To Benjamin Franklin from George Whitefield, 27 May 1748
From George Whitefield
MS not found; reprinted from A Select Collection of Letters of the Late Reverend George Whitefield, M.A. … (London, 1772), II, 141–2.
Bermudas, May 27, 1748
My dear Mr. F[ranklin],
Inclosed you have a letter which you may print in your weekly paper.7 It brings good news from this little pleasant spot. If you could print it on half a sheet of paper, to distribute among the Bermudas captains, it might perhaps be serviceable. The inhabitants here have received me so well, that I think publishing their kindness is a debt justly due to them. I am now waiting for a fair wind, and then we shall sail for England. The Governor’s lady8 goes with me. His Excellency is very civil to me, and I believe many souls have been benefited by this visit to Bermudas.9 I desire to give the Lord Jesus all the glory. You will remember me to Mrs. F[ranklin], and all my dear Philadelphia friends. I do not forget them, and hope they will always remember, dear Sir, Their and your most affectionate, obliged friend and servant,
G.W.
7. This was probably A Letter from the Reverend Mr. Whitefield to A Reverend Divine in Boston: Giving a Short Account of his late Visit to Bermuda, dated May 17, 1748, which Franklin & Hall printed, 1748, as a small pamphlet.
8. Widow of Governor Alured Popple, who had died 1744. The Bermuda Assembly made a grant of £100 to assist Mrs. Popple and her children to return to England, where she died 1773. Henry C. Wilkinson, Bermuda in the Old Empire (London, 1950), p. 201; Gent. Mag., XLIII (1773), 526.
9. Whitefield arrived in Bermuda from Charleston, S.C., March 15, 1748. He spent eleven weeks there, preaching at least once daily. The clergy, the governor (William Popple, brother of the deceased Alured), and many of the Council received him warmly, entertained him, and came to hear him. He sailed for England June 2. Tyerman, Whitefield, II, 180–2. For his journal of this stay in Bermuda, see John Gillies, Memoirs of the Life of the Reverend George Whitefield (London, 1772), pp. 154–72.