1From Benjamin Franklin to William Smith, 19 April 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania I received your Favour of the 11th Instant, with your new Piece on Education, which I shall carefully peruse; and give you my Sentiments of it as you desire, per next Post. I believe the young Gentlemen, your Pupils, may be entertain’d and instructed here in Mathematics and Philosophy to Satisfaction. Mr. Allison (who was educated at Edinburgh, or...
2From Benjamin Franklin to William Smith, 3 May 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania Mr. Peters has just now been with me, and we have compar’d Notes on your new Piece. We find nothing in the Scheme of Education, however excellent, but what is, in our Opinion, very practicable. The great Difficulty will be, to find the Aratus , and other suitable Persons, in New York, to carry it into Execution; but such may be had, if proper...
3From Benjamin Franklin to William Smith, 27 November 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Having wrote you fully via Bristol, I have now little to add. Matters relating to the Academy remain in Statu quo. A Majority of the Trustees, I find, would be glad to see a Rector establish’d there, but they dread entring into new Engagements ’till they are got out of Debt; and I have not yet been able to bring them over to my Opinion, that a good...
4Samuel Chandler to James Hamilton, William Allen, Richard Peters, Benjamin Franklin, Conrad Weiser, and William Smith … (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Horace W. Smith, Life and Correspondence of the Rev. William Smith, D.D. (Philadelphia, 1880), I , 40–2. William Smith delivered this letter to Governor Hamilton a few days after he returned from England on May 22. Hamilton communicated it at once to the others named in it. Franklin, Peters, and Weiser were about to set out to Albany, so no meeting could be held...
5From Benjamin Franklin to William Smith, 18 April 1754 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania I have had but one Line from you since your Arrival in England, which was a short one, via Boston, dated October 18. acquainting me you had wrote largely by Davis. Davis was lost, and with him your Letters, to my great Disappointment. Mesnard and Gibbon are since arriv’d here, and I hear nothing from you; which I should tell you chagrins me not a...
6From George Washington to William Smith, March–April 1757 (Washington Papers)
[ March-April 1757 ]. The text of this letter is printed as Document III of “The Capitulation of Fort Necessity.” There William Smith is tentatively identified as the addressee. On 3 Mar. 1757, while GW was in Philadelphia to attend Loudoun’s meeting with the southern governors, the printer James Chattin announced in the Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia) his intention to publish within two...
7Ebenezer Kinnersley to [William Smith], 30 November 1758 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , November 30, 1758. William Smith, provost of the College and Academy of Philadelphia, wrote an account of the institution which appeared at the end of November 1758 in a publication of which he was the principal editor, The American Magazine and Monthly Chronicle for the British Colonies , I (1757–58), Supplement, 630–40. In describing the members of the...
8From Benjamin Franklin to William Smith, 4 July 1771 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Huntington Library I received the Box containing eleven Copies of the Transactions sent me by order of the Society, and have already delivered most of them as directed. There should be more care taken by the Binder in collating the Sheets, particularly of Books sent so far. The Book for the Society of Arts had one Sheet twice over, and the Duplicate was return’d to me on a Supposition...
9From Benjamin Franklin to William Smith, 22 August 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS and letterbook draft: American Philosophical Society I received yours of May 16. with the Box of Books, and have already delivered and forwarded most of them as directed. I supply’d Dr. Fothergill with the wanting Sheet. I approve much of the Letter’s being in English. I forwarded your Letter to Mr. White, Son of Taylor White, Esqr late Treasurer of the Foundling Hospital (now deceas’d)...