To Benjamin Franklin from Jonathan Williams, Sr., 25 April 1780
From Jonathan Williams, Sr.
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Boston Apl 25th. 1780
Hond. Sir—
The Bearer Col: John Tyler a Friend & Neighbour of mine2 Comes to France partly on Business & partly On Pleasure your Civilities to him as a stranger in France will Oblige your Dutifull Nephew & Hble Servant
Jona. Williams
NB Col. Tyler has aquited himself with Honour in the American Service
Addressed: His Excellency Benja. Franklin Esqr / at Passy in / France / per Col: John Tyler
2. Lt. Col. John Steele Tyler (d. 1813), a veteran of the 1779 Penobscot campaign; he traveled to Nantes from New London on the same ship as John Trumbull: Adams Correspondence, III, 328n. In July the two arrived in London and lodged together on George Street. When an arrest order was issued for Tyler in November, he was forewarned and escaped, but Trumbull was arrested and imprisoned: Political Magazine and Parliamentary, Naval, Military, and Literary Journal, I (1780), 739–40; Theodore Sizer, ed., The Autobiography of Colonel John Trumbull … (New Haven, 1953), pp. 63–6.