1411From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 17 March 1770: extract (Franklin Papers)
Extract: Historical Society of Pennsylvania What you say with regard to advancing Money for Building Mills, Bloomeries, &c. has a good deal in it, and I believe most of the Persons concerned will think with you when the Settlement comes under Consideration. I sent you a Part of L. Evans’s Map, containing the Bounds of the intended Province: You see by that, that the Scheme is much enlarg’d...
1412From Benjamin Franklin to Michael Hillegas, 17 March 1770 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The American Museum, or, Universal Magazine , VII (1790), 224–5. I received your favour of November 25, and have made enquiries, as you desired, concerning the copper covering of houses. It has been used here in a few instances only: and the practice does not seem to gain ground. The copper is about the thickness of a common playing card: and though a dearer metal than lead, I am...
1413From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 18 March 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society My Letters are all in Capt. Falconer, but as Capt. Sparks has just been so kind as to call and acquaint me that he sails to day, and I understand that Falconer will not sail till the 20th. I just write this Line to acquaint you that I am well. Mrs. Stevenson and Polly, join me in best Affections, &c. My Love to our Children, &c. I am, my dear Debby, Your...
1414From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Gilpin, 18 March 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : University of Virginia Library I receiv’d your Favour by the Hand of Mr. Abel James. An Accident happen’d to it in his Chest by the Breaking of a Bottle of some Liquid that obliterated part of it. I see however that it contains some good Remarks on the Advantages of Canals for internal Navigation in our Country, to which I heartily wish Success. What you tell me of the Practicability of...
1415From Benjamin Franklin to Humphry Marshall, 18 March 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library I was duly favoured with yours of Oct. 30, and glad to hear that some of the Colours on Experience were found useful. I show’d the Specimens you sent me to an ingenious skilful French Chemist, who has the Direction of the Royal Porcellane Manufacture at Seve near Paris, and he assured me that one of those white Earths would make a good Ingredient in that kind of...
1416From Benjamin Franklin to [Charles Thomson], 18 March 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (copy): Schaffer Library, Union College This well-publicized letter arrived in America in May, at the height of the controversy over whether to relax or maintain the nonimportation agreements now that Parliament had repealed most, but not all, of the Townshend duties. An extract containing virtually the entire letter was sent to Boston and promptly printed and reprinted there, while...
1417From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Galloway, 21 March 1770 (Franklin Papers)
AL (incomplete): the Rosenbach Foundation The movement to secure total repeal of the Townshend duties failed in the House of Commons on March 5, when the government succeeded in having the duty on tea retained as proof that Parliament still had the right to tax. This failure was more than a routine setback for Franklin. It forced him to face the question of whether the whole policy of...
1418From Benjamin Franklin to Smith, Wright & Gray, [April 1770]: résumé (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Boston Public Library [No place or date, but April, 1770. Encloses four bills: on Harley & Drummond for £200, on W. Cunningham for £20, on D. Milligan for £52, and on Alex. Grant for £30, and asks for a receipt by bearer for £302. ] BF entered these bills in his Jour., p. 23, under April 2, 1770. The first three, remittances by Parker on his postal accounts, were mentioned in his letters...
1419From Benjamin Franklin to [Joseph Smith?], 12 April 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (postscript only): William C. Coles, Moorestown, N.J. (1954) Yesterday I attended the Board of Trade and the Objections to the Bergen Act were repeated by my Lord Hillsborough, viz. that it related to private Property; in a Course of Trial at Law, which was stopt by the Act. I alledg’d that it was only a supplementary Act for compleating a Business directed by a former Act and partly...
1420From Benjamin Franklin to Samuel Cooper, 14 April 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : British Museum I suppose Govr. Pownall acquaints you with what has pass’d this Session relating to our American Affairs: All Europe is attentive to the Dispute between Britain and the Colonies; and I own I have a Satisfaction in seeing that our Part is taken every where; because I am persuaded that that Circumstance will not be without its Effect here in our Favour. At the same time the...
