Benjamin Franklin Papers

To Benjamin Franklin from William Jones and John Paradise, 15 July 1782

From William Jones and John Paradise4

AL:5 University of Pennsylvania Library

Paris 15 July 1782.

Mr. Paradise and Mr. Jones present their grateful respects to their inestimable friend Dr. Franklin, and beg leave to trouble him with the enclosed letter for Aleppo by the way of Marseilles,6 requesting him at the same time, if he has not had leisure to write the letters, with which he kindly intended to favour them,7 to send them by the post directed to Mr. Williams at Nantes, as they propose to set out towards Orleans as soon as the heat of the day is a little abated. They wish him perfect health and all possible happiness, hoping again to pay their respects to him on their return from America.

Addressed: A son Excellence / Monsieur / Monsr. Franklin / Ministre Plénipotentiaire / des Etats Unis / &c. &c.

Notation: Paradise 15. July 1782

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

4The pair left Dover on June 19 for a journey to America, planning to sail from a French port. Paradise was traveling on family business, while Jones, frustrated in his pursuit of a judicial appointment in India, considered practicing law in America. Jay met them when he visited BF on the afternoon of June 27 and thereafter saw them three or four more times. They so aroused his suspicion that he warned BF and Lafayette against them and refused to trust them with letters for America: XXXVI, 655n; Morris, Jay: Peace, p. 447; Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, VI, 12–14; Garland Cannon, The Life and Mind of Oriental Jones: Sir William Jones, the Father of Modern Linguistics (Cambridge, New York, and Port Chester, N.Y., 1990), pp. 158–65, 174–6; Archibald P. Shepperson, John Paradise and Lucy Ludwell of London and Williamsburg (Richmond, 1942), pp. 155–7.

5In William Jones’s hand.

6It was from Jones: Cannon, Oriental Jones, p. 177. Aleppo (Halab) is in Syria.

7We assume these are the three letters of recommendation printed immediately below.

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