From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Galloway, 6 September 1758
To Joseph Galloway
ALS: Yale University Library
London, Sept. 6. 1758
Dear Sir
I have been much in the Country this summer, travelling over great Part of the Kingdom, partly to recover my Health, and partly to improve and increase Acquaintance among Persons of Influence. Being just come to Town, I find this Ship on the Point of Sailing; so can only now say, that I have receiv’d your Favour of July 28.3 with the Papers enclos’d which I am very glad to see; and that no Report on Smith’s Affair has yet been made, nor any now expected; nor any thing new occur’d since my last.4 No new Governor is yet appointed that I can hear of; but Mr. Partridge tells me Gen. Shirley seems willing to accept of it, if offer’d to him.5 By the Mail that goes hence on Saturday for the Pacquet, I shall write to the Committee and all my Friends fully; also per another Ship that I hear is to sail in a few Days, Capt. Duncan.6 Billy is still in the Country.7 I fear this will hardly get on board if I add more than that I am, with great Esteem Dear Sir, Yours affectionately
B Franklin
Addressed: To / Joseph Galloway Esqr. / Philadelphia
Endorsed: 1758 Anno Dom
Letter Septr. 6. 1758. Benjamn. Franklin
3. Not found.
4. Probably that of June 10, 1758 (above, pp. 96–7); for “Smith’s Affair” see above, pp. 28–51, 60–3, 87–8.
5. Instead, William Shirley was appointed governor of the Bahamas in November 1758. Gent. Mag., XXXVIII (1758), 557. See above, p. 95 n, for Quaker proposals that he be named governor of Pa. His acceptability to the Quakers and to BF may have militated against his appointment by Thomas Penn, and his age (64) may have made him seem more suitable for the relatively quiet post in the islands. John A. Shutz, William Shirley King’s Governor of Massachusetts (Chapel Hill, [1961]), pp. 249–50.
6. BF did not send his letters on the packet; they were carried by Capt. Robert Duncan on the Carolina, which did not reach Philadelphia until early January 1759. Pa. Gaz., Jan. 11, 1759.
7. In Tunbridge Wells; see above, pp. 131–2.