1From Benjamin Franklin to the Speakers of the Colonial Assemblies: a Circular Letter from Franklin, William Bollan, and … (Franklin Papers)
LS : Library of Congress Our last Letter informed you, that the King had declared his Intention of laying the Petition before his two Houses of Parliament. It has accordingly been laid before each House, but undistinguished among a Variety of Letters and other Papers from America. A Motion made by Lord Chatham, to withdraw the Troops from Boston, as the first Step towards a conciliating Plan,...
2Three Public Notices Concerning the Petition from the Continental Congress, 17–18 January 1775 (Franklin Papers)
I and II: printed in The Whitehall Evening Post , respectively January 19–21 and 14–17, 1775; III: printed in The Public Advertiser , January 20, 1775. Once Dartmouth informed the Massachusetts agents on December 24 that the King had received the petition from the Congress and would lay it before Parliament, they had to decide when it might properly be published. As soon as it had been...
3From Benjamin Franklin to the Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly: a Circular Letter from Franklin, William Bollan, and … (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Princeton University Library; draft: Library of Congress When four of the seven agents to whom the Congress had entrusted its petition refused to have anything to do with it, the three representatives of Massachusetts faced the problem of how to deliver it; and they decided to depart from their instructions and not put it directly into the hands of the King. The “regular Official...
4Franklin and William Bollan to Lord Dartmouth, 20 August 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : the William Salt Library, Stafford This letter to the American Secretary, and the one from Franklin alone on the following day, raise an interesting question about the agents’ timing. On the 20th they forwarded what had “this day come to our hands,” the letter to Dartmouth from the Massachusetts House and Council; on the 21st Franklin forwarded the petition from the House, “just...
5Pennsylvania Hospital: Law for Regulating the Elections of Managers and Treasurers, 17 January 1752 (Franklin Papers)
DS : Pennsylvania Hospital January 17, 1752 This document, drafted by Joshua Crosby, Thomas Bond, John Smith, Hugh Roberts, and Franklin, is omitted here for the reason stated above, p. 111; but is printed, with editorial annotation, in Some Account of the Pennsylvania Hospital , May 1754, in the next volume.
6The Busy-Body, No. 8, 27 March 1729 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The American Weekly Mercury , March 27, 1729. ——Quid non mortalia Pectora cogis Auri sacra Fames! Virgil. One of the greatest Pleasures an Author can have is certainly the Hearing his Works applauded. The hiding from the World our Names while we publish our Thoughts, is so absolutely necessary to this Self-Gratification, that I hope my Well-wishers will congratulate me on my Escape...
7[Public Men, 10 September 1730] (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , September 10, 1730. Although the paragraph in the Gazette introducing this essay may be BF ’s, its entire text is taken, with unimportant excisions, from Edward Bysshe’s translation of Xenophon’s The Memorable Things of Socrates (London, 1712), pp. 107–14. Duane printed it in his edition of BF ’s writings ( Works , IV , 401–5), as did Sparks and Bigelow;...
8Order in Council, 2 September 1760 (Franklin Papers)
DS (two) and copy: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission On July 4, 1760, Francis Eyre, Robert Charles and Franklin’s solicitor, drew up and presented on behalf of his clients a petition to the King in Council asking to be heard in opposition to the Board of Trade report on the nineteen Pennsylvania acts. Then Eyre prepared “long Observations on the Report being 8 close Brief Sheets,...
9Benjamin and Deborah Franklin and John and Frances Croker to Sarah Read: Lease, 11 April 1734 (Franklin Papers)
DS : Morris Duane, Philadelphia, on deposit in Historical Society of Pennsylvania (1957) This Indenture made the Eleventh day of April in the Seventh Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Second by the Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith &c Annoque Domini One thousand Seven hundred and Thirty Four Between Benjamin Franklyn of the City of...
10William Denny, Franklin, and the Provincial Commissioners: Order to Pay Lewis Ourry, 29 March 1757 (Franklin Papers)
ADS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania Per Week Col. 20 s . Pay to Lieut. Lewis Ourry, or Order, the Sum of Two Hundred and Forty-six Pounds Nine Shillings, being for the Discharge of the Quarters of 1 Col. 1 Lieut. Col. 1 Major, 7 Captains, 28 Subalterns, and 1 Surgeon, for 15 Weeks; 1 Capt. and 3 Lieuts. 17 Weeks; 2 Captains and 2 Lieuts. 3 Weeks, at the Rates in the Margin; it being...