This woman’s identity is tantalizing. She gives no substantial clues to whom she is. She mentions one man, and another two years later mentions her; but they are only names to us. After this letter she wrote Franklin two others that survive; each adds a bit of detail but leaves her story in shadow. One of January 22, 1781, repeats her request for an interview, in fact repeats some sentences word for word; she comments on how much her father’s traits resemble Franklin, who by then has accorded her and her husband “récéptions gratieuses,” and speaks of great misfortunes. This time she signs herself “f. franklin femme Laboureau.” Her undated letter, on which some one has penciled “Jany 22 –81,” is also unsigned, and explains that a firm in which all their funds were invested has gone bankrupt and left them without hope; could Franklin not find some position for her husband? The only reference to her that we have discovered is in the spring of 1780, when a man in the postal service mentions in passing that she told him she was related to Franklin.4

These bare bones merely raise questions. If the Doctor encouraged her to call, as she says here, was her purpose to reveal the relationship? Did he acknowledge it in his subsequent “récéptions gratieuses,” and if so on what ground? Why did she approach him twice, almost three years apart, in virtually the same terms? Who was her husband?5 Later editing may turn up at least some tentative answers, but for the moment we are baffled.