To Benjamin Franklin from [Samuel?] Mead, 25 February 1762
From [Samuel?] Mead5
AL: University of Pennsylvania Library
25th. Feby. 1762
Mr. Meads Compliments to Doctor Franklin and incloses him some account of the good Effects of Electricity, sent by a Curate of Doctor Douglass6 in the Country, which Lord Bath wished he might see! It is to be published as I understand, and if Mr. Franklin has any thing to observe on it, Mr. Mead would be glad when it is returned to acquaint my Lord with it.
Doctor Franklin Craven Street.
Addressed: For / Doctor Franklin / in Craven Street.
5. Probably Samuel Mead (d. 1776), commissioner of the customs, 1742–76; F.R.S., 1738. His sister, the widow of James Gambier the elder, was perhaps the Craven St. neighbor with whom BF drank tea one day in the following May when Mrs. Stevenson failed to return home when he expected her. See below, p. 84.
6. Presumably John Douglas (1721–1807), D.D., 1758; vicar of Uppington and High Ercall, Shropshire; author of Milton Vindicated from the Charge of Plagiarism (London, 1751) and of A Letter Addressed to Two Great Men (London, 1760), of which BF wrote approvingly in the Canada Pamphlet; see above, IV, 335 n; IX, 52–3. Douglas was a protegé of the Earl of Bath; he lived in London and visited his livings only occasionally. DNB. The curate has not been identified and his paper on electricity has not been found.