To Benjamin Franklin from Richard Bache, 14 June 1778
From Richard Bache3
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Manheim June 14, 1778
Dear Sir
Some time ago I received from you a memorandum to inquire after a Richard Cooke,4 a native of Rotterdam, who had been settled some years in America. In consequence of an advertisement I put in the papers, I am applied to by the Son of the said Richard Cooke, (who has resided laterly and is now living in No. Carolina5) for a Letter to you, he intending shortly to go to Europe to look after the Legacy that is said to be left him; he will carry such Letters and papers with him as to leave no doubt of his Identity. I have advised him to write to Europe first, to know whether the Legacy is worth the trouble and expence of a Voyage thither. But he has conceived that it is some thing considerable, and is therefore bent upon the Voyage. I have had the pleasure of hearing repeatedly from you lately, and have done myself the pleasure of writing you often. I hope those lately wrote will have better luck than many others that went before them, which I find by your late Letters never got to hand. Sally and the Children are well, we join in Love and Duty to yourself Temple and Benny. I am Dear Sir Your affectionate Son
Rich. Bache
Dr. Franklin
Addressed: The Honble. / Docr. Benjn. Franklin / Ambassador from the United States of / No. America at the Court of / France / Favored by Mr. Richd. Cooke
3. This letter took more than a year and a half to reach BF. RB, as indicated on the address, gave it to the man for whom it was written, Richard Donaldson Cooke, who did not leave for Europe until November, 1779; three months later he forwarded the letter from Rotterdam with his of Feb. 24, 1780: APS.
4. In a missing letter of Oct. 7, 1777: cited above, XXV, 554.
5. I.e., the son. He was born in Virginia in 1749, moved to North Carolina, and died there in 1785. From the autumn of 1776 he was a captain in the ninth regiment, N.C. line, until his retirement in June, 1778. Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Book, CIX (1929), 210; Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers in the War of the Revolution . . . (rev. ed.; Baltimore, 1982), p. 169.