To Benjamin Franklin from Jonathan Jackson, Nathaniel Tracy, John Donnaldson, and John Temple, 17 December 1784
From Jonathan Jackson, Nathaniel Tracy, John
Donnaldson, and John Temple1
AL:2 University of Pennsylvania Library
Paris Hotel d’Orleans Rue des petits Augustins Decr 17th.
1784—
Mr Jackson Mr Tracy Mr Donnaldson & Mr Temple present their most respectfull Compliments to his Excellency Mr Franklin & request his Passport for themselves & three Servants, or what is necessary for them to obtain full Liberty to quit the Kingdom— They were not ’till this Evening informed that any Application to his Excellency was required or they would have done themselves the Honour in person to have waited upon him— They mean to quit Paris Tomorrow & are ready for his Excellency’s Commands—
Addressed: His Excellency / Mr Franklin / Minister of the United States / of America— / at Passy
1. While in England, Jackson had met his former business partner Nathaniel Tracy (XLII, 215n); they subsequently collaborated in trying to market American masts and other stores in Europe: Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, XV, 59, 61; Adams Papers, XVI, 446, 460, 462n, 543. Jackson and Tracy traveled back to Massachusetts via Ireland with John Temple, the nephew of BF’s friend John Temple (X, 389–90n) and the son of William Temple (XXII, 394n). Temple died on May 9, 1785, however, on this homeward voyage: Adams Papers, XVII, 325, 329n; William H. Whitmore, An Account of the Temple Family … (Boston, 1856), p. 7; Robert Emmet to John Temple, April 17, 1785, in “The Bowdoin and Temple Papers,” Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 7th ser., VI (1907), 45–6. Philadelphia merchant and insurance broker John Donnaldson (XLII, 350) had transacted business in Philadelphia for the Tracys: Laurens Papers, XVI, 496n.
2. In the hand of Jonathan Jackson.