1421From Benjamin Franklin to Timothy Folger, 14 April 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Enclos’d with this, I send you a Map of the Island of St. John’s made from actual Survey, with a particular Map of one of the Shares, which the Owner desires to have settled, and will give you any Terms you please. In haste, I am, Yours affectionately Endorsed: Dr. Benjn. Franklin’s letter to Timothy Folger Folger had been interested in acquiring land on...
1422From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 20 April 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Munson-William-Proctor Institute This will be delivered to you by Miss Farquarson and Miss Smith, the one bred a Miliner, the other a Mantuamaker, who, by the Advice and Consent of their Friends, go to Philadelphia, with an Intention of following their respective Businesses there. They are Persons of good Character, and very well recommended to me; therefore I recommend them warmly to...
1423From Benjamin Franklin to Noble Wimberly Jones, 2 May 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : State Historical Society of Wisconsin Your Favour of Feb. 21. was duly delivered to me by Mr. Preston. I immediately bespoke the Mace agreable to your Orders, and was assured it should be work’d upon with Diligence, so that I hope to have it ready to send with the Gowns by a Ship that I understand goes directly to Georgia sometime next Month. By the Estimation of the Jeweller who...
1424Agreement to Admit the Ohio Company as Co-Purchasers with the Grand Ohio Company, 7 May 1770 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from The Historical Magazine and Notes and Queries, Concerning the Antiquities, History and Biography of America , second series, III (1868), 18. As soon as word got about that the Grand Ohio Company had asked in January for a grant of twenty million acres, rival claimants to western lands became intensely active in London. The Mississippi Company, represented by Arthur Lee, had a...
1425From Benjamin Franklin to Smith, Wright & Gray, 10 May 1770: résumé (Franklin Papers)
AL : New York Society Library [Craven Street, May 10, 1770. Asks for the protest of the bill on W. Cunningham in order to send it to America. Wants to know what happened to the two lottery tickets bought last year for Mr. Williams of Boston. ] The bill for £20 sterling drawn on William Cunninghame, near Glasgow, by Alexander Findletter of Jamaica, with which Thomas Vernon of Newport had...
1426From Benjamin Franklin to Mary Stevenson, [before 10 July 1770] (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I send you a few of your Translations. I did not put your Name as the Translator, (which I at first intended) because I apprehended it might look like Vanity, in you, and as I shall otherwise make it known, I think the omitting it, will look like Modesty. Mr. H. is here, requesting me to speak to Mrs. Tickell, which I have promis’d to do on Friday morning....
1427From Benjamin Franklin to Mary Stevenson, 31 May 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (draft): Library of Congress I receiv’d your Letter early this Morning, and as I am so engag’d that I cannot see you when you come to-day, I write this Line just to say, That I am sure you are a much better Judge in this Affair of your own than I can possibly be; in that Confidence it was that I forbore giving my Advice when you mention’d it to me, and not from any Disapprobation. My...
1428From Benjamin Franklin to Smith, Wright & Gray, 5 June 1770: résumé (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library [Craven Street, June 5, 1770. Encloses three bills: Watts & McEvers on Harley & Drummond for £150, Colin Drummond on Nesbit, Drummond & Franks for £100, and Henry Thompson on Pearson & Baillie for £50, and asks for a receipt by bearer for £300. Again requests the protest of the bill on Cunningham. ] These were Parker’s remittances from New York on his postal...
1429From Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Williams, Sr., 6 June 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Your Favour of Jan. 8 came duly to hand, but I have been so much engag’d during the Sitting of Parliament, that I could not correspond regularly with all my Friends, and have of course trespass’d most with those on whose Good Nature and Indulgence I could most rely. I am however asham’d of being so long silent. It is but the other Day that I enquired after...
1430From Benjamin Franklin to John Winthrop, 6 June 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Massachusetts Historical Society I find among my Papers a Letter of yours, dated Dec. 7. 1769, which I must have had some Months in my Hands; and tho’ I think I have answered it, I am not certain; a Multiplicity of Business during the late Sessions of Parliament having occasioned a Forgetting of some Circumstances. It will only be a little unnecessary Labour if I answer it again. I did...
