Benjamin Franklin Papers

From Benjamin Franklin to Archibald Lyons, 24 March 1781

To Archibald Lyons

AL (draft): American Philosophical Society

Passy, March 24. 1781

Sir,

I receiv’d your Letter dated the 17th. I shall apply this Day for an Order that you & your Friends may sell the Boat for your own Use &4 be at Liberty to go to L’Orient, where you will find Vessels bound to America.5

I am, Sir,

Mr. Archibald Lyons.—

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

4BF interlined the preceding eight words. This was not the first time he had arranged for an order permitting escaped prisoners to sell a boat to fund their relocation; see XXXII, 255.

5BF here wrote and then deleted, “As you are quite unknown to me”; on the verso of the letter appear the words “it would have been”, which may have been a continuation of the phrase that he deleted.

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