To Benjamin Franklin from a Committee of the Library Company of Philadelphia, 28 May 1772: résumé
From a Committee of the Library Company of Philadelphia
LS: American Philosophical Society; minutebook copy: Library Company of Philadelphia
<Philadelphia, May 28, 1772: They enclose a draft on John Whitmore for £125 from Stocker & Wharton & John Wilcocks at thirty days’ sight, dated May 26 in favor of and endorsed by Josiah Hewes, to pay for the books ordered through Sparks for the Library Company. If the amount is insufficient, they will discharge the balance. In a previous letter they had spoken of remitting by Falconer, but the election of directors, the settlement of accounts, and other business prevented them. The letter is addressed to Franklin by Capt. Hood, via Bristol, and is signed by Samuel Rhoads, Josiah Hewes, and Robert Strettell Jones.1>
1. John Whitmore was a merchant of Laurence Pountney Lane, off Cannon St. Anthony Stocker, Thomas Wharton, Jr., John Wilcocks, and Josiah Hewes were Philadelphia merchants: the first two were partners, but we have no other indication that Wilcocks was a member of the firm; he was the brother of Alexander Wilcocks, the lawyer, and was an organizer of St. Peter’s Church. Hewes was the brother of the more distinguished Joseph Hewes of North Carolina. Anne H. Wharton, “Thomas Wharton, Junr., First Governor of Pennsylvania under the Constitution of ’76,” PMHB, V (1881), 428; William J. Potts, “Founding of St. Peter’s Church in Philadelphia,” ibid., XII (1888), 495; Hubertis Cummings, “Items from the Morris Family Collection …,” ibid., LXX (1946), 194–5. The composition of the committee had changed since its letter above of April 27. Samuel Rhoads needs no introduction; for Robert Strettell Jones see above, XVIII, 18 n.