To Benjamin Franklin from Anne Ogle, 22 April 1782
From Anne Ogle1
ALS:2 Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères
Boulogne Sur Mer April 22d 1782
Sr.
I hope you will excuse the liberty I take in applying to you to procure an order for my grand[son]3 to be permitted to reside with me at Boulogne—he is [the] son of Mr Ridout of Maryland and came with me to [Eng]land Nine years ago for his education and is soon to [ret]urn to America, thus circumstanced, I do not imagin the [men] in power here would refuse to admit him, but I wish [not] to aske any favours of them, if my Nephew Mr Lowndes4 [be] included in the order it will be more agreable.
I am Sr. your Most Obediant Servant5
Anne Ogle
Addressed: A Monsieur / Monsieur Franklin / Ministre Plenipotentiaire / des Estats Unis de L’Amerique / A Passy / prés Paris
1. Identified in XXXI, 238n. For a history of the family, including a portrait of Anne Ogle, see Shirley V. Baltz, A Chronicle of Belair (Bowie, Md., 1984).
2. The manuscript is now in a tightly bound book. We supply in brackets our guesses as to the text written in the left margin, not visible in our photostat.
3. Samuel Ridout (c. 1766–1840) was the son of Mary Ogle and BF’s acquaintance John Ridout. He had been enrolled at the Harrow School: XXXI, 238; Baltz, Belair, pp. 43 (first pagination), 1–2 (second pagination).
4. Francis Lowndes, son of Christopher Lowndes and Anne Ogle’s sister, Elizabeth Tasker: XXXV, 179–80n; Christopher Johnston, “The Lowndes Family,” Md. Hist. Mag., II (1907), 277.
5. Having received no reply, Anne Ogle repeated her request on May 21. Both youths had finished their schooling in England and would return to America after perfecting their French. She needed official permission for them to stay with her. Hist. Soc. of Pa.