To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Petrie, [after 18 September 1777]
From Samuel Petrie2
AL: American Philosophical Society
[After Sept. 18, 17773]
Paris. Hotel de la Grande Bretagne. Monday After Noon
Mr. Petrie with respectfull Compliments to Dr. Franklin, Sends by the Bearer a small Paper Parcell, which he received this Morning from Mr. Wilkes, with that Gentleman’s Request to hand it to the Doctor, with his best Compliments.
Addressed: Dr. Franklin. / Passy.
2. A London merchant of Scottish descent, who was an ardent supporter of John Wilkes and had frequently lent him money while he had any himself. After his firm failed he spent considerable time in Paris, and eventually settled in a suburb of Hamburg. John Cannon, “Samuel Petrie and the Borough of Cricklade,” Wilts. Archaeol. and Natural History Mag., LVI (1955–56), 371–87. BF accepted a dinner invitation at the end of the year (Petrie to BF, Dec. 29, APS) and had intermittent letters from him until at least 1782.
3. The date when Wilkes, in a letter to Petrie, made the request that is the subject of this note: John Almon, ed., The Correspondence of the Late John Wilkes with his Friends ... (5 vols., London, 1805), V, 31.