From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 13 July 1765
To Deborah Franklin
ALS: American Philosophical Society
London, July 13. 1765.
My dear Child,
I had the great Pleasure of hearing from you and Sally last Night per Packet.3 I cannot now answer every particular of your Letters, having many to write that are to go per this Days Mail: but will per next Opportunity. Mrs. Stevenson bids me tell Sally that the striped Gown I have sent her will wash; but it must be with a light hand in a cold Lather.
I am glad to hear of Capt. Robinson’s Arrival,4 and it gives me Pleasure that so many of my Friends honour’d our new Dining Room with their Company.5 You tell me only of a Fault they found with the House, that it was too little; and not a Word of any thing they lik’d in it: Nor how the Kitchin Chimneys perform; so I suppose you spare me some Mortification, which is kind. I wonder you put up the Oven without Mr. Roberts’s Advice, as I think you told me he had my old Letter of Directions.6 But I can add no more, only that I am very well and in good Spirits. My Love to all. Your affectionate Husband
B Franklin
PS. I wrote you largely per Capt. Friend,7 and sent a Case marked B F. with a number of Particulars.
Addressed: To / Mrs Franklin / at / Philadelphia / via New York / per Packet / Free B Franklin
3. Apparently a reference to letters sent by the June packet via N.Y. No letter from DF of appropriate date has been found; Sally’s letter may have been the one of May 30; above, pp. 152–3.
4. Capt. James Robinson, who had carried BF to England, arrived in Philadelphia, May 31, after being becalmed at sea for about seven weeks. Pa. Gaz., June 6, 1765.
5. In his letter of June 4 (above, p. 168), BF referred to a group of “old Friends” whom DF has apparently told him had drunk his health “in the unfinished Kitchen,” but her account of a later gathering in the new dining room, perhaps to celebrate Captain Robinson’s safe arrival, has not survived.
6. Apparently the chimney included “several Contrivances to carry off Steam and Smell and Smoke,” and Hugh Roberts, an ironmonger, had a letter by BF regarding the installation of an iron oven; above, p. 167. It is most unfortunate that no details of these facilities survive. Gunning Bedford’s insurance survey of Aug. 5, 1766, indicates that the kitchen was in the cellar. APS Proc., XCIII (1949), 193.
7. His letter of June 4, cited above.