To Benjamin Franklin from Sarah Bache, 2 January 1783
From Sarah Bache
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Philadelphia Jan. 2d 1783
Dear and Honoured Sir
Mr Restiff called to let me know he was going to France,1 I allways promiss’d him a letter when he return’d: he is an exceeding good Young Man, has been often at our House and can tell you how we all look—as I have just wrote you a long letter,2 and shall write you again in a few days by Coll Cambray,3 shall only add the Love and duty of an Afectionate Daughter
S Bache
Addressed: The Honble. / Doctor Benjamin Franklin / Minister Plenipoy: from the United / States of No: America / at / Passy / favored by Monsr. Restife
1. Restif de La Serve returned to France around April, 1783, after four years as second secretary to the French legation. He wrote an article about the 1782 fire at the legation’s residence, caused by lightning (XXXVII, 462): William E. O’Donnell, The Chevalier de La Luzerne: French Minister to the United States 1779–1784 (Bruges and Louvain, 1938), p. 45; Abraham P. Nasatir and Gary E. Monell, comps., French Consuls in the United States: a Calendar of their Correspondence in the Archives Nationales (Washington, D.C., 1967), pp. 147–8.
2. Dated Jan. 1[–2], above.
3. Louis-Antoine-Jean-Baptiste, chevalier de Cambray-Digny, whom BF had recommended to George Washington in 1777: XXIV, 526. Recently freed in a prisoner exchange, the chevalier returned to France in June: XXXIV, 65n.