To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Ronayne, [27 March? 1772]
From Thomas Ronayne
AL: American Philosophical Society
Friday Morning. [March 27?8 1772]
Mr. Ronayne, at the request of Mr. Henly, informs Doctor Franklin that Mr. Henly wishes to see the Paper he wrote, on the effects of Lightning on the Tabernacle, in order to render it more correct for publication.9
Addressed: Doctr. Franklin
8. Henly wrote a paper, dated March 24, which was read before the Royal Society on April 9; at some time between those dates he gave it to BF for his comments and then, through Ronayne, requested its return. We are assuming that BF received it on or about the 24th, a Tuesday, and was asked on the following Friday to send it back.
9. For the Tottenham Court Road Chapel, built by the Rev. George Whitefield and commonly called Whitefield’s Tabernacle, see Henry B. Wheatley, London Past and Present … (3 vols., London, 1891), III, 502–3. On March 22 the chapel was struck by lightning: London Chron., March 21–4. Henly was immediately commissioned to protect it for the future with lightning rods; he reported two days later on the damage done, and his report was published in Phil. Trans., LXII (1772), 131–6.