To Benjamin Franklin from William Strahan, 21 August 1772
From William Strahan
ALS: American Philosophical Society
New Street August 21. 1772.
Dear Sir
As you will probably write to Philadelphia by some of the Vessels now about to sail thither, may I request the favour of you to remind Mr. Galloway of the Money due to me for Types and Newspapers sent to Mr. Goddard by his Order above four Years ago, and which, as stated in my Letter to him of the 6th. Decr. 1770. amounted then to £172 15s. 2d.? I wrote him the 7th. of August last Year to which I have had no Answer. It is surely high time this Money was repaid, which I beg your Interposition to procure me without farther Delay. It is hard I should suffer by the Madness and Ingratitude of Goddard whom I never had the least Concern with. It was Mr. Galloway’s Order that I obeyed; and to him I look for my Reimbursement.3
I will do myself the Pleasure of waiting upon you in a Day or two, and in the mean time remain, with the warmest Respect and Esteem Dear Sir Your faithful and affectionate humble Servant
Will: Strahan
Dr. Franklin
Addressed: To / Dr Franklin / at Mrs Stevenson’s / Craven Street
3. Galloway had placed the order in 1767, when he and Thomas Wharton had been Goddard’s silent partners in starting the Pa. Chron.: above, XIV, 147 n. They had subsequently quarreled with the printer, and defaulted on their share of the partners’ obligations. Goddard, as a result, was in prison for debt, but was managing to carry on his bitter vendetta against Galloway in the pages of the Chron. Benjamin H. Newcomb, Franklin and Galloway: a Political Partnership (New Haven and London, 1972), pp. 213–17, 219–21. BF was contemptuous of Goddard’s attacks; see his letter to WF above, Jan. 30. In these circumstances Strahan’s request may well have embarrassed him. He seems to have ignored it, for he wrote Galloway the next day, when he had presumably received this note, without mentioning its contents: below, Aug. 22. We have no proof that he ever did raise the matter, but see his letter to Bache below, Dec. 1.