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.]
4. BF 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.
5. BF 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.