To Benjamin Franklin from Henry Potts, 6 May 1761
From Henry Potts
ALS: American Philosophical Society
General Post Office May 6. 1761
Sir
The Letter which you left with me last Week7 I read to my Lord Bessborough8 who Orderd me to Acquaint you he desired Mackrath9 might be removed Directly and that you would appoint the Person Post Master at Charles Town that was recommended by Governor Littleton some time ago, I shall Acquaint the Governor on Friday next with this Nomination.1 I am Sir Your most Obedient Servant.
Heny. Potts. Secy.
To Benjamin Francklin Esqr.
7. Not found; the letter referred to certainly dealt with a different matter than that of April 23 (above, pp. 302–7).
8. One of the joint postmasters general.
9. Thomas MacKreth had been commissioned postmaster at Charleston, So. Car., by BF and William Hunter, July 11, 1760. See above, V, 452 n.
1. The appointment is puzzling. According to Hennig Cohen (The South Carolina Gazette, Columbia, So. Car., 1953, p. 243), Peter Timothy (above, V, 341 n), son of BF’s old journeyman Louis Timothée, was postmaster at Charleston from 1756 to 1766 and perhaps longer. Apparently, after BF and Hunter had appointed MacKreth in 1760, Gov. William Henry Lyttelton of So. Car. had either requested the reinstatement of Timothy or the appointment of some new candidate of his own. The editors have found too little information on the Charleston Post Office to permit a resolution of the problem.