401From Benjamin Franklin to Peter Collinson, 28 March 1747 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from extract in Benjamin Franklin, Experiments and Observations on Electricity (London, 1769), pp. 1–2. This is the earliest surviving letter in which Franklin alludes to his electrical investigations. It introduced the fourth edition of his Experiments and Observations in 1769. That edition, its predecessors and its successor, will be discussed below, under their...
402From Benjamin Franklin to [John Franklin], 2 April 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Transcript: American Philosophical Society I should be glad you’d send me the first informations you receive, of what Admiral Warren is doing or like to do in England. And whether the wasted[?] is returning in Orders. We want much to hear that the Fleet is preparing to come from England, in Order to carry on the Expedition. Billy is so fond of a military Life, that he will by no means hear of...
403The Speech of Miss Polly Baker, 15 April 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The General Advertiser , April 15, 1747. When Franklin wrote The Speech of Miss Polly Baker is not now known, though 1746 is a likely date. How a copy found its way to London is also a matter for speculation. All that is certain is that the earliest printing of the piece yet discovered was in a London newspaper, the General Advertiser , of April 15, 1747. Within a week five London...
404From Benjamin Franklin to [William Strahan?], 1 May 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, N.Y. (1955) This is only to cover a Bill of Exchange for Eleven Pounds 2 s. 2½ d. Sterl. drawn on Richd. Atkinson of Colthouse by Wm. Satterthwaite, and to inform you that we are all well, as I hope this will find you and yours. I am Your most humble Servant This via New York. Copy with first Bill and Letter of Advice via Boston by the Mermaid...
405From Benjamin Franklin to Peter Collinson, 25 May 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: American Academy of Arts and Sciences In my last I informed you that In pursuing our Electrical Enquiries, we had observ’d some particular Phaenomena, which we lookt upon to be new, and of which I promised to give you some Account; tho’ I apprehended they might possibly not be new to you, as so many Hands are daily employed in Electrical Experiments on your Side the Water, some or other...
406Verses on the Virginia Capitol Fire, 1 June 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The New-York Gazette, revived in the Weekly Post-Boy , June 1, 1747, Supplement. The capitol at Williamsburg, Virginia, was destroyed by fire on January 30, 1747. Addressing a special session of the General Assembly on April 1, Governor Sir William Gooch plunged directly into the matter: “The astonishing Fate of the Capitol occasions this meeting, and proves a Loss the more to be...
407From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 1 June 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Mr. Hall will acquaint you of the Footing we are about to go upon &c. &c. I have only time to acquaint you, that I have sent you several Bills lately, and will speedily remit you whatever shall be due to you after the Receipt of the Parcel of Books some time since wrote for. My best Respects to Mrs. Strahan and Wishes of Happiness to you and all Yours, in...
408From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 5 June 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New-York Historical Society Mr. Harrison tells me you are still in New York, as deeply engag’d in Publick Affairs, I suppose, as ever. When I consider your present Disposition to Retirement and Philosophical Meditation, I pity you: But I hope that Success will attend your Cares for the Publick Good; and the Satisfaction arising thence will make you some Amends. The Deserters who are come...
409From Benjamin Franklin to Jared Eliot, 16 July 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library I receiv’d your Favour of the 4th Instant. I ought before this Time to have acknowledg’d the Receipt of the Book, which came very safe and in good Order, to hand. We have many Oil Mills in this Province, it being a great Country for Flax. Linseed Oil may now be bought for 3 s. per Gallon; sometimes for 2 s. 6 d: But at New York I have been told it generally holds...
410From Benjamin Franklin to Peter Collinson, 28 July 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: American Academy of Arts and Sciences The inclosed is a Copy of my last, which went by the Governour’s Vessel: since which we have received, by Mesnard and Ouchterlony, Hill’s Theophrastus, Pemberton’s Dispensatory, Wilson’s Electricity and some other Pamphlets. The Proprietor’s handsome Present of a complete Electrical Apparatus &c. is also come to Hand in good Order, and is put up in...
