To Benjamin Franklin from William Temple Franklin, 9 November 1784
From William Temple Franklin
ALS: American Philosophical Society
London 9 Novr. 1784.—
You may recollect, my dear Sir, when I informed you of Mrs. Hewsons having deviated from her first Determination, I said, or hinted, that it was not impossible that she might change again:—2 It has turn’d out so. On my Return from Chilbolton I found a Letter from her, informing me that I had staid so long, that I had given her time to Change her Mind again—& that unless I had so order’d my Affairs that I could not take her & her Children,—She was resolved on going.—3 I ansd. her, that her Compy would be perfectly agreable & convenient to me,—& so much so,—that I should make all possible Diligence for our Departure—for fear of again giving her time to change. So that in all probability you will see us together.— I had already made an Agreement with a Man to take a Chariot to Paris for him, by which means—I save the Expence of one from Calais, which is generally 3 or 4 Louis.— I shall now endeavor to get a Coach for Mrs. H. on the same terms.— On her declining to go I had refused one, which is now gone.— I am afraid you will think me tedious in returg home—and I begin to think so myself,—and can assure you I have no Desire of staying longer here, & I should in all probability have got away this Week, had not my Father express’d a great Desire that I would sit to Stewart, who is esteem’d by West—& everybody, the first Portrait Painter now living: he is moreover an American:—4 I have seen several of his Performances, which appear’d to me very great indeed!— He is astonishing for likeness’s.— I heard West say—“that he nails the Face to the Canvass.”—by which he meant I believe to express, not only that the Resemblance of the Person was perfect—but that his colouring did not change; a fault common to some of the first Painters in this Country—& particularly to Sr. Joshua.5
I am to begin sitting tomorrow, & Stewart has promised to make all possible Dispatch.— He hopes to finish the Principal Parts by Monday; if so, the Day following I shall endeavour to get away,—provided I can in the mean time make another Visit to your good Friends Mr. & Mrs. Sargent.
I have, tho’ with some Difficulty,—procur’d for Mr. West—the Miniature you sent Georgiana6—and he is now doing your Head from it in the Picture of the signing of the Treaty.— I was yesterday at the Dean of St. Asaph’s Trial, saw Lord Mansfield—& heard one of the first Lawyers.— The Dean gain’d the Point in agitation—but the Affair is by no means finish’d. It will come again before the Court the Week following.—7
I should have been at Lord Mayors Show to Day—but I am kept at home by a Return of a Complaint I had before I left Paris.— The Piles. Dr. Jeffries who attends me—says it is very common just now:— If he succeeds with me as well as he did in the Fever & Ague—I shall not suffer much.— I am otherwise perfectly well—& I think—getting fat.— My Father sends his Love with that of your ever dutiful & affectionate Grandson
W. T. F.—
P.S.— Remember to all Friends—& most affectionately to Mr. Le Veillard.—
B. Franklin Esqr.—
2. WTF to BF, Oct. 22, above.
3. Mary Hewson to WTF, Nov. 3, 1784, APS.
4. Gilbert Stuart began studying with Benjamin West soon after he arrived in England in the mid-1770s. By 1784 he had established himself as one of the foremost portrait painters: ANB.
5. Sir Joshua Reynolds, the longtime president of the Royal Academy and, since Oct. 1, principal painter to the king: ODNB.
6. The miniature by Dumont, set in a snuffbox, that BF sent Georgiana Shipley in 1780; it is illustrated as the frontispiece of vol. 31, and see XXXI, XXIX, 444; XXXVIII, xxix. Georgiana’s sister Amelia Sloper, who lived in London, took charge of putting into WTF’s hands “the valuable Picture which he desired to shew to Mr West”: William and Amelia Sloper to WTF, “Friday” [October, 1784], APS.
7. On Nov. 8 Thomas Erskine, William Davies Shipley’s counsel, moved in the Court of King’s Bench for a new trial on the grounds of misdirection of the jury in the assize court. (For the Shrewsbury trial, see the annotation of Jonathan Shipley to BF, [on or before Oct. 13].) Erskine’s speech supporting his motion occupied that day’s proceedings, and argument did not resume until a week later. On Nov. 16 the court, with Chief Justice Mansfield presiding, upheld Judge Buller’s jury charge and denied the motion. Erskine then moved for an arrest of judgment, which the court granted, ruling that the indictment was defective. Shipley, now a free man, returned to his home in Wales. His case left its mark on the law by helping to pave the way for Parliament’s enactment of the 1792 legislation that shifted the responsibility of deciding on a libel from judges to juries: T. B. Howell, comp., Cobbett’s Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors … (33 vols., London, 1809–1826), XXI, 955–6, 970–1, 1032–3, 1040–1, 1044–5; James Oldham, English Common Law in the Age of Mansfield (Chapel Hill and London, 2004), pp. 228–30.