Passport for William Rawle and ——— Walker, 8 May 1782
Passport for William Rawle and ——— Walker9
Printed form, signed, with MS insertions:1 Historical Society of Pennsylvania
May 8, 1782
NOUS Benjamin Franklin, Ecuyer, Ministre Plénipotentiaire des Etats-Unis de l’Amérique, près Sa Majesté Très-Chrétienne,
PRIONS tous ceux qui sont à prier, de vouloir bien laisser surement & librement passer Messieurs Rawle et Walker, allant à Ostende,
sans leur donner ni permettre qu’il leur soit donné aucun empêchement, mais au contraire de leur accorder toutes sortes d’aide & d’assistance, comme nous ferions en pareil cas, pour tous ceux qui nous seroient recommandés.
EN FOI DE QUOI nous leur avons délivré le présent Passeport, valable pour quinze Jours signé de notre main, contre-signé par l’un de nos Secretaires, & au bas duquel est l’empreinte de nos Armes.
DONNÈ à Passy, en notre Hotel, le 8 May mil sept cent quatre-vingt deux
B Franklin
Par Ordre du Min. Plen.
W T Franklin sece.
Gratis.
[Notations in different hands:] M. Walker embarqué a Calais Pour Douvres Le 13 may 1782.2 / Passport from Dr. Franklin May 10, 1782
9. Rawle was introduced by John Wright in a letter of April 19, above. His travelling companion may have been Joseph Walker, introduced to BF in John Thornton’s letter of April 6, above. While Rawle intended to sail for America, Walker was returning to London (Rawle to WTF, June 26, APS).
For a list of passports BF issued during the period covered by this volume see XXXVI, 379–80.
1. This is the earliest of four surviving passports BF printed in the 52-point script type cut for him by Fournier le jeune; see XXX, 346–7; XXXII, 349–50, 362–3. The type itself was clearly intended to imitate handwriting, but BF’s method of printing enhanced that effect by producing letters that intersected. This could only have been achieved by printing the sheets in two passes, each time printing alternate lines. See the illustration on the facing page.
2. Rawle and Walker arrived in Calais on May 12. Rawle reached Ostend on May 15 and traveled between there and Bruges several times before settling in Boulogne in mid-June: Journal of William Rawle, Hist. Soc. of Pa.