I have written several short Letters to you lately just to let you know of my Welfare, and promising to write more fully by Capt. Falconer, which I now sit down to do, with a Number of your Favours before me. I received the Box and Letter from Mr. Peter Miller, but if as you mention, Enoch Davenport brought it, I did not see him. Perhaps...
29From Benjamin Franklin to Anthony Tissington, 28 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (letterbook draft): American Philosophical Society I received your very kind Letter of the 15th. together with the Turkey, which prov’d exceeding fine. We regal’d a Number of our Friends with it, and drank your and Mrs. Tissington’s Health, which we wish’d sincerely. Mrs. Stevenson keeps about, but is ever ailing, like your Dame, with Rheumatic Pains that fly from Limb to Limb continually....
30From Benjamin Franklin to Sarah Franklin Bache, 29 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (letterbook draft): American Philosophical Society I received your agreable Letters of Oct. 11. and Nov. 5. I met with Mr. Bache at Preston, where I staid two or three Days, being very kindly entertained by his Mother and Sisters, whom I lik’d much. He came to town with me, and is now going home to you. I have advis’d him to settle down to Business in Philadelphia where he will always be...