Benjamin Franklin Papers
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To Benjamin Franklin from James Parker, 5 July 1774

From James Parker3

ALS: American Philosophical Society

Perth Amboy July 5th: 1774

Sir

I this day received a letter from Mr. Wilmot dated 30 March last wherein he says “before you receive this letter you will have received his Majestys Confirmation of the act Confirming the Division line from Doctor Franklin the Provincial agent. A Confirmation of the act of New york has likewise been transmitted from Mr. Burke Agent for that Province. When I applied about the Confirmation of this act I found these two gentlemen had applied to have the Acts confirmed and they have since had them and sent them away to the respective Provinces.”

As the Committee of Correspondence for Nyork have received the Confirmation of the Act of that Province and neither the Committee or the Agents for settling the dispute on the line have received the Confirmation of the Act passed by this Province4 and as Mr. Wilmots letter dated the 30th March did not get to hand untill this day by the Lady Gage Capt. Mesnard I presume your letter inclosing the Act has miscarried and therefore should be glad of a Duplicate of the Act and Confirmation or if by any means it is omitted being sent shall be very glad to have it done by first Opportunity as the Inhabitants of this Province taken in by this Settlement suffer for want of it. I am Sir Your most Obedient Humble Servant

James Parker

Docr Franklin

Addressed: To / Docr. Benjamin Franklin / Pennsylvania Coffee house / London

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

3Parker (1725–97) was the mayor of Perth Amboy, and a member of the N.J. Council and of the Board of Proprietors of East Jersey; he was a merchant engaged primarily in the West Indian trade. See 1 N.J. Arch., X, 195; William A. Whitehead, Contributions to the Early History of Perth Amboy … (New York, 1856), pp. 133–6; James Parker, “The Parker Family of New Jersey,” N.Y. Geneal. and Biographical Record, XXX (1899), 31–3.

4For the land dispute with New York see BF to the N.J. Assembly committee above, Feb. 18. Henry Wilmot, the London solicitor and former agent of the Assembly, was presumably acting in his capacity as agent of the East Jersey Proprietors: above, XVI, 253 n. Edmund Burke, agent for New York since 1771, needs no introduction. BF had sent the confirmation in duplicate months before; see his letter just cited and his reply to this one below, Sept. 7. The agents for settling the boundary dispute were five East Jersey Proprietors appointed in 1764; Parker was one of them, and was also one of the supervisors appointed in 1770 for the survey of the line. Edgar J. Fisher, New Jersey as a Royal Province, 1738 to 1776 (Columbia Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, XLI; New York, 1911), pp. 228–9, 233.

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