From Benjamin Franklin to [Alexander] Colden, 8 April 1760
To [Alexander] Colden7
Draft: American Philosophical Society
London, April 8. 1760
Dear Sir,
I have ordered into your Care from Liverpool 9 Casks and a Bale, which I request you would receive and forward to my Brother Peter Franklin, in Newport, Rhodeisland.8 Enclos’d is the Bill of Lading. Please to pay the Freight (Eight Guineas) and charge me with it. I hope this Summer to have the Pleasure of seeing you, and of finding both the Families well for whom I have the sincerest Regard. I am, Dear Sir, Yours affectionately
BF
7. For Alexander Colden, postmaster at N.Y., see above, VI, 113 n. It seems unlikely that BF would have asked the father, Cadwallader Colden (above, II, 386 n), who spent most of his time at his estate, Coldengham, up the Hudson, to execute the mercantile commission here described.
8. The casks probably contained the earthenware shipped for BF by Messrs. Hillary & Scot of Liverpool (see the following document). Since Kendal is a woolen manufacturing center in Westmorland County, the bale mentioned in the next document as coming from there probably contained cloth BF had ordered while passing through on his journey to Scotland late in the previous summer. Peter Franklin’s Ledger, 1739–64 (APS) shows in various accounts of 1760, and especially of 1761 and 1762, considerable sales of crockery, china, glassware, and worsted.