271From Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, 21 February 1768 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I received your kind Letter of Dec. 1. I condole with you affectionately once more on the grievous Affliction you have met with, praying God to make the rest of your Life more comfortable and happy. I thank you for your Congratulations on my Daughter’s Marriage. She has pleas’d herself and her Mother, and I hope she will do well: but I think they should...
272From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 10 September 1774 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society It is now nine long Months since I received a Line from my dear Debby. I have supposed it owing to your continual Expectation of my Return; I have feared that some Indisposition had rendered you unable to write; I have imagined any thing rather than admit a Supposition that your kind Attention towards me was abated. And yet when so many other old Friends...
273From Benjamin Franklin to Charles Thomson and Thomas Mifflin, 7 July 1769 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (copy): Minutes of the Library Company of Philadelphia, November 29, 1769. I received your favour of the 3d. of May, and shall send you the Books you write for per Capt. Falconer. Seeing some Time since that other Libraries were about to be united with yours, I did for that Reason forbear buying any Books but Robinson’s History, till I should have further Orders, lest I should purchase...
274From Benjamin Franklin to William Johnson, 11 August 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Antiquarian Society I received your Favour of the 1st Instant, and have forwarded the Letter to Capt. Orme. Mr. Pownall is gone to New York, and I return his Letter per this Day’s Post. I shall acquaint the Governor, as you desire, that the Records of your Proceedings are with Mr. Banyar. Our Assembly have sent up a Bill to give £50,000 to the King’s Use, of which part might be...
275From Benjamin Franklin to Humphry Marshall, 20 March 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library I received your obliging Letter of Nov. 27. It was forwarded to me from Bristol by Mr. Cowper, who mention’d on the Back of it, that the Box should be forwarded also as soon as it came on shore. Not receiving it in some time, I wrote to him about it, and had for Answer that it had been sent three Weeks since, and I should find it on Enquiry at Gerrard’s Hall...
276From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Galloway, 3 November 1773 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from William Temple Franklin, ed., Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin, L.L.D., F.R.S., &c. … (3 vols., 4to, London, 1817–18), II , 200 of first pagination. There is at present great quietness here, and no prospect that the war between the Turks and Russians will spread farther in Europe. The last harvest is allowed to have been generally plentiful in this country;...
277From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Gilpin, 10 July 1769 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I received your Favour per Capt. Osborne, with the Model of your Machine for raising Water. The Manner in which you have apply’d a single Crank for the Working of three Pumps, wherein the whole Force is apply’d to each, and yet in such quick Succession that there is no Loss of Time, appears to me so extreamly ingenious, that I have scarce ever seen a new...
278From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 11 December 1745 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Pennsylvania Hospital; also duplicate: New York Public Library (Berg) While the War continues I find it will not answer to send for any considerable Quantities of Books; for that Business, as well as others grows duller daily, and People are unwilling to give the advanc’d Prices we are now obliged to put on Books, by the excessive Charges of Insurance &c. So at present I only send for a...
279From Benjamin Franklin to Smith, Wright & Gray, [April 1770]: résumé (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Boston Public Library [No place or date, but April, 1770. Encloses four bills: on Harley & Drummond for £200, on W. Cunningham for £20, on D. Milligan for £52, and on Alex. Grant for £30, and asks for a receipt by bearer for £302. ] BF entered these bills in his Jour., p. 23, under April 2, 1770. The first three, remittances by Parker on his postal accounts, were mentioned in his letters...
280From Benjamin Franklin to William Coleman, 22 February 1757 (Franklin Papers)
Copy, MS minutes: Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania Recollecting Coll. Ludwell’s Donation of £20 Sterling to the Academy, I am desirous of settling it before I go (tho I have not yet heard that his Bill, which I sent home, is accepted.) Therefore, and to save you the Trouble of paying that Interest Money to my Order, I inclose £1 11 s . 3 d ., which added to the Interest Money £32 18...
