Benjamin Franklin Papers
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From Benjamin Franklin to Lord and Lady Bathurst, [before 13 February 1768]

To Lord and Lady Bathurst4

AL: Dartmouth College Library

[Before February 13, 1768]5

Dr. Franklin presents his respectful Compliments to Lord Bathurst, with some American Nuts; and to Lady Bathurst, with some American Apples; which he prays they would accept, as a Tribute from that Country, small indeed, but voluntary.

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

4. An elderly and distinguished pair. Allen Bathurst, first Earl Bathurst (1684–1775), had been one of the twelve men raised to the peerage by Queen Anne to pack the House of Lords in 1712; he was a friend or admirer of wits and poets-Pope and Swift, Congreve and Prior, and later Laurence Sterne. Catherine Apsley Bathurst, daughter of Sir Peter Apsley and cousin to her husband, married him in 1704 and died, four months after receiving BF’s gift, on June 8, 1768, at the age of seventy-nine. DNB.

5. See the following document. Two undated invitations for dinner from Lord Bathurst in the APS may be related to BF’s gift.

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    Franklin Papers
    Title
    From Benjamin Franklin to Lord and Lady Bathurst, [before 13 February 1768]
    Author
    Franklin, Benjamin
    Recipients
    Bathurst, Lord
    Bathurst, Lady
    Date
    1 November 1762 – 12 February 1768

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From Benjamin Franklin to Lord and Lady Bathurst, [before 13 February 1768],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-15-02-0023. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 15, January 1 through December 31, 1768, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1972, p. 45.]