411From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 29 July 1747 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from The Atlantic Monthly , LXI (1888), 26. Your Favours of March 18 and April 1 are come to Hand with all the Books, &c. mentioned in the invoice, in good Order, and am much obliged to you for your ready Compliance with all my Requests. I believe I could have got Subscriptions for 20 Sets of the Universal History, and perhaps more, but unluckily a Ship from Ireland...
412From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 30 July 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library I receiv’d your Favour of the 26th. which I shall answer at large per next Post. In the mean time please to send me, if you have it with you, my Paper of Observations on Baxter’s Book, which I want to make some present Use of, and have no other Copy. Mesnard sail’d this Day for London. But here is a Vessel bound to Bristol, which the next Post will reach. In haste...
413From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 6 August 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New-York Historical Society; draft: American Philosophical Society The Observations I sent you on Baxter’s Book were wrote on a Sheet or two of Paper in Folio. He builds his whole argument on the Vis Inertiae of Matter: I boldly deny’d the Being of such a Property, and endeavour’d to demonstrate the contrary. If I succeeded, all his Edifice falls of course, unless some other way...
414From Benjamin Franklin to John Franklin, 6 August 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I am glad to hear that Mr. Whitefield is safe arriv’d, and recover’d his Health. He is a good Man and I love him. Mr. Douse has wrote to me per this Post at Mrs. Steele’s Request desiring an Explanation from me with regard to my Dissatisfaction with that Lady. I have wrote him in answer, that I think a Misunderstanding between Persons at such a Distance,...
415From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 13 August 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New-York Historical Society I am glad the electrical Observations please you. I leave them in your hands another Week. Our Workmen have undertaken the Electrical Apparatus, and I believe will do it extreamly well: It being a new Job they cannot say exactly what their Work will come to, but they will charge reasonably when done, and they find what Time it has taken. I suppose the whole...
416From Benjamin Franklin to Peter Collinson, 14 August 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Pierpont Morgan Library I have lately written two long Letters to you on the Subject of Electricity, one by the Governor’s Vessel, the other per Mesnard. On some further Experiments since, I have observ’d a Phenomenon or two that I cannot at present account for on the Principles laid down in those Letters, and am therefore become a little diffident of my Hypothesis, and asham’d that I...
417From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 27 August 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library This just serves to enclose you a Letter from our Friend Bertram; and to request you would deliver my Papers on Electricity to the Bearer Mr. Darling. I have not Time to add, but that I am, with great Respect, Sir, Your most humble Servant P.S . I think you wrote me Word you had lent Watson’s Book on Electricity which I sent you last Winter to Dr. Bard. Please to...
418From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 24 September 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New-York Historical Society I have one of your Histories come in among some Books sent me per Mr. Strahan: But Osborne I understand has sent 50 to Mr. Read per Recommendation of Mr. Collinson. I should sell them more readily than he can, I imagine; and he talks of putting them into my hands. Are any of them arriv’d in N York? Enclos’d are two Letters for you. No others are yet come to...
419Receipt to Hector Gambold, 28 September 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ADS : Princeton University Library Receiv’d Sept. 28. 1747 of Mr. Gambold Twenty three Pounds Ten Shillings, being in full for Fourteen hundred German Spelling Books; also One Pound Ten Shillings and three Pence for 50 lb. Pasteboard. £23. 10. 0 1. 10. 3 £25: 0: 3 Endorsed: 1747 Sepr: 28. Franklin’s Rect: £25.—.3. Hector Ernest Gambold (1719–1788), born in Wales, became a Moravian at Oxford,...
420From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 1 October 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New-York Historical Society I send you herewith the History of the Five Nations. You will perceive that Osborne, to puff up the Book, has inserted the Charters &c. of this Province, all under the Title of History of the Five Nations , which I think was not fair, but ’tis a common Trick of Booksellers. Mr. James Read, to whom Mr. Osborne has sent a Parcel of Books by Recommendation of Mr....
