To Benjamin Franklin from William Temple Franklin, 2 September 1784
From William Temple Franklin
ALS: American Philosophical Society
London, Thursday, 2 Sepr. 1784.
Dear & hond Sir,
Little did I imagine, when I wrote you from Dover,7 of the Inconveniences I had experienced on the Passage, and of the Uneasiness I then felt, & which I supposed was caused by the Sea Sickness, that the Result would be, a fever and Ague! But Alas! it is too true.— That very Night on my Arrival at Cantorberry I was seized with a shivering; it did not however prevent me continuing my Journey hither the next Day, where I arrived early in the Evening: I was not well enough however to wait on my Father that Night, & went to Bed at the Hotel where I had stopt at: I pass’d a very bad Night—and was little better the next Morg— I made shift however to get to my Father’s, whence I have not been able to stir since, and indeed it is lucky he was here, or I should not have known what to do with myself in the situation I am in.— He is exceedingly attentive to me, as is the Lady of the House where he lodges,—8 We have had the best Advice—& I have complied very minutely with what has been advised me. The Dr has hopes that I shall not have another Access.—9 Yesterday’s was most Violent— I never in my Life suffer’d so much.— This is my well day,—& if I have no Return of the Fever tomorrow, I shall in a few Days be able to go about.— As yet I have deliverd none of my Recommendatory Letters—the others I have forwarded, together with the Watch for Mr Magellan—& the Packet of the Comes. Rapport, to Sr. Jos. Banks.— Pray inform M. Le Roy of this & remember me to him & my other Friends in the most affectionate manner.
I just received your Letter of the 25 Augt. through Mr. Vaughan; It was brought me by Le Fevre,1 who enquired much after you.— Lord Shelburne is not in London but is expected shortly: By the Way you only enclose me a Letter for him, tho’ you mention more.— I shall do what you recommend relative to Mrs. Holt—and shall certainly call on Mde d’Hauteville. My Father had great Pleasure in receiving your Letter2—& will answer it particularly as soon as he can hear from Mr. Galloway, who is in Wales.
I have taken a very pretty Lodging just by—whither I intend to repair as soon as the fever leaves me; it is on the Skirts of the Town in an excellent Air—& commands an agreable Prospect of the Country. It is situated where Mary-le bone Gardens where formally. This will in some Measure give you an Idea of the prodigious increase of Houses in this City: Its Inhabitants are I suppose much the same in Number.
Farewell, my dearest Sir, I fatigue myself and you too. My Father joins me in most dutiful & cordial Affection—
W. T. Franklin
Remember me to my worthy Friend & fellow-Sufferer—Mr. Le
Veillard.—
B. Franklin Esq.—
Addressed: A Monsieur / Monsieur Franklin / Ministre Plenipotentiaire des / Etats-Unis de l’Amerique près / S. M. très Chrètienne.— / à Passy / près Paris.
7. On Aug. 28, above.
8. WF lodged at 28 Norton St., Marylebone (XLII, 435) at the home of Mary D’Evelin, the widow he would marry in 1788: WF to WTF, Sept. 23, 1784 (APS); Mariamne Williams to JW, Jan. 6, 1789 (Hist. Soc. of Pa.); W. Bruce Bannerman and R. R. Bruce Bannerman, eds., The Registers of Marriages of St. Mary le Bone, Middlesex, 1783—1792 (London, 1922), p. 92.
9. The doctor attending to WTF was John Jeffries, a Loyalist whom BF had met in 1769 when the young Bostonian arrived in London to complete his medical training: XVI, 52, 120. Jeffries served in a Nova Scotia military hospital during the early years of the war, prior to settling his family in London in 1779 and moving there himself in 1780 after the death of his wife. He developed a successful private medical practice, catering in particular to Loyalist refugees: Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, XV, 420–3; ANB. Two sheets of Jeffries’ prescriptions for WTF are at the APS: one is dated Aug. 30, 1784; the other is undated, but WTF noted instructions on the verso. Filed with them is a third sheet bearing WTF’s instructions.
1. After serving as BF’s clerk in London, in the early 1770s, Lewis (Louis) Fevre (Favre) was hired by Shelburne and remained in Shelburne’s household until he died: XIX, 438; XXII, 350; XXVII, 42. Benjamin Vaughan forwarded a packet to WTF under cover of a letter dated Sept. 1, addressed “to the care of Mr. Fevre Shelburne House” (APS). It included BF’s letters of Aug. 25 to both WTF and Shelburne, above.
2. Of Aug. 16, above.