1To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 12 March 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: Yale University Library This accompanies your Letters and Manuscript, which I have perused with very great Pleasure and Admiration. Please to accept my grateful Acknowledgments for them. Must ask your Pardon for not Returning them sooner — but as sundry Gentlemen here were desirous to read them, I hoped your Benevolence and Love of Communicating ingenious Discoveries to Mankind, would...
2From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 10 July 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library This is only to acknowledge the Receipt of three very agreable Letters from you, and to promise an Answer as soon as I have a little got thro’ a Hurry of Business, that beats every philosophical Thought out of my Head. As you are on the Study of Magnetism, I send you herewith a Work of the greatest Master of Practical Magnetics that has appear’d in any Age. With...
3From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 1 September 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library At the same time I acknowledge the Receipt of your Favours of March 12th from New Haven, and May 20th. from Newport, I must beg your Pardon for not answering them sooner. Mr. Allison will tell you how my Time has been devoured this Summer, and how impracticable it has been for me to keep up my philosophical Correspondencies. I have not yet made the Experiment I...
4To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 22 September 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library I received your very kind and acceptable Favour by Mr. Allison, with the MSS . accompanying it, for which you have my Thanks. When have perused shall return the MSS . With my Thanks I now return Dr. Knights most ingenious Treatise on Magnetism . I have this Commencement resigned my Imployment in the College: shall this Week set out for Newport, where expect to...
5From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 23 May 1757 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library, University of Pennsylvania I have been waiting here near Six Weeks for the sailing of the Pacquet, and know not yet when that will be. From London I will send you the Account you desire of the Verification of the Meridian of France; and one of the best Thermometers I can procure. If in any thing else I can do you pleasure, signify it by a Line...
6From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 2 June 1757 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library Having waited here near Eight Weeks for a Passage to England, we are at length told we shall certainly sail tomorrow. For your Amusement I enclose you a Copy of a Letter I lately sent to a philosophical Friend in Carolina. I shall not forget your Thermometer, and shall be glad to hear from you when in England. I am, Dear Sir, with great Esteem, Your most obedient...
7To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 12 July 1757 (Franklin Papers)
AL (incomplete): Yale University Library Just before you sail’d from New York, you was so good as to inclose to me a Copy of your philosophic Letter to a Friend in Carolina, for which please accept my Thanks. The Philosophy of Light and Fire, Heat and Cold has hitherto been a Mystery to me. Even the luminous Emanations of a burning Candle I never could solve in my own Mind. I am half persuaded...
8To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 30 March 1758 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: Yale University Library Just before you sailed from New York, you was so kind as to inclose me a Copy of your philosophic Letter to Dr. Lining. I returned you Thanks and Reflexions upon it in a Letter July last too long to copy, by the Brig Prince of Orange Edward Jackson Captain taken on Passage from hence to London and carried into Bayonne. It is thot that Air is absolutely necessary...
9To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 30 December 1761 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: Yale University Library I once more attempt to reach you with a Letter, which the Fate of war has I suppose hitherto intirely prevented. We are extremly sorry to know that Mr. Pitt has resigned the Seals: and have scarcely yet learned enough about the Earl of Bute (except from Scotsmen) to form an Idea of him. The only obnoxious Thing in Mr. Pitts Character that any in this Country...
10To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 5 February 1762 (Franklin Papers)
Letterbook copy: Yale University Library Notwithstanding thro the Fate of War I suppose all my Letters to you have been intercepted by the Enemy, I venture again to write. You know Professor Winthrop to be a Gentleman of exellent Abilities and Acquisitions in math[ematical] Learning. And persuade myself that you, Sir, who know his Merits, cannot but think they would do honor to an Enrollment...
11From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 19 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library This Line is just to salute you, and acquaint you with my Return to America, Thanks to God, well and hearty. I hope you are so. With this you will receive a Thermometer which craves your Acceptance. With the greatest Esteem, I am, Dear Sir, Your most obedient and most humble Servant BF had promised to send Stiles a thermometer, May 23, 1757; above, VII , 217. On...
12From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 29 May 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library I have now before me your Favours of Jany. 31. and March 1. the Receipt of which I ought sooner to have acknowledged. Your kind Congratulations on my Arrival and the Advancement of my Son, are extremely obliging. I think I have read somewhere that Fahrenheit’s o was what he understood to be the greatest Cold of Siberia, Greenland, or any inhabited Country. So he...
13Ezra Stiles: List of Franklin’s Honors, 11 July 1763 (Franklin Papers)
AD : Yale University Library During his stay at Newport in July Franklin had an opportunity to renew acquaintance with his old friend Ezra Stiles, now minister of the Congregational Church there, and to engage in conversations with him. On July 11 Franklin showed Stiles some of the papers which reflected the recognition accorded him, in America and abroad, for his scientific achievements....
14From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 12 December 1763 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Universitatsbibliothek Leipzig, Sammlung Kestner In the spring of 1763 Ezra Stiles began to experiment with the raising of silkworms at his home in Newport, R.I. When Franklin visited him in early July the minister’s 3,000 worms were just beginning to cocoon, and he had just finished the strenuous task of gathering up to five bushels of mulberry leaves each day from his own and...
15From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 19 June 1764 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library I sent you some time last Fall a Set of Chinese Prints, or rather Prints taken from Chinese Pictures, relating to the Culture of Silk in that Country. I hope they got to hand, tho” I have not heard of your Receiving them. My Brother brought me from you, Æpinus’s Pieces. I thank you for your Care in returning them. He tells me you would like to have one of the new...
