To Benjamin Franklin from Charles Thomson: Résumé, 26 October 1784
From Charles Thomson8
AL (draft):9 Historical Society of Pennsylvania
⟨October 26, 1784: Mr. Joseph Norris,1 the second son of our friend Charles Norris, will wait on you with this letter. He goes to Europe with the intention of establishing commercial connections. He is anxious to see Paris, and wants it to be known that you are an old friend of his family. I hope you will point out to him the paths of virtue and honor.⟩
8. BF may not have received this letter, as it seems likely that Norris did not reach Paris until after BF had left. Norris also carried a letter of recommendation from Thomson to TJ, written on the same date as the present letter, which TJ received on Nov. 1, 1785: Jefferson Papers, VII, 453.
9. In Thomson’s letterbook.
1. Joseph Parker Norris (1763–1841) was the younger brother of Isaac Norris, whom Thomson had also recommended to BF: XLI, 45–6. Joseph later became prominent in Philadelphia, serving for many years as president of the Bank of Pennsylvania: J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia. 1609–1884 (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1884), II, 1499.