421From Benjamin Franklin to Abiah Franklin, 16 October 1747 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Duane, Works , VI , 8. This has been a busy day with your daughter and she is gone to bed much fatigued and cannot write. I send you inclosed, one of our new almanacks; we print them early, because we send them to many places far distant. I send you also, a moidore inclosed, which please to accept towards chaise hire, that you may ride warm to meetings this winter....
422Plain Truth, 17 November 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Plain Truth: or, Serious Considerations On the Present State of the City of Philadelphia, and Province of Pennsylvania. By a Tradesman of Philadelphia. Printed in the Year MDCCXLVII . (Yale University Library) During the late spring and early summer of 1747 the activity of French and Spanish privateers had been increasing off the Delaware capes, and each week’s newspapers reported some new...
423Form of Association, 24 November 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Broadside: Historical Society of Pennsylvania; also printed (with “Remarks”) in The Pennsylvania Gazette , December 3, 1747. Franklin had promised in Plain Truth to present a plan of voluntary association for defense. He did so within a week. “Having settled the Draft of it with a few Friends,” he wrote in his memoirs, “I appointed a Meeting of the Citizens” at Walton’s schoolhouse on November...
424From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 27 November 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New-York Historical Society The violent Party Spirit that appears in all the Votes &c. of your Assembly, seems to me extreamly unseasonable as well as unjust, and to threaten Mischief not only to your selves but to your Neighbours. It begins to be plain, that the French may reap great Advantages from your Divisions: God grant they may be as blind to their own Interest, and as negligent...
425From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 28 November 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I received your Favour of June 11. per Capt. Tiffin, with the Books, &c. all in good Order. Mr. Parks, who drew the Bill on Guidart & Sons, is surpriz’d at their Protesting it, they having, as he says, large Effects of his in their Hands: He will speedily renew that Bill. Enclos’d I send you a Bill on Xr. Kilby Esqr, for £19.7.1½ Sterling, which I hope will...
426Scheme of the First Philadelphia Lottery, 5 December 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , December 12, 1747. The most urgent problem for the Association was not armed men, but money. Volunteering for military service, especially when there was no likelihood of being called to duty unless one’s own city was actually threatened, was one thing; it was another to make a free gift of money to buy supplies. Franklin’s solution was a lottery. Managers...
427From Benjamin Franklin to James Logan, 7 December 1747 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Sparks, Works , VII , 28. I am heartily glad you approve of our proceedings. We shall have arms for the poor in the spring, and a number of battering cannon. The place for the batteries is not yet fixed; but it is generally thought that near Red Bank will be most suitable, as the enemy must there have natural difficulties to struggle with, besides the channel being...
428Address to the Associators, 7 December 1747 (Franklin Papers)
MS (fragment): American Philosophical Society The Associators—almost 600 in number—assembled with their arms at the court house on December 7 for their first meeting. Secretary Richard Peters, at the order of the President and Council, informed them that their “Proceedings are not disapprov’d by the Government,” and assured them that commissions would be “readily granted” to the officers...
429Proclamation for a General Fast, 9 December 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Broadside: Yale University Library The minutes of the Governor’s Council of December 8, 1747, record that that body, “taking into Consideration the State of the War in general, the Sickness that lately rag’d over this City and the Province, the probability of our Enemies making a Descent on the City, and the Calamitous Situation of our Frontiers,” in order to awaken the inhabitants to “a just...
430The Manner of Drawing a Public Lottery, 22 December 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , December 22, 1747. This explanation is an integral part of the proposals for a lottery (see above, p. 220). Franklin very likely composed it, though there is no proof that he did. An Account of the Manner of Drawing a Publick Lottery . Suppose a Lottery to consist of Ten Thousand Tickets; as the present Philadelphia Lottery does. Before the Tickets are...
431Extracts from the Gazette, 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , January 6 to December 29, 1747. Extracts from The Pennsylvania Gazette have been printed for each of the years that Franklin personally conducted his printing office (see above, I, 164). With the establishment of the partnership of Franklin and Hall on January 1, 1748, however, the latter took over the daily oversight of the office, though Franklin, of...