281From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Clap, 28 November 1751 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Universitätsbibliothek, Sammlung Kestner, Karl Marx Universität, Leipzig I am heartily sorry for your Disappointment in Letort; I could not have imagin’d he would have behav’d so imprudently, and let so very profitable a Jobb slip thro’ his Fingers. I have done with him. I hope you will be able to procure a Subscription to furnish your College with a compleat Apparatus for Natural...
282From Benjamin Franklin to Smith, Wright & Gray, 10 May 1770: résumé (Franklin Papers)
AL : New York Society Library [Craven Street, May 10, 1770. Asks for the protest of the bill on W. Cunningham in order to send it to America. Wants to know what happened to the two lottery tickets bought last year for Mr. Williams of Boston. ] The bill for £20 sterling drawn on William Cunninghame, near Glasgow, by Alexander Findletter of Jamaica, with which Thomas Vernon of Newport had...
283From Benjamin Franklin to Catharine Ray, 3 March 1757 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Jared Sparks, ed., A Collection of the Familiar Letters and Miscellaneous Pieces of Benjamin Franklin (Boston, 1833), p. 49. Being about to leave America for some time, I could not go without taking leave of my dear friend. I received your favor of the 8th of November, and am ashamed, that I have suffered it to remain so long unanswered, especially as now, through...
284From Benjamin Franklin to Abiah Franklin, 7 September 1749 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from London Magazine: and Monthly Chronologer , XII (1825), 606. We received your kind Letter by this Post, and are glad to hear you still continue to enjoy such a share of Health. Cousin Josiah and his Spouse arrived here hearty and well last Saturday noon; I met them the Evening before at Trenton, 30 miles off and accompany’d them to Town. They went into their own...
285From Benjamin Franklin to Mary Hewson, 8 July 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I arrived here yesterday in my Return from the North. This Morning I had the Pleasure of receiving yours of the 6th. I am sorry that my Engagements here will not permit to be in London on your Wedding Day, but I repeat my Wishes of Happiness to you on that Occasion, and pray that you may have many Returns of that Day each happier than its Predecessor, from...
286From Benjamin Franklin to James Logan, 18 September 1749 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from extract in Sparks, Works , VII , 40. For the reason you mention, I am of the same opinion, that Dr. Free has not considered the Picts’ language as you have done, but imagines with other writers that the Pict nation was totally destroyed and its language with it. See above, p. 390. John Free wrote of the Pictish language that, with “the Saxon to the South, and the...
287From Benjamin Franklin to Pierre du Pont de Nemours, 2 October 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Henry Francis DuPont Wintherthur Museum I received with great Pleasure the Assurances of your kind Remembrance of me, and the Continuance of your Goodwill towards me, in your Letter by M. le Comte Chreptowitz. I should have been happy to have rendred him every Civility and Mark of Respect in my Power (as the Friend of those I so much respect and honour) if he had given me the...
288From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, [9 October 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. 281. I returned last night from Paris, and just now hear that the Ilinois settlement is approved of in the Cabinet Council, so far as to be referred to the Board of Trade for their opinion, who are to consider it next week. Shelburne...
289From Benjamin Franklin to Mary Stevenson, [1760–1762] (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Among the surviving letters between Franklin and Mary Stevenson are two from him and two from her bearing incomplete dates or none at all, which cannot be even approximately placed by other evidence, although they seem to belong to the general period from May 1, 1760, when Franklin and Polly agreed to correspond on subjects of moral and natural philosophy,...
290From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Coombe, Jr., 22 July 1774 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library; draft: American Philosophical Society I received with great Pleasure you[rs of] May 15. as it inform’d me of your Hea[lth, and Hap]piness. I thank you for your Sermons [which I] read with Satisfaction: I am glad that [of my good] Bishop’s pleas’d you. I enclose a Speech [of his,] on the same Subject. It is deem’d here a [Master-piece] of Eloquence. I send also...
