1To Benjamin Franklin from Elizabeth Hubbart Partridge, 17 September 1776 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Would my Vanity permitt me to think, my long Silence Requier’d an Apology, I might justly Plead ill Health, and want of Spirets, (not want of affection) has deprived me of the Honor and Pleasure, of writing to you before this Time, but I now take up my Pen, to beg the Favour of your kind assistance to the two Gentlemen Messrs: Austen, and Barrett, they are...