16To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 20 February 1765 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society; draft: Yale University Library If I ask too great a favor of you to forward the inclosed Letter to the Sieur Lomonosow at Petersburg, I leave it intirely with you to suppress it. I have taken the Liberty, as you see, of asking an Answer thro’ your hands; if I make too free a use of your name and Friendship, you have it in your power to prevent the Abuse....
17From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 5 July 1765 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Yale University Library I received your very ingenious Letter of February 20th. and shall shortly forward that which was enclosed for Lomanozow. You need not have made any Apology for sending it thro’ my hands, as if you gave me Trouble. When I can do any thing to Oblige you, it is a Pleasure. Your Remarks on the Coldness of Snow are curious. It seems that a Degree of heat heigher than 32...
18To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 23 October 1765 (Franklin Papers)
Four drafts: Yale University Library During 1764 Ezra Stiles had taken a firm public stand against the efforts of some Rhode Islanders to bring about a revocation of the colony’s charter and the establishment of royal government. When news of the passage of the Stamp Act arrived in Newport in April 1765 he was equally firm in his objections to the measure as a matter of political principle,...
19To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 26 November 1765 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania; draft and letterbook copy: Yale University Library On the 22d Instant I received your Favor of the 5th. of July last, and the Diploma from the University of Edinburgh, with the several Letters relating to it. It is owing to you, Sir, that the University has done me this unmerited Honor, and therefore my Gratitude is due to both. To be enrolled in the...
20To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 30 November 1765 (Franklin Papers)
Letterbook copy: Yale University Library The inclosed is the Copy of a Letter I delivered on the 16th. Inst. to be conveyed by a Vessel bound to Falmouth, which is not yet sailed, but continues at Providence. On the 22d. Inst. I received your Letter of 5th July with the Diploma from the University of Edinburgh. I have prepared the Letters in Acknowledgment of this unexpected Honor, and shall...
21From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 28 August 1767 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Dr. William’s Library, London Inclos’d I return your List of Doctors, compleated as far as I can do it with the Help of my Friends here. I hope you continue well and happy, being, with sincere Regard and Esteem, my dear Friend, Yours most affectionately [ On the back in Stiles’s hand: ] By Ezra Stiles Episcopalians in America * Revd. Timothy Cutler D D Boston. 1723. Oxon. and Cant. ob....
22To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 27 December 1769 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (draft): Yale University Library This acknowledges the Receipt of your Collection of philosophical Letters, and Dissertations in a quarto Volume which with your Letter came safe to hand last Summer. For which please to accept my Thanks. They have given me great Pleasure and Instruction. I have desired Capt. Peck, by whom you receive this, to procure me in London Relands Collection from the...
23To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 28 September 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library Yesterdy I received your Favor of 16 May ult with Relandi Analecta Rabbinica you was so obliging as to send me. For which please to accept my Thanks. One of the Tracts I wanted is contained in Relandi Hist. Hebraea. I am sorry to have given you so much Trouble. I could wish for an Answer from Mr. Dow——as I have a very great Thirst after Oriental Antiquities. With...
24To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 25 June 1771 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (draft ): Yale University Library This waits on you by Henry Marchant Esqr. Attorney General of this Colony, and its joynt Agent with Jos. Sherwood Esqr. at the Court of Great Britain. I doubt not you will afford him your friendly Advice and Assistance in the Agency. I need not remind you that he is One of the First Fruits of the College in Philada. which rose up greatly thro’ your...
25From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 13 January 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New Haven Colony Historical Society; draft: American Philosophical Society I receiv’d your Favour by Mr. Marchant, who appears a very worthy Gentleman, and I shall not fail to render him every Service in my Power. There is lately published in Paris, a Work intitled Zend-avesta , or the Writings of Zoroaster , containing the Theological, Philosophical and Moral Ideas of that Legislator,...
26From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 22 July 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library This will be deliver’d to you by our common Friend Mr. Marchant. He has had a difficult Negociation here, to obtain Money from a poor Board; to get an old Debt paid by those who are daily put to their Shifts for Excuses to avoid or postpone the Payment of new ones. He has done much more in it than I expected, or indeed than I think almost any other Man could have...
27To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 10 October 1780 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : University of Pennsylvania Library; copy: Yale University Library Mechanical Inventions, and Improvements in every Branch of experimental Philosophy, are at all times so agreeable to you, that it must give you pleasure to be informed of a Grist-mill, newly invented by an American which will soon come into general use, not only in America but in Europe & thro’ the World. There are but 4...
28To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 18 October 1780 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society John Bunnel of New Haven in Connecticutt Son of Mr Israel Bunnel, was taken by the British June 25 1777 on board a Merchant Brig from Charlestown So. Caro. bound to France, and put on board the Valiant Man O’ War a 74 Gun Ship; from which, while lying at Portsmouth in Engld, he wrote a Letter to his Father dated Octr 28 1777. This is the last time his...
29To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 22 June 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Colo. Humphrys needs not as some others Letters of Recommendation, being himself his own Epistle to every one who would take Knowledge of real Worth & singular Merit. He was educated in this College, of which he was formerly elected a Tutor or Professor. He has distinguished himself in our Army through the War, and Gen. Washington has taken him into his...