432Poor Richard Improved, 1748 (Franklin Papers)
Poor Richard improved: Being an Almanack and Ephemeris of the Motions of the Sun and Moon; the True Places and Aspects of the Planets; the Rising and Setting of the Sun; and the Rising, Setting and Southing of the Moon, for the Bissextile Year, 1748 . … By Richard Saunders, Philom. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by B. Franklin. (Yale University Library) For fifteen years Franklin had published...
433Articles of Agreement with David Hall, 1 January 1748 (Franklin Papers)
DS : Haverford College Library; also copy: Department of Records, Recorder of Deeds, Philadelphia Strahan sent David Hall to Franklin in 1744, where, as journeyman, he proved to be so skillful, so industrious, discreet, and honest, that Franklin arranged to set him up in the West Indies. This project was abandoned, however, and Hall became Franklin’s foreman instead. By the summer of 1747...
434Colors of the Associator Companies, 12 January 1748 and 16 April 1748 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , January 12 and April 16, 1748. The companies of Associators, numbering about 800 men, with “Drums beating and Colours flying,” appeared under arms at the State House on January 1 to elect company officers, according to the terms of the Association. After the election they presented their choices to the President and Council, who, having ordered commissions...
435Franklin and Hall: Accounts, 1748–1766 (Franklin Papers)
MS Account Book: American Philosophical Society This ledger, labeled “Franklin & Hall No. 1,” contains four separate lists and accounts relating to David Hall’s operation of the partnership of Franklin and Hall from 1748 to 1766. Three are lists of cash payments for printing work; the fourth is an invoice of books and stationery in Franklin’s shop when the partnership began. The amounts...
436From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 27 January 1748 (Franklin Papers)
AL : New-York Historical Society I received your Favour relating to the Cannon. We have petitioned our Proprietors for some, and have besides wrote absolutely to London for a Quantity, in case the Application to the Proprietors should not succeed; so that, Accidents excepted, we are sure of being supply’d some time next Summer. But as we are extreamly desirous of having some mounted early in...
437From Benjamin Franklin to James Logan, 27 January 1748 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Sparks, Works , VII , 31–3. I have not yet found the book, but suppose I shall to-morrow. The post goes out to-day, which allows me no time to look for it. We have a particular account from Boston of the guns there. They are in all thirty-nine, Spanish make and new; fifteen of them are twenty-eight pounders, and twenty-four are fourteen pounders. We offer by this...
438From Benjamin Franklin to James Logan, 30 January 1748 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Sparks, Works , VII , 33. I send you herewith the book, and enclosed is the policy. Here is no news but what is bad, namely, the taking of Mesnard, an account of which we have by way of Lisbon. He was carried into St. Malo. And just now we have advice from New York, that an express was arrived there from New England to inform the government that two prisoners, who...
439From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 4 February 1748 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Huntington Library Enclos’d is a second Bill for £19 7 s. 1½ d. Sterling. The first I sent you some time since. Mr. Hall will write, tho’ neither of us have much Time, the Vessel hurrying away for fear of the Ice. I shall soon send you more Bills. With my best Respects to Mrs. Strahan, in which my Dame joins, and hearty Wishes for the Welfare of you and yours, I am, Dear Sir, Your...
440Account of Money Received from David Hall, 1748–1757 (Franklin Papers)
MS Account Book: American Philosophical Society This little book contains in eight pages headed “Acct. of Money receiv’d at different Times from Mr. David Hall” Franklin’s record of his income from the partnership with Hall from Feb. 7, 1748, to March 28, 1757. It shows that Hall paid Franklin £45 a year in semi-annual installments as his share of the £55 rent due from Franklin to Robert Grace...
441Report on the Swamp, [24 February 1748] (Franklin Papers)
MS Minutes of the Common Council: Free Library of Philadelphia By 1740 the banks of Dock Creek and the low, swampy ground lying between it and Society Hill to the west had become a public nuisance. Six tanyards threw their refuse into the creek, fouling the water and filling the bed so that the tide water moved only sluggishly, exposing mud and filth and creating offensive pools of stagnant,...
