91To Benjamin Franklin from Sarah Browne, 12 April 1755 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Medical Observations and Inquiries (London), I (1757), 75–80. I will give you as exact a description of my sister’s case as I can. First she complained of a slow fever, and then of sudden stitches in her side; which she would compare to the prick of a pin; and would slap her side with her hand, which never failed giving her relief for some time. She then began to...
92From Benjamin Franklin to Susanna Wright, [28 April 1755] (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Collection of the late Frank J. Mather., Jr., Princeton, N.J. (1955); also transcript: John L. W. Mifflin, Middlebush, N.J. (1955) I thought from the first, that your Proposal of calling the several Townships together, was very judicious. I was only at a Loss how to get them call’d by some Appearance of Authority. On the Road from your House hither, I considered that at the Court of Oyer...
93From Benjamin Franklin to ——, 25 January 1756 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission We got to Hays’s the same Evening we left you and reviewed Craig’s Company by the Way. Much of the next morning was spent in exchanging the bad Arms for good, Wayne’s Company having joined us. We reachd however that night to Uplinger’s, where we got into good Quarters. Saturday morning we began to march towards Gnadenhutten and proceeded near...
94[Benjamin Franklin?] to ———, 26 January 1756 (Franklin Papers)
Extract printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , January 29, 1756. Wednesday we were hinder’d almost all Day by Rain. Thursday most of the Stockades were set up. Friday all inclosed to the Gate, and Part of the Platform round the Inside made. Saturday the Platform was finished, and two Swivels mounted. Sunday had a Thanksgiving Sermon, hoisted the British Flag, fired three Vollies, and the...
95From Benjamin Franklin to Peter Collinson, 26 June 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Pierpont Morgan Library Mr. Bartram brings a Box to my House, which has a little Vacancy in it; so I put in my Philosophical Pacquet, which I long since intended to send you, but one thing or other has prevented. I would not have any Part of it printed, (unless you should think that printing the Papers relating to Whirlwinds and Water Spouts, together with a Collection of all the...
96To Benjamin Franklin from William Parsons, 25 August 1756 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: American Philosophical Society The inclosed is the Copy of a Bill which I had given over for lost as Mr. Kilbey protested it the next Fall after it was drawn. But I have lately heard that Richd. Nugent the Drawer is still an Officer in one of the Regiments now in the Service either against Crown Point or at Oswego. And I have been informed that Mr. Stevens (or Stevenson) at Albany has...
97To Benjamin Franklin from Richard Kelsick: Certificate as Burgess and Freeman of Norfolk, 10 April 1756 (Franklin Papers)
DS : American Philosophical Society At THE Borough OF Norfolk the Tenth Day of April One Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifty six The which Day in Presence of the Worshipfull Richard Kelsick Esquire Mayor of the Borough of Norfolk, John Hutchings, Robert Tucker, Josiah Smith, John Phripp, John Tucker, Wilson Newton, Christopher Perkins, and George Abyoon, Aldermen thereof, Benjamin Franklin...
98Provincial Commissioners to Robert Hunter Morris, 15 May 1756 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Yale University Library We are honoured with your several Letters of the 5th. 7th. 8th. 9th. 10th and 13th Instant, and have complied, as far as we are able, with every Request therein contained, excepting the Article of Tents, of which, we cannot be of Opinion that more are necessary, at this fine Season of the Year, than what will suffice for the Officers, and any of the Men that happen...
99Militia Act, [25 November 1755] (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Anno Regni Georgii II. Regis, Magnae Britanniae, Franciae & Hiberniae, Vigesimo Nono. At a General Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, begun and holden at Philadelphia, the Fourteenth Day of October, Anno Domini , 1755, … (Philadelphia, 1755), pp. 243–7. Beginning in December 1754 Governor Morris had repeatedly asked the Assembly to pass a bill providing for the establishment...
