41From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 3 November 1773 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from William Duane, ed., The Works of Benjamin Franklin … (6 vols., Philadelphia, 1808–18), VI , 337–8. I wrote you pretty fully by the last packet, and having had no line from you of later date than the beginning of August, and little stirring here lately, I have now little to write. In that letter I mentioned my having written two papers, of which I preferred the first, but the...
42From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 14 February 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (letterbook draft): Library of Congress Your late Letters of Oct. 13, 29, Nov. 3, Dec. 1. and 4. lying all before me, I shall answer the Particulars in order; such I mean as I have not answered by other Opportunities. I have written to Mr. Bolton of Birmingham for a Plated Tea Urn, he being by far the best Maker, and his Work of the newest Fashion. If it does not come in time to go by this...
43From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin: Journal of Negotiations in London, 22 March 1775 (Franklin Papers)
AD and copy: Library of Congress When Franklin at long last set sail for home, memories of the past months were churning inside him. He spent much of the voyage recounting, in the guise of a letter to his son, the events that had crowded upon him since the previous summer and particularly since early December. He had with him a mass of papers with which he documented his journal; the bulk of...
44From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 13 March 1768 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from William Temple Franklin, ed., Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin, LL.D., F.R.S., &c. (quarto edition, 3 vols., London, 1817–18), II , 156–9; fragment of AL in Yale University Library. I have received all together your letters of January 6, 21, and 22: it had been a great while that I had not heard from you. The purpose of settling the new colonies seems at...
45From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 9 January 1768 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from William Temple Franklin, ed., Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin, LL.D., F.R.S., &c. (quarto edition, 3 vols., London, 1817–18), II , 151. We have had so many alarms of changes which did not take place, that just when I wrote it was thought the ministry would stand their ground. However immediately after the talk was renewed, and it soon appeared the Sunday...
46From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, [14 February 1767] (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; extract reprinted from [Jared Sparks, ed.], A Collection of the Familiar Letters and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Franklin (Boston, 1833), p. 280. Great changes being expected keeps men’s minds in suspense, and obstructs public affairs of every kind. It is therefore not to be wondered at, that so little progress is made in our American schemes of the Ilinois grant, and...
47From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 7 May [1774?]: extract (Franklin Papers)
Extract: British Museum Both Bigelow and Smyth accept the date that appears on the copy, but we suggest that the copyist was wrong by a year. The point is of some importance because, if the letter was written in 1775, even this small fragment bears on the relationship between father and son when the former returned from England. Although the language is open to various interpretations, the...
48From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 29 December 1767 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; extract reprinted in part from The Pennsylvania Chronicle, And Universal Advertiser , March 7–14, 1768, and in part from William Temple Franklin, ed., Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin, LL.D. F.R.S. &c ., II , The Private Correspondence (quarto edition, London, 1817), 149–50. The paragraphs printed here form the second of two documents that William Temple...
49From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, [13 June 1767] (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; extract reprinted from [Jared Sparks, ed.], A Collection of the Familiar Letters and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Franklin Now for the First Time Published (Boston, 1833), p. 280. The Ilinois affair goes forward but slowly. Lord Shelburne told me again last week, that he highly approved of it, but others were not of his sentiments, particularly the Board of Trade. Lyman is...
50From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 17 March 1770: extract (Franklin Papers)
Extract: Historical Society of Pennsylvania What you say with regard to advancing Money for Building Mills, Bloomeries, &c. has a good deal in it, and I believe most of the Persons concerned will think with you when the Settlement comes under Consideration. I sent you a Part of L. Evans’s Map, containing the Bounds of the intended Province: You see by that, that the Scheme is much enlarg’d...