To Benjamin Franklin from Phillip Faure: Promissory Note, 25 May 1779
From Phillip Faure: Promissory Note2
Two DS:3 American Philosophical Society
Passy May 25. 1779
Received of his Excellency B. Franklin Esqr Two Louis d’ors, to assist me in returning to America which I promise to repay to the honble. President of Congress, or his Order. I have signed three Notes of this Tenor & Date to serve as one.
Phillip Faure
Surgeon of the Frigate Hancock.
Notation in William Temple Franklin’s hand: Philip Faure’s Notes of hand for 2 Louis
2. This promissory note differs slightly in form from the one which BF used earlier in the spring; see that from John Mace, April 12, above. Over the next few months BF will issue, in identical format, several more of these promises by escaped prisoners to repay money lent them at Passy. The dates, amounts, and names are as follows: on July 1, eight louis for Eli Vickery; on Sept. 13, ten louis for Jean de Guio; and on Oct. 24, the same sum for John Pleini. Vickery’s, Guio’s, and Pleini’s notes exist in two copies. All the documents are at the APS. The Alphabetical List of Escaped Prisoners confirms the amounts, and provides the additional information that Guio was a Canadian and Pleini from Charleston, S.C. Guio will reappear in vol. 30, seeking his return passage to America; see BF to Schweighauser, Sept. 13. Library of Congress. Philip Wagner (for whom see our headnote to the favor seekers, March 6, above) also signed one (in three copies, one in French). APS.
3. Numbered “No. 2.” and “No. 3.”