Benjamin Franklin Papers

From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Smith, 15 July 1773

To Joseph Smith

AL (fragment of letterbook draft):3 Library of Congress

London, July 15. 1773

Sir,

I am much obliged by your kind Care in receiving what the Assembly have been so good as to allow me. Please to

Mr Smith

[Franklin’s memorandum:] Wrote to Abel James and Govr. Franklin in Recommendation of Morris Birkbeck a Quaker who goes over to look for lands.4

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

3. The fragment has been crossed out, presumably by BF himself.

4. The recommendations have been lost. Morris Birkbeck (1734?-1816) came from Guildford and was apparently a friend of David Barclay, through whom BF might naturally have met him. Birkbeck went to America and settled for a time in Pennsylvania, became acquainted with Anthony Benezet, and returned to England in 1775. The Philadelphia meeting certified him to the meeting in Settle, Yorks., where he seems to have been particularly concerned with elementary education. George S. Brookes, Friend Anthony Benezet (Philadelphia, 1937), p. 358; Hinshaw, Amer. Quaker Genealogy, II, 466.

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    Franklin Papers
    Title
    From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Smith, 15 July 1773
    Author
    Franklin, Benjamin
    Recipient
    Smith, Joseph
    Date
    15 July 1773

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Smith, 15 July 1773,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-20-02-0171. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 20, January 1 through December 31, 1773, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1976, p. 319.]

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