To Benjamin Franklin from Jonathan Williams, Jr., 22 July 1784
From Jonathan Williams, Jr.
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Paris 22 July 1784.
Dear & hond Sir.—
Please to send to Mr Barclay by the return of Colll Franks’s Servant, the two Bundles of Papers relating to the Ship Marquis de la Fayette, which lay on your Table near the Window in the Library, as we have occasion for them to explain some parts of that Business.2
I am most respectfully & affectionately Yours.
J Williams J
they are the Papers you intended as materials for a Memoire
Addressed: His Excellency Doctor Franklin.
Notation: Williams 22 Juillet 1784
2. JW was in the process of settling his accounts with Thomas Barclay. On Aug. 11, 1784, he submitted to Barclay a memorandum explaining his purchase of cloth from Chaumont for soldiers’ uniforms, which BF had authorized (Yale University Library). That cloth was shipped in 1781 on the Marquis de Lafayette, which was captured en route to America. The papers mentioned in the present letter may be those of which BF sent copies to Gérard de Rayneval shortly after the capture: XXXV, 192n, 244–5, 249, 337.