To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 21 November 1778
From Samuel Cooper
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Boston Novr. 21. 1778.
My dear Sir,
I have just wrote to you by Mr Duncan Ingraham Junr.4 upon some public Affairs— I beg Leave in this, lest he might be oblig’d to destroy that, should he meet with an Enemy just to mention him to you as my Friend, for whom I have a great Regard— He goes to France on a Plan of Business in his own Vessel: as he is a Stranger there he would be glad to be directed to Men of Probity & Honor in whom he may confide; if you or your Friends would do him this Favor it would not only greatly oblige this my Friend & me, but promote those Mercantile Connections which are one Object of the Alliance— He has good Connections here, and the best Reputation as a Man of Business.
Your’s in ev’ry Sense,
Saml: Cooper
His Excellency Benjn: Franklin Esqr.
Addressed: To / His Excellency / Benjamin Franklin Esqr / at the Court of Versailles.
Endorsed: Dr Cooper Recommendation of Mr Duncan Ingraham
Notation: Nov. 21. 1778
4. A Boston merchant and mariner. See Thomas B. Wyman, Jr., “New Brick Church, Boston,” New-England Hist. and Geneal. Register, XVIII (1864), 344. He carried with him at this time a letter from Abigail Adams to JA (Butterfield, Adams Correspondence, III, 109n), but the letter Cooper mentions has apparently not survived. Ingraham must have remained in Europe, for the mercantile firm Sigourney, Ingraham, and Bromfield of Amsterdam (later Ingraham Bromfield) is mentioned in later correspondence of BF and JA.