To Benjamin Franklin from Elizabeth Henckell, 5 January [1774?]
From Elizabeth Henckell8
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Hampton Janry 5 [1774?9]
Dear Sir
I cannot refrain from taking up my pen to thank you warmly for your kind compliance with my requests and still kinder manner of conferring the favors. Mr. King also desires I would return his thanks. That this year may bring peace and freedom to the Americans built upon lasting and solid foundations and that you may long live to enjoy the fruits of your labours is the ardent wish of Dear Sir Your gratefully affectionate Friend
E Henckell
Compliments of the season attend Mrs. Stevenson and Mr. Temple.1 I am sorry the latter would not favor me with his company to dinner.
Addressed: Dr Franklin / Mrs Stevenson’s / Craven Street / Strand
8. Dolly Blunt’s friend, who we believe lived in Hampstead; see above, XIX, 152 n. What she was doing in Hampton, on the Thames above London, we have no idea.
9. The only faint clue is her New Year’s wish that the Americans’ liberties should be firmly established. This suggests either 1774 or 1775, and according to our custom we choose the earlier year.
1. WTF, then approaching his fourteenth birthday, spent his school vacations with BF; see the note on BF to Jane Mecom below, June 17, 1775, and above, XIX, 52; XX, 339, 382.