From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 17 June 1764
To William Strahan
ALS: Lehigh University Library6
Philada. June 17. 1764
Dear Mr. Strahan
I receiv’d your Favour per Capt. Walker,7 which I shall answer fully per Hammet,8 who sails in about ten Days. I think I am slighted lately per Mr. Becket.9 Pray enquire and tell me the Reason, that if I have been in fault I may amend.
I left some Receipts with you for Subscription Monies to Books. I wish you to enquire about them, particularly Stewart’s Athens.1
My Love to Mrs. Strahan and your Family. I am, Dear Friend, Yours affectionately
B Franklin
We are all well, and as happy as other Folks for the present.
Addressed: To / Mr Wm. Strahan / Newstreet / Shoe Lane / London
6. Plans for the publication of this edition of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin were announced in the newspapers of Sunday, January 17, 1954 (BF’s 248th birthday). The next morning Mr. James D. Mack, Librarian of Lehigh University, mailed to the editor a photostat of this previously unpublished letter. The editorial staff gratefully and happily recorded it as Accession No. 1.
7. Strahan’s letter has not been found; Pa. Gaz., June 14, 1764, reported the arrival of the Friendship, Capt. J. Walker.
8. See below, pp. 240–2; Pa. Gaz., June 28, 1764, reported the clearance of the Dragon, Capt. Francis Hammett. London Chron., Aug. 2–4, 1764, reported its arrival off Tor Bay.
9. Thomas Becket of Tully’s Head in the Strand, the publisher of BF’s The Interest of Great Britain Considered; see above, IX, 274 n. BF had ordered some books from Becket on Dec. 17, 1763, and apparently felt that his order had not been filled quickly enough; see above, X, 393–5, and below, pp. 264–5.
1. James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, The Antiquities of Athens (London, 1762). Stuart, known as “Athenian Stuart,” died in 1788. Additional volumes of this work were published in 1789, 1795, 1814, and 1830. Stuart was a member of a Club of Thirteen formed by BF and David Williams (1738–1816) about 1773 for philosophical discussion. David Williams, “More Light on Franklin’s Religious Ideas,” Amer. Hist. Rev., XLIII (1937–38), 803–12, esp. p. 810.