1431From Benjamin Franklin to Noble Wimberly Jones, 7 June 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Bibliothèque Municipale de Nantes I wrote to you sometime since that I had receiv’d your Orders to procure a Mace and Gowns suitable for your Assembly, and that I hoped to have them ready to go by this Ship. The Gowns are accordingly ready; but the Silversmith has not kept his Time. So I think it best to send the Whole together, which I shall do by the first Opportunity after the Mace is...
1432From Benjamin Franklin to Samuel Cooper, 8 June 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : British Museum This letter contains Franklin’s first extant response to the Boston Massacre. He mentions it in closing, almost in passing, but news of it certainly underlay his discussion of the larger issue of a standing army in America. That discussion led him on to the argument, more carefully worked out than ever before, that for a century past Parliament had usurped an authority...
1433From Benjamin Franklin to Samuel Franklin, 8 June 1770 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from [Jared Sparks, ed.,] A Collection of the Familiar Letters and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Franklin (Boston, 1833), pp. 132–3. I received your kind letter of the 23d of March. I was happy to find that neither you, nor any of your family, were in the way of those murderers. I hope that before this time the town is quite freed from such dangerous and mischievous inmates. I...
1434From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 10 June 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I received your kind Letters of March 12 and April 24. I think you are the most punctual of all my Correspondents; and it is often a particular Satisfaction to me to hear from you, when I have no Letter from any one else. I did per Capt. Falconer answer Sally’s Letter about her Son’s being inoculated; and told her Sir John Pringle’s Opinion as to the...
1435From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Galloway, 11 June 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Clements Library I wrote to you per Capt. Falconer, and since by the April Packet. None went from hence in May, there being no Boat on this side. It is now long since I have received any of your Favours. I think the last was dated Nov. 8. 1769. I suppose your Indisposition, with too much Business, has prevented your Writing. I am glad to hear from our Friend Dr. Evans, that you think of...
1436From Benjamin Franklin to David Hall, 11 June 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I received your kind Letter of March 17. The continual Employment of my Time here in other Affairs, together with the Expectation I have had every Year of Returning, have prevented my considering the Accounts between us so as to compleat the Settlement, which indeed can be much better done when we are together with Mr. Parker, who may be able in a Word to...
1437From Benjamin Franklin to the New Jersey Assembly Committee of Correspondence, 11 June 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : William C. Coles, Moorestown, N.J. (1954) I received your Letter of March 27. acquainting me that a Bill had been agreed upon by the whole Legislature, to provide a more effectual Remedy against excessive Costs in the Recovery of Debts, &c. Mr. Morgann, Secretary of your Province had called upon me just before that Letter came to hand, mentioned his being informed that an Act was likely...
1438From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Galloway, 26 June 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library Since mine of the 11th. Instant per Packet, I am favoured with yours of May 16. viâ Bristol, acquainting me with what was like to be the Determination of our Merchants relating to Importation, for which I am much oblig’d to you. I hope if in any thing they vary their Agreement, it will be only to make it more uniform with the other Colonies, and in itself more...
1439From Benjamin Franklin to Samuel Rhoads, 26 June 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania It is a long time since I had the Pleasure of hearing from you directly. Mrs. Franklin has indeed now and then acquainted me of your Welfare, which I am always glad to hear of. It is, I fear, partly, if not altogether, my Fault that our Correspondence has not been regularly continued. One thing only I am sure of; that it has been from no want of Regard...
1440From Benjamin Franklin to Noble Wimberly Jones, 6 July 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (copy in Franklin’s hand): American Philosophical Society I have now sent you the Mace and Gowns you ordered. They are in two Boxes marked NWJ. No. 1, 2. and directed for you. I have put them into the Care of Mr. Crouch of your Province, who promises to ship them with his own Things. The Gowns are exactly such as are commonly used by the Speaker and Clerks here: It is only when the House...