To Benjamin Franklin from David Barclay, [8 December 1774]
From David Barclay
AL and copy:1 Library of Congress
Cheapside 8th: Inst. [December 8, 1774]
D. Barclay presents his Respects to Dr. Franklin and requests to receive the paper2 to day by Twelve o’Clock, if he can finish it with Conveniency, otherwise as soon after as best suits him.
Addressed: Dr. Franklin / Cravenstreet
1. The AL has been removed from BF’s journal of negotiations below, March 22; the copy is in the copy of the journal.
2. The “Hints” above, under Dec. 4; BF had promised to make a fair copy. Barclay, for all his politeness, was obviously in a hurry; and BF said that he responded at once. Yet four days elapsed before Barclay forwarded the “Hints” to Lord Hyde, who in turn did not send them to Dartmouth until Dec. 15. Fothergill’s copy must have reached the Secretary sooner, for by the 13th Hyde was confident that it had been imparted “to the proper officer.” Below, pp. 563, 378 n; Hyde to Barclay, Dec. 13, 1774: Richard Hingston Fox, Dr. John Fothergill and His Friends ... (London, 1919), p. 395.