100From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 27 November 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New York Public Library I have yours of Oct. 3. Bolitho being just arriv’d, the Things not yet come on shore. By the Account sent, I find I was then £59 4 s . ½ d . in your Debt. I hope you have since received the Bills I sent you per Joy and Budden for £109 8 s . 4 d . Sterling which will leave a Ballance in my Favour. I do not at all approve of B. Mecom’s being so much in your Debt,...
101To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 22 September 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library I received your very kind and acceptable Favour by Mr. Allison, with the MSS . accompanying it, for which you have my Thanks. When have perused shall return the MSS . With my Thanks I now return Dr. Knights most ingenious Treatise on Magnetism . I have this Commencement resigned my Imployment in the College: shall this Week set out for Newport, where expect to...
102Memorandum of Wagon Accounts, 23 April 1755 (Franklin Papers)
AD : American Philosophical Society Much of Franklin’s thought and energy in the spring and summer of 1755 went into military affairs. His part in Braddock’s expedition is a familiar story, for he related its principal features in his memoirs. Setting out from Alexandria, Va., Braddock reached Frederick, Md., on April 21, on his way to the army’s rendezvous at Fort Cumberland on Wills Creek....
103To Benjamin Franklin from Harbanus Ashebriner: Contract for a Wagon and Horses, 2 May 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Printed form with MS insertions in blanks: Yale University Library I Harbanus Ashebriner of Parradice Township . in the County of York and Province of Pennsylvania, do hereby agree and promise that I will, on the Terms hereunder mentioned, provide one good Waggon with four able Horses and a Driver, to be at Wills’s Creek in Virginia, with as much Oats, Indian Corn, or other Forage as I...
104William Weyman to Deborah Franklin, 26 January 1756 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Inclos’d you have £19 4 s . 0 d ., Philadelphia Currency, which please to give me Credit for. I have long since expected Obrien; but find the Ice has hindered him: I should therefore take it as a particular Favour you would put 18 or 20 Ream of News Paper on board the Boats, or send it as the Waggons come now, from Opposite to Philadelphia. I beg Madam, you...
105Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, 27 June 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives, 1754–1755 (Philadelphia, 1755), p. 110. The Power of calling the Assembly together whenever the Publick Service requires it, in the intermediate Times of their Adjournments, we presume is, and ought to be, lodged in the Governor of this Province; and we do not recollect any Instance in which it has been either disputed or...
106Pennsylvania Assembly: Address to the Governor and Reply to the Governor’s Message, 31 August 1756 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives, 1755–1756 (Philadelphia, 1756), p. 134. In undertaking his responsibilities as governor, Denny summoned the Assembly to the council chamber on August 24 to hear a speech reminding it of his duty to protect the province, of the special responsibility of Pennsylvania in the war, since it had been declared in consequence of French...
107From Benjamin Franklin to James Wright, 3 July 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library Before this reaches you, you will have heard that the House is adjourn’d. A Bill to strike £10,000 Exchange Money is pass’d, and nothing else done. I spoke several Times to the Speaker and Committee, about sending you some Money by the Return of the Members; but Mr. M’Conaughy slipt away without Leave, and so without their Knowledge; and afterwards the Business...
108To Benjamin Franklin from William Clapham, 7 September 1756 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission The Bearer Michael McGuire inlisted as a private Soldier for the Term of three Months in the Service of the Province, he has not only during that time behav’d himself soberly and well as a Soldier but has also been particularly useful as an Overseer and Carpenter in the Building the Fort, the Term of his Inlistment expir’d a Month ago and as...
109To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Collinson, [27 May? 1756] (Franklin Papers)
Extract: Yale University Library I have the pleasure to tell thee how much thou art esteemed by many worthy men here: for on the Ballot for thy Election to be a Member of the Royal Society , there was not one negative Ball; an Instance of Unanimity that Lord Macclesfield told me he never before saw . So I wish thee long to enjoy that Honor deservedly and so unanimously conferred on thee. Thy...
110From Benjamin Franklin to Josiah Quincy, 27 November 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Massachusetts Historical Society I condole with you sincerely on your late heavy Losses, particularly that of your most valuable and dear Companion of Life. I have been so excessively hurried since I saw you, and Mr. Allen generally in the Country, that we have not yet finish’d your Affair, which I am however asham’d of, as it might be done in half an hour. I shall no longer postpone it,...
