To Benjamin Franklin from Nicholas Davis, [c. 16 January 1777]
From Nicholas Davis3
AL: American Philosophical Society
[c. January 16, 17774]
Mr. Davis’s most respectful Compliments wait on Mr. Franklin begs leave to acquaint him that he is waiting below in the Coffee Room till Mr. Franklin is at leisure when Davis would be glad of the favour of speaking to him.
–– Franklin Esqr.
3. One of the Americans who got money from the commissioners on false pretenses; see their letter to the committee of secret correspondence below, Feb. 6. Davis almost invariably reappears in this and subsequent volumes in a bad light. He said–and what he said cannot be trusted–that he was the son of a Boston distiller who emigrated to Jamaica in 1755, later went to England to take holy orders, and returned to the island for a decade of “excellent good living.” To BF, May 3, 1779, APS.
4. The date when the commissioners gave Davis 720 l.t., for which he signed a receipt (Library of Congress). BF did see him in January, according to the letter just cited, and presumably at this time.