Benjamin Franklin Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-06-02-0235

From Benjamin Franklin to Peter Collinson, 23 September 1756

To Peter Collinson

Duplicate:6 Pierpont Morgan Library

Philada. Sept. 23. 1756

Dear Friend

I enclose three Bills, viz.

A second7 for £50 Sterling, drawn by Thos. Saul on Wm. Baker.

A first — £20 — — Mary Steevens—Alexr. Grant.

A first — £30 — — Philip Ludwell Wm. Bowden.8

When paid, please to Credit my Account with them.

I am Yours most affectionately

B Franklin

P.S. We agree perfectly well with the Governor, but are very angry with the Proprietors and the Council here.9

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

6Original not found; this duplicate, marked at the top “Copy,” prefaces BF’s letter of Nov. 5, 1756.

7The first was sent June 15, 1756 (see above, p. 458).

8Philip Ludwell (1716–1767), Virginia planter, Indian negotiator, and official, at this time Governor Dinwiddie’s representative to meet Loudoun, and later BF’s neighbor in London. Archibald B. Shepperson, John Paradise and Lucy Ludwell (Richmond, 1942), pp. 18–33. William Bowden, London merchant, whose account book, 1747–54, lists many American clients, particularly Virginians, among whom was a William Hunter, probably BF’s post office colleague. PMHB, XXX (1906), 121. Pa. Gaz., Sept. 30, 1756, reported that “Colonel Philip Ludwell, a Gentleman of Virginia, passing through this City lately in his Return from New-York, made a very generous Present of Twenty Pounds Sterling to the Academy, and Ten Pounds Sterling to the Pennsylvania Hospital.” Apparently BF had provided Pa. currency for these gifts, taken Ludwell’s London draft in payment, and was now sending it to Collinson for collection.

9See above, pp. 504–31 for the Council’s objections to Assembly measures, the protest against the Proprietors’ instructions, and Governor Denny’s rather passive role in the disputes.

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