From Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, 10 June 1756
To Jane Mecom
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Philada. June 10. 1756
Dear Sister,
We wrote to you per Capt. Morton who sailed yesterday,2 and sent you a few Things that may be of some Use perhaps in your Family. I hope, tho’ not of much Value, they will be acceptable. Inclos’d is an Account of Particulars, and the Captain’s Receipt, with the Key of the Trunk.
Our Family is well. The Small Pox is beginning in Town by Inoculation, but has not otherwise spread as yet; those who have been inoculated not being yet in the ripe state to communicate Infections. We have only a Negro Child to have it.3
Pray let me know by a Line whether you did not some Months ago receive a Pacquet from me for Col. Choate,4 and whether he has got it. My Respects to him, and to all Friends. With Love to Brother Mecom and your Children, I am, Dear Sister Your affectionate Brother
B Franklin
I congratulate you on the Birth of a Grandchild.5
Addressed: To / Mrs Jane Mecom / Boston / Free / B Franklin
2. Neither the letter here referred to nor the enclosures mentioned below have been found. See the previous document for Capt. Morton.
3. On June 30, Governor Morris warned against bringing an Indian who had not had smallpox to Philadelphia because the disease “is now in Town.” I Pa. Arch., II, 685.
4. Col. John Choate (1697–1766), of Ipswich, held many public offices, 1731–65, served on the Louisbourg expedition, 1745, and had lately been commissioner for the Mass. forces on the Crown Point expedition. E.O. Jameson, The Choates in America (Boston, 1896), pp. 29–36. Nothing is known of the pacquet.
5. Jane Mecom’s son, Edward (C.17.2), had recently become the father of a son, Jane’s first grandchild. Van Doren, Franklin-Mecom, p. 52.