To Benjamin Franklin from Margaret Stewart, 10 February 1777
From Margaret Stewart3
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Callais 10 Febr 1777
Sir
After Your goodness to Me allready; I am Sorry I am under the necessity of troubling You again; which to beg You will lend me fivty Pounds; which I will most faithfully pay You on my arrival at Paris. I have been detained here Some time by being disapointed of Monney due to me in England. I have also a great deal due to me from my Brother; which I have the Senators Remembrancer as a Security for; which as yet has been of little Service to me; but I hope by Your protecttion it may be of Some in france; as Works of Merit meet with great prtection here; if You will honour me with an enswer to this you will Much oblige Your Obliged humble Servant
M Stewart
Pleas to adress Your Letter A Madame Madame Cavendish chez Monsieur Augustin Meurice Calais
Addressed: A Monsieur / Monsieur Dr Franklin / A Paris
Endorsed: Mary Stewart Calais 10 Feb. 77.
3. All we know about her is what she tells of herself in this and subsequent letters. She was the sister of John Stewart, the creator of The Senator’s Remembrancer, a publication that BF greatly admired (above, XVIII, 36–7). In 1774 BF had written to her to express this admiration and to offer his services, presumably in recommending the volume; she referred to this lost letter in hers of Jan. 8 and April 26, 1782 (APS). She apparently stayed in Calais for more than a year, for she wrote him from there on April 8, 1778 (Hist. Soc. of Pa.), to say that she could not get copies from England, and was still in financial straits and needed help; in that letter she gave her first name. In 1781–82 she renewed her pleas, and had the Remembrancer reprinted; BF ordered a dozen copies, which he apparently did not receive until 1788. See her letters, in addition to those cited, of Oct. 17, 22, 27, 1781; Aug. 23, 1782; Aug. 3, 1788: APS.