9231To Benjamin Franklin from Jacob Duché, Junior, 6 May 1757 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society As you kindly offered me your best Services before you left Philadelphia, which, as I had then no Commands to trouble you with; I declined the Honor of accepting, I now beg Leave to make Use of the Liberty you permitted me, to request you to take Charge of the inclosed Letters. I believe you are personally acquainted with the Gentlemen to whom they are...
9232To Benjamin Franklin from Isaac Norris, 7 April 1757 (Franklin Papers)
Letterbook copy: Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Clerk calls upon me to sign the Indian Trade Bill now sent down by the Governor who adheres to his Amendments and as the House after agreeing to some of the Amendments now adhere to the Bill there is an End of that salutary provision to induce the Indians to come heartily into our Interest by making it their Own. We think it a Strange...
9233To Benjamin Franklin from Isaac Norris, 4 April 1757 (Franklin Papers)
Letterbook copy: Historical Society of Pennsylvania The interfering in those Weighty matters you are charged with, either by an Attempt to explain what you are fully Master of or to add any thing of my own not already contained in the Report of the committee or the Instructions of the House to yourself, would subject me justly to a censure I hope to avoid for if I had any thing material beyond...
9234Pennsylvania Assembly: Instructions to Benjamin Franklin, 31 March 1757 (Franklin Papers)
MS (fragment): American Philosophical Society On March 1, 1757, the Assembly named the same committee (plus William West) that had made the report on the Assembly grievances against the Proprietors “to bring in a Draught of the Instructions of the House to Benjamin Franklin, Esq; one of the Commissioners now about to embark for England.” Two days later they reported a draft and were ordered...
9235To Benjamin Franklin from John Hughes with Franklin’s Receipt, [24 March 1757] (Franklin Papers)
I. MS not found; reprinted from Pennsylvania History , VI (1939), 15; II. ADS : Yale University Library The minutes of the Society of Arts (see above, VI , 186–9 n) for the meeting of Sept. 7, 1757, note that Franklin attended and read the extract of a letter from John Hughes printed as No. I below; that Franklin paid in the donation; and that the Society voted their thanks to Hughes for his...
9236To Benjamin Franklin from the Earl of Loudoun, 20 February 1757 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Huntington Library As I have been informed by Mr. Colden, that You have been enquiring when the packet for England was to sail, in Order to Your Taking Your Passage in her, I have taken this Opportunity to acquaint You, that there will be another packet to sail as soon as I return from Philadelphia, which I suppose will be about the 25th. of March. And as I have several very material...
9237Pennsylvania Assembly: Appointment of Franklin as Agent to Go to England, and His acceptance, [28 January 1757–3 … (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1756–1757 (Philadelphia, 1757), pp. 75, 76, 78. The sequence of events resulting in the appointment of Franklin as agent to represent the Assembly in England in its disputes over the instruction on the taxation of proprietary estates and related grievances is indicated by the following extracts from the Assembly Journals. The...
9238To Benjamin Franklin from John Waring, 24 January 1757 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I trouble You with this [to inform you of?] the Death of a worthy Clergyman the [Reverend Henry?] Wheatley, Lecturer of St. Leonard Shoreditch, [who named?] me the Sole Executor of his last Will, by which [he leaves?] a Legacy to some of his Relations now (if alive) at Philadelphia in the following words: “I give and bequeath to Benjamin Franklin Esq. of...
9239To Benjamin Franklin from [Elizabeth Hubbart], [c. December 1756] (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society Now for the Story I promised in my last; and I wish I had the nack of teling it in such a maner, as to afford you as many Hearty Laugh’s, as I have had on the Occation. You must know then, that Littel mischievous Urching Cupid, has got a mighty odd whim in his Head, he has new strung his Bow, and let fly one of his Keenest Arrows directly ame’d; at the Heart...
9240To Benjamin Franklin from Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg, 29 November 1756 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Archives of the Moravian Church, Bethlehem To wait on you at Bethlehem, on your Return from Easton to Philadelphia, would have been a great Satisfaction to many of us, who have the Honour of your Acquaintance. I flatter myself with the Opinion, that you would not have pass’d by, had your Affairs permitted any longer stay in the Country. And now I take this Opportunity of letting you Know...