To Benjamin Franklin from David Hartley, 28 January 1784
From David Hartley
ALS: Library of Congress; copy: William L. Clements Library
London Jan 28 1784
Dear Sir
I am requested by Mr Dempster whom you must probably know by Parliamentary reputation9 to introduce to your acquaintance the bearer of this letter Dr Ross who proposes to settle in America as a Physician.1 I have no other acquaintance with him than thro Mr Dempster’s means but he appears by his conversation to be very ingenious and well informed. Tho a young man (about 34) he has been a great traveller having passed several years in various parts of the East Indies and Turky. He proposes with your permission to take your advice with respect to his proposed settlement as a practising Physician in America. Mr Dempster has given me a very high character for understanding & abilities wch as far as I have experienced his conversation he appears entitled to. As such I beg leave to transmitt Mr Dempsters recommendation to you.2— I thank you for yours of the 7th Inst. & for your political parable, and think very seriously (as I know you do) of the moral of your fable. I shall be very glad to hear of the arrival of the ratification from America, and upon the first notification from you, will apply for the exchange of the british ratification. Pray remember me to Mr & Mrs Jay Mr W T Franklin & all friends.
Ever yours most affectely
D Hartley
To Dr Franklin &c &c &c
Endorsed: D Hartley Esq to B F. Jan. 28. 1784
9. The Scottish M.P. George Dempster (1732–1818) had been a champion of the American colonies and an opponent of Lord North: ODNB; Namier and Brooke, House of Commons, II, 313–17. He arranged for Dr. Ross (see below) to receive a letter of introduction to GW, as well as the present letter to BF: W. W. Abbot et al., eds., The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series (6 vols., Charlottesville and London, 1992–97), I, 74–5.
1. Dr. Andrew Ross also carried a letter of recommendation from William Strahan (below, Feb. 1). BF in turn provided Ross with a letter of recommendation to Benjamin Rush, dated March 12, 1784 (Yale University Library). Ross helped found the College of Physicians in 1787 and was elected to the APS on July 15, 1791. He returned to his native Scotland around 1798/99, and died in Dundee in 1822: Trans. of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 3rd ser., XXXI (1909), 374, 391; Early Proc. of the APS (Philadelphia, 1884), p. 195; John T. Rutt, ed., The Theological and Miscellaneous Works of Joseph Priestley (25 vols., [London, 1817–32]), XVII, 132; Monthly Mag. and British Register, LIV (1822–23), first pagination, 576.
2. Not found.