442From Benjamin Franklin to James Logan, 7 March 1748 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; abstracted in Worthington C. Ford, comp., List of the Benjamin Franklin Papers in the Library of Congress (Washington, 1905), p. 10. Abstract : Pass’s opinion as to cost of casting cannon; favors purchasing from New England. The ALS is known to have been missing from Lib. Cong. since 1951. In Ford’s List the addressee is given as “James Logan, Trenton”—obviously a misreading of...
443Proposal to the Associators, [21 March 1748] (Franklin Papers)
MS : American Philosophical Society By March 1 fifty-three companies of Associators had been organized, not only in Philadelphia city and county, but also in Bucks, Chester, and Lancaster counties. By the terms of the Association the superior officers met on March 21 to adopt general regulations to unite the forces for action in case of need. On March 25 Richard Peters informed Thomas Penn...
444From Benjamin Franklin to James Logan, 3 April 1748 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Riverdale Country School, New York City I have a Letter from Mr. Samuel Lawrence of New York, (who undertook to ship the Guns for us) informing, that two small Vessels had been agreed with to bring them round; but a Sloop arriving there on Sunday last that had been chas’d in Lat. 35. by a Ship and Brigt. [brigantine] that were suppos’d to be Don Pedro with a Consort coming on this Coast,...
445From Benjamin Franklin to Charles Carter, 18 April 1748 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Anderson Galleries, Sales Catalogue No. 800 (January 18, 1910), item 90. Please to pay Mr. Robert Dade or Order Thirty-one Pennyweight of Gold, and charge it to Account of, Sir Your humble Servant Col. Charles Carter (1707–1764), of Cleve, King George Co., Va.; son of Robert “King” Carter of Corotoman and uncle of Robert Carter of Nomini Hall, the Councillor. Va....
446From Benjamin Franklin to James Logan, 10 May 1748 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from extract in Stan V. Henkels, Catalogue No. 1082 (April 11–12, 1913), p. 38. As to the Battery, it goes on very well, a great Number of Hands being employ’d upon it, who work with the utmost Diligence. I suppose that in a few Days the Platform will be ready to receive the cannon and the carriages are all made, a particular committee is employ’d in providing...
447Scheme of the Second Philadelphia Lottery, 2 June 1748 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , June 2, 1748. The drawing of the First Philadelphia Lottery was followed immediately with a proposal to open a second, in which the tickets should be of four classes and prices instead of one, and prizes would be pieces of eight. To meet the demand for coin the Lottery Managers bought dollars in New York, Rhode Island, and Boston. Franklin printed 500...
448Miscellaneous Lottery Papers, 1748 (Franklin Papers)
DS : nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, Yale University Library; no. 5, Edgar Fahs Smith Library, University of Pennsylvania The Philadelphia Lottery Papers in the Yale University Library contain many orders by the Managers to their treasurer William Allen to pay for gun carriages and repairs or for personal services and expenses. Franklin was not one of the managers of either lottery; he was, however, a...
449From Benjamin Franklin to [Nathaniel Sparhawk], 15 June 1748 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Joseph W. P. Frost, Kittery Point, Maine (1954) I receiv’d yours per Mr. Baynton with the Money as therein specified; and have since deliver’d it to Mr. Warren (who is now here) with Mr. Pepperill’s Letter; of which please advise Mr. Pepperill. I am Sir, Your most humble Servant Nathaniel Sparhawk (1715–1776), merchant at Portsmouth and Boston; married the daughter of Sir William...
450From Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, [June 1748?] (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Jared Sparks, ed., A Collection of the Familiar Letters and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Franklin (Boston, 1833), pp. 10–15. I received your letter, with one for Benny, and one for Mr. Parker, and also two of Benny’s letters of complaint, which, as you observe, do not amount to much. I should have had a very bad opinion of him, if he had written to you those...