291From Benjamin Franklin to Joshua Babcock, 16 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library I thank you most cordially for your kind Congratulations on my Arrival, which I have the more Pleasure in, as among my other Friends, I find you and yours alive and well: I rejoice with you likewise in the safe Return of your two valuable Sons, to whom, on Account of their own Merit as well as the Obligations I am under to you, I wish it had been in my Power to...
292From Benjamin Franklin to John Bartram, [7?] October 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Haverford College Library; letterbook draft: American Philosophical Society I received sometime since the enclosed Letter from Dr. Hope, and lately the Gold Medal it mentions was delivered to me for you. By the first Ship directly to Philadelphia I shall send it in the Care of some safe Hand, thinking it not so well to hazard it with this Letter round through New York. Mr. Hope’s Letter...
293From Benjamin Franklin to the Earl of Loudoun, 21 May 1757 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Huntington Library Having determined not to go in the first Pacquet, I retired hither about two Weeks ago, to have Leisure for Settling some private Affairs before the Sailing of the second; which is the Reason I have not for some time been to pay my Respects to your Lordship. In your present Multiplicity of important Business, I would not be too importunate. But if your Lordship should...
294From Benjamin Franklin to Elizabeth Hubbart, 5 March 1756 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Excuse my not writing to your good Mama and my other Friends. I am excessively hurried, and not very well. I shall send a Commission to Cousin Tuthill. I am going shortly to Virginia if nothing hinders, and could be glad to have the State of the Office Accounts and the Ballance, that I may settle it with Mr. Hunter. Pray desire him to put Huske’s Bond in...
295From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwalader Evans, 22 August 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (letterbook draft): American Philosophical Society I hope you received the Elastic Truss, and that it answered and gave Satisfaction. It gives me great Pleasure to understand by yours of Apr. 30 that the Assemblies have shown a Disposition to encourage the Produce of Silk. You can never overdo the Market here, and will soon be able to manufacture what you want for yourselves. Mr. Small...
296From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 2 February 1774 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : British Museum This Line is just to acquaint you that I am well, and that my Office of Deputy-Postmaster is taken from me. As there is no Prospect of your being ever promoted to a better Government, and That you hold has never defray’d its Expences, I wish you were well settled in your Farm. ’Tis an honester and a more honourable because a more independent Employment. You will hear from...
297From Benjamin Franklin to [Anthony Todd], 15 June 1771 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I am just going out of Town for a Week, but shall endeavour to return in time for the great Pleasure you so kindly propose to me of meeting chez vous , that excellent good Man Baron Behr. In the mean while, pray advise your Neighbour Mr. Jackson, if he should be at any Loss about it, how to get soon ashore two Barrels of Flour (one of which is for your...
298From Benjamin Franklin to Lachlin MacLeane, [November 1767] (Franklin Papers)
Copy: American Philosophical Society Sir Wm. Johnson’s Letter of May 30, 1767 of which you have been so kind as to communicate an Extract to me, has no Relation to the propos’d Boundary Line between the English Colonies and the Indian Country. It is merely a Line of Division between the two Colonies of Pensilvania and Maryland, now running by Agreement of the two Proprietaries, and as it is to...
299From Benjamin Franklin to Humphry Marshall, 9 July 1769 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Mr. S. Hallock du Pont (1955) I received your obliging Favour of April 13. with Specimens of the several Colours suitable for Painting which you have found in different Parts of our Country. It gives me great Pleasure to see them, and I have shown them to many Persons of Distinction, together with your Letter, which is allow’d to contain a great many sensible and shrewd Observations....
300From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 14 May 1752 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New-York Historical Society I find Parker has been indiscreet enough, to print a Piece in his Paper, which has brought him into a great deal of Trouble. I cannot conceive how he was prevail’d on to do it, as I know him to be a thorough Believer himself, and averse to every thing that is commonly called Freethinking. He is now much in his Penitentials, and requests me to intercede with...