111Robert Hunter Morris to the Provincial Commissioners, 1 December 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Upon considering the state of our friendly Indians on the River Sasquehanna, I think it necessary that Messengers should be immediately sent to convene them to come down to Harris’s Ferry in order to concert measures with this Government upon the present Circumstances of affairs when it may be proper to communicate to them such parts of the...
112William Smith to Thomas Penn, [September? 1755] (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania In June 1755 Franklin had written that he “liked neither the Governor’s Conduct, nor the Assembly’s; and having some Share in the Confidence of both, I have endeavour’d to reconcile ’em but in vain,” and that “Our Friend [William] Smith will be very serviceable here.” By November, however, Franklin thought Governor Morris “half a Madman” and a year...
113From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Partridge, [7 October 1755] (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; I : extracts reprinted from Connecticut Historical Society Collections , XVII (1918), 183; II : extract: American Philosophical Society. On October 25 Franklin wrote Richard Partridge, London agent for the Pennsylvania Assembly and for other colonies, saying in the opening sentence that he was enclosing a copy of an earlier letter sent by Captain Joy (see below, p. 230). Neither...
114To Benjamin Franklin from William Shirley, Junior, 10 May 1755 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; extract printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1754–1755 (Philadelphia, 1755), p. 175. May 10, 1755 A sentence from this unlocated letter is printed in the Pennsylvania Assembly’s reply, Sept. 29, 1755, to Governor Morris’ charge, September 24, that the Assembly had done little to support Braddock’s expedition (below, p. 207). William Shirley, Jr....
115Certificate of Nomination to the Royal Society, 29 January 1756 (Franklin Papers)
DS : The Royal Society, London Franklin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on April 29, 1756. Under the rules candidates had to be recommended in writing by three or more Fellows acquainted with him “either in person or by his Works,” the recommendation had to be approved by the Council, and the certificate publicly displayed at “ten several ordinary meetings” before balloting. (An...
116Thomas Lloyd to ———, 30 [31?] January 1756 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: American Philosophical Society I now sit down to give you an Account of Part of the Operations of our Campaign. It will hardly be more difficult for you to understand it than for me in our present Situation to transmit it to you. We marched on Wednesday Jan. 15 from Bethlehem for Gnadenhutten beyond the Mountains in Order to erect a Fort there with Seven Waggons and a Cart escorted by...
117To Benjamin Franklin from Catharine Ray, 28 June 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Excues my writeing when I tell you it is the great regard I have for you will not let me be Silent, for Absence rather increasis than lesens my affections then, my not receiveing one line from you in answer to 3 of my last letters March the 3d and 31st and April the 28th gives me a Vast deal of uneasiness and occation’d many tears, for Suerly I have wrote...
118Managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital: Address to William Denny and Reply, [1 September 1756] (Franklin Papers)
MS Minutes: Pennsylvania Hospital At its meeting on Aug. 28, 1756, the Board of Managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital noting that “it may be expedient to address our new Governor Denny on his arrival,” appointed Franklin, Evan Morgan, Israel Pemberton, and Samuel Rhoads to draft the message. The Board approved it on September 1 and waited on Denny as a body the same afternoon to present the...
119From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 10 July 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library This is only to acknowledge the Receipt of three very agreable Letters from you, and to promise an Answer as soon as I have a little got thro’ a Hurry of Business, that beats every philosophical Thought out of my Head. As you are on the Study of Magnetism, I send you herewith a Work of the greatest Master of Practical Magnetics that has appear’d in any Age. With...
120From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Pownall, [9 September 1756] (Franklin Papers)
Extract: Huntington Library; Public Record Office, London The circular Letter You show’d me the Draft of, explaining the Particulars of what Assistance was required and expected from the Colonies to the King’s Forces, has not been communicated to the Assembly; Nevertheless, I have now the Pleasure to tell You, that an Act yesterday passed the House, and I believe will receive the Governor’s...