From Benjamin Franklin to William Coleman, 8 December 1757
To William Coleman5
MS not found; abstract: Minute-Book of the Academy Trustees, Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
At a Meeting of the Trustees at the Academy March 14th 1758
Present
| Richard Peters | Thomas White |
| William Coleman | Alexander Stedman |
Mr. Franklin having by a Letter to Mr. Coleman dated from London Dec. 8th 1757 requested him to inform the Trustees that he had on their Account discharged a Bill of Articles for an Apparatus in Experimental Philosophy, amounting to £69 11s. Sterling and that he had further undertaken to pay Mr. Collinson a Ballance of £138 4s. 2d. Sterling due to him on the same Account and having in the same Letter likewise requested that the Trustees would remit him the Sum of £207 15s. 2d. Sterling to reimburse him; the Trustees present taking this Affair into Consideration are of Opinion that the above Sum of £207 15s. 2d. Sterling should forthwith be remited to Mr. Franklin by the Treasurer, and desire the President to issue an Order for that Purpose.6
5. See above, II, 406 n.
6. BF had paid £69 11s. to Jonathan Sisson (an instrument maker, see above, IV, 448 n) on Nov. 2, 1757. He sent an account to Coleman, Sept. 12, 1758, showing that the Academy still owed him £132 14s. 5d., and only on March 4, 1759, did he record final settlement of this account. “Account of Expences,” pp. 6, 23, 24; PMHB, LV (1931), 104, 113, 116. The balance due to Collinson represented books and instruments the latter had bought for the Academy before BF’s arrival in England. See above, VI, 171–2, 228; and this volume pp. 49–50.