To Benjamin Franklin from Jonathan Williams, Jr., 14 June 1782
From Jonathan Williams, Jr.
ALS: American Philosophical Society; copy: Yale University Library
Nantes June 14. 1782.
Dear & hond sir.
I wrote you last Post relative to a ship of 300 Tons which is offered for Freight to take out the public Stores. The proprietor of this Ship is Mr Arnoux one of our principal Merchants here2 & his son in Law Mr Mitchel3 will call on you to talk on the subject whatever you do with him therefore will be conclusive on Mr Arnoux & I will take Care of the Execution here.
I am as ever most dutifully & affectionately Yours
Jona Williams J
The Prisoners I wrote about on the 26 March are gone at last & left me to pay my Engagements for their Board &c. This Letter has never been answered but I hope you will not let me suffer a Loss which certainly ought to be a charge of State more especialy as the Men have arrears due.
JW
2. Nicolas Arnous III (1719–1807), in addition to being one of the principal merchants and shipowners of Nantes, was a conseiller secrétaire du Roi and a former juge-consul: Yvonne Arnous Rivière, Nantes et ses messieurs les Arnous (Chabris, 1994), pp. 135, 137, 451; Villiers, Commerce colonial, pp. 193, 404; Jean Meyer, L’Armament nantais dans la deuxième moitié du XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1969), p. 265.
3. Gabriel-Augustin Michel de Tharon (b. 1753), scion of a prominent Nantais merchant family, married Marie-Suzanne Arnous in 1778, when he was a deputy mayor of the city: Arnous Rivière, Les Arnous, pp. 102, 136–7.