To Benjamin Franklin from Jonathan Williams, Jr., 27(?) February 1782
From Jonathan Williams, Jr.
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Nantes Feb. 27(?).1 1782
Dr & hond sir
The inclosed Letter was given me open by Capt Jno Foster Williams who is lately arrived here from Prison.2 As you may have the Receipt mentioned or an authentic Copy of it I think it my duty to forward this Letter and I hope in consequence 53 of our poor Countrymen will be liberated.3
I am as ever Yours most dutifully & affecty
J Williams J
Notation: Williams Feby. 2. 1782.
1. The second digit is obscured by an ink blot; this is our best guess.
2. For Williams’ capture see XXXV, 411. He returned to America aboard the Alliance in March: John A. McManemin, Captains of the State Navies during the Revolutionary War (Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J., 1984), pp. 183, 197–8; Claghorn, Naval Officers, p. 339.
3. I.e., the fifty-three prisoners promised in the first cartel, for which see BF to McKean, Nov. 5, above. The enclosure is missing.