571From 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...
572From 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...
573From 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...
574Agreement 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...
575From 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...
576From 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...
577From 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...
578From 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...
579From 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...
580From 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...
581From 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...
582From 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...
583From 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...
584From 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...
585From 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...
586From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwalader Evans, 17 March 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Miss Harriet V. C. Ogden, Bar Harbor, Me. (1958). I received your Favour of Nov. 27. and thank you for the Information it contained relating to the Society. Mr. Ewing has transmitted to me Copies of the Observations of the Transits of Venus and Mercury which were made in Pensilvania. Those you sent me, made by Messrs. Biddle & Bayley, will, with the others, be printed, I suppose, in the...
587From 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...
588From 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...
589From Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, 15 March 1770 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from Jared Sparks, ed., A Collection of the Familiar Letters and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Franklin (Boston, 1833), pp. 123–4. I received your kind little letter of January 3d from Philadelphia. I am glad your visit thither proves agreeable to you. Since your family is so much reduced, I do not see why you might not as well continue there, if you like the place equally with...
590From Benjamin Franklin to Joshua Babcock, 26 February 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library It is a long time since I have had the Pleasure of a Line from you; indeed I have not deserv’d it; for I am a Debtor on Account of several of your Favours that remain unanswer’d. The Truth is, I have too much Writing to do. It confines me so much, that I can scarcely find time for sufficient Bodily Exercise to keep me in Health. Hence I grow more and more averse...
591From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Viny, 16 February 1770 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from Albert H. Smyth, ed., The Writings of Benjamin Franklin … (New York, 1905–07), V , 248–50. I received your Favour of the 13th past, which I ought to have acknowledg’d sooner, but much Business and some Indisposition have occasion’d the Delay. I can easily conceive the Difficulty a Man in your Situation, with such Connections, and so well esteem’d and belov’d among them, must...
592From Benjamin Franklin to William Mickle, 15 February 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library William Mickle, the Scottish poet (1735–88), had abandoned his Edinburgh brewery in 1763 and moved to London to be a man of letters. In 1765 he took a position with the Clarendon Press in Oxford; while there he clearly met and became friendly with Ephraim Brown, the adopted son of Benjamin Franklin’s brother Peter and the subject of this letter. Brown seems to...
593From Benjamin Franklin to Nevil Maskelyne, 12 February 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : the Royal Society I have just received a Letter from Mr. Winthrop, dated Dec. 7. containing the following Account, viz. “On Thursday the 9th of November, I had an Opportunity of observing a Transit of Mercury. I had carefully adjusted my Clock, to the apparent Time, by correspondent Altitudes of the Sun, taken with the Quadrant for several Days before; and with the same Reflecting...
594On Governor Pownall’s Departure from Massachusetts, 6–8 February 1770 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The London Chronicle , February 6–8, 1770 The people of the Massachusetts Bay in America, are represented here, by their enemies, as factious, quarrelsome, averse to government, &c. As a proof of the contrary, and to shew, that when they have a Governor who does not seek to raise his own character at the expence of theirs; who does not in his official letters forever lessen their...
595From Benjamin Franklin to Michael Collinson, [8 February 1770] (Franklin Papers)
Copy: American Philosophical Society Understanding that it is intended to give the Publick, some Account of our dear departed Friend Mr. Peter Collinson, I cannot omit expressing my Approbation of the Design, as the Characters of good Men are exemplary, and often stimulate the well-disposed to an Imitation beneficial to Mankind, and honourable to themselves. And as you may be unacquainted with...
596On Partial Repeal, 7 February 1770 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser , February 7, 1770 Permit me to make a few short remarks on what is said in your paper of Feb. 5, by one who signs himself A Merchant . He begins by observing, “It is very extraordinary to hear people crying out, ‘we are all ruined for want of a trade to America; and if the late acts respecting it are not totally repealed, we must all starve or...
597From Benjamin Franklin to Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, 7 February 1770: extract (Franklin Papers)
Extract: translated and printed in Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, ed., Œuvres de M. Franklin … (Paris, 1773), II , 314. Il est bien vrai, comme on vous l’a mandé d’Amérique, que les Trembleurs y ont donné la liberté à tous leurs esclaves, mais il est à remarquer qu’ils n’en avoient pas beaucoup. Cependant si l’effort en est moins surprenant de leur part, l’action n’en est pas moins belle en elle-même.
598Request for a Reprinting, 25–27 January 1770: résumé (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The London Chronicle , January 25–27, 1770 [A request to the Chronicle , signed “A.B.,” to republish the extract of a letter from London printed in the Boston Evening Post of Dec. 4, 1769. The letter was Franklin’s to Folger above, XVI , 207–10, where the extract is indicated.]
599A Conversation on Slavery, 26 January 1770 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Public Advertiser , January 30, 1770 Many Reflections being of late thrown out against the Americans, and particularly against our worthy Lord-Mayor, on Account of their keeping Slaves in their Country, I send you the following Conversation on that Subject, which, for Substance, and much of the Expression, is, I assure you, a real one ; having myself been present when it passed....
600From Benjamin Franklin to Mary Stevenson, 22 January 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I received your Favour of Saturday early this Morning, and am as usual much obliged by the kind Readiness with which you have done what I requested. Your good Mother has complain’d more of her Head since you left us, than ever before. If she stoops or looks or bends her Neck downwards on any Occasion, it is with great Pain and Difficulty that she gets her...