To Benjamin Franklin from William Temple Franklin, 19 November 1784
From William Temple Franklin
ALS: American Philosophical Society
London, 19 Novr. 1784.
Dear & Hond. Sir,
I have been long, very long, without receiving a Letter from you—or hearing of you:—but I suppose you & my other Correspondents, have not wrote in expectation of soon seeing me.
This will be my last from this Country.— We set out on Monday or Tuesday. I could have departed a few days earlier, but Mrs. H.6 requested I would delay it that she might be able to get up some Things: She talks of taking one of her Maids with her—so that her Family will consist of five Persons: Three Beds therefore should be got ready, in the Rooms up stairs.— By my prolonging my Stay I have had an Opportunity of seeing several more of your Friends who on my Arrival were in the Country:— Counsellor Jackson7 is one of them— He was with me this Morg.—& I have much to say to you from him, as well as others, when we Meet,—which I have every Reason to believe will be 9 Days hence—
Adieu, my dearest Sir, The Bell-Man waits—
I am as ever Your dutiful & affece Grandson
W. T. Franklin
Addressed: B. Franklin Esqr / &ca. &ca. &ca / at Passy, / near Paris.—
6. Mary Hewson.
7. Richard Jackson, the London lawyer who had served as a colonial agent along with BF (XXVI, 108n), had last written in 1783. That letter is now missing, as is the one that he later told BF he had sent to Passy by way of WTF: XXXIX, 438n; Jackson to BF, June 27, 1785, in Carl Van Doren, ed., Letters and Papers of Benjamin Franklin and Richard Jackson, 1753–1785 (Philadelphia, 1947), p. 200.