From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 5 March 1785
To William Strahan
ALS: New York Public Library
Passy, Mar. 5. 1785
Dear Friend,
I received your kind Letter by my Grandson.3 I thank you for the Civilities you show’d him when in London.
I hope to get home this ensuing Summer. I shall have an old Acct. to settle there with the Family of our Friend Hall.4 There is a particular Article of some Importance, about which we were not agreed, but were to be determined by your Opinion. It was the Value of a Copy Right in an establish’d Newspaper, of each of which from eight to ten Thousand were printed.5 My long Absence from that Country, and immense Employment the little Time I was there, have hitherto prevented the Settlement of all the Accounts that had been between us; tho’ we never differ’d about them, & never should if that good honest Man had continued in Being.— To prevent all Dispute on the above Points with his Son6 it is that I now request your Decision, which I doubt not will be satisfactory to us both. With unchangeable Esteem, I am ever, my dear Friend, Yours most affectionately
B. Franklin
My Respects to Mrs Strahan—7
Addressed: To / Wm Strahan, Esqr / King’s Printer / New street, Shoe / Lane / London
Endorsed: Dr Franklin. Mar. 5. 1785.
3. Strahan to BF, Nov. 21, above.
4. BF hired David Hall, his eventual partner, in 1744, on Strahan’s recommendation. Their partnership agreement expired in 1766, and Hall died in 1772: II, 383–4, 409–10n.
5. BF had apparently agreed that David Hall could continue publishing the Pa. Gaz. after their partnership terminated, but a value for that right of continuation was not established. See III, 263–7; XIII, 100–1, 115, 115–16n.
6. Presumably William, the older of Hall’s two sons, who had sent BF an update of the partnership’s accounts immediately after his father’s death: XIII, 99–104.
7. Margaret Strahan: IV, 224n.