1Anthony Todd to Benjamin Franklin and John Foxcroft, 12 March 1763 (III) (Franklin Papers)
Inclosed I send you, by Command of His Majesty’s PostMaster General, the Copy of a Letter just received from General Murray Governor of Quebec;..., as there appears by the said Memorial and other Informations they have received, to be already a Number of His Majesty’s Subjects settled in Trade and Business at Quebec, that you might find it practicable to establish a regular Post between...
2William Franklin to Peter Schuyler, 19 June 1759 (Franklin Papers)
ask’d, If the Taking of Quebec would not render all the others unnecessary? and if so, Should not the chief Part of our Forces have been directed to that Quarter? And certainly it does seem at first Sight, that the Provincial Forces, with......Pitt. They called for Gen. James Wolfe to attack Quebec via the St. Lawrence River and for Gen. Jeffery Amherst to invade Canada “by Way of Crown...
3Humourous Reasons for Restoring Canada, 27 December 1759 (Franklin Papers)
News of the British victory on the Plains of Abraham, Sept. 13, 1759, and of the capitulation of Quebec five days later reached London October 16.d’empecher les Anglois de se rendre trop puissans—étoit plus que suffissant pour nous engager a recouvrer Quebec, a quelque prix que ce fût;
4Benjamin Franklin and John Foxcroft to Anthony Todd, 10 June 1763 (Franklin Papers)
...Establish a Regular Post between that place and Canada, which we hope may be effected during 8 Months of the Year, if not for the whole. We have not yet heard of the Arrival of Mr. Finlay at Quebec, but have made out a Commission, appointing him Postmaster there.’s alleged visit to Quebec during these months see a later note to this letter.
5To Benjamin Franklin from John Foxcroft, 4 April 1775 (Franklin Papers)
..., and have the pleasure to inform you that in consequence of some New Regulations we made last Winter the Posts are very Regular once a Week as far as St. Augustine and twice a Week between this City and Quebec....being stopped and their mail opened; official correspondence had to be sent by sea. The overland route from Quebec was cut at the same time, and Finlay had to open communication...
6From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Cushing, 1 June 1774 (Franklin Papers)
I mention these Dates and Particulars that you may know if any of my Letters are missing. With this I inclose a List of your new Council, the Quebec Bill, an Abstract of the Resolutions for laying Duties in that Province, and some Newspapers containing the two Protests of the Lords,...The Quebec bill, which became law on June 22 to take effect on May 1, 1775 (14 Geo. III, c. 83), provided for...
7To Benjamin Franklin from Francis Maseres, [1772] (Franklin Papers)
Mr: Maseres presents his compliments to Dr: Franklyn and sends him two more copies of the collection of Quebec instruments and the draught of a toleration-act;A Collection of Several Commissions, and Other Public Instruments, … Relating to the State of the Province of Quebec in North America, since the
8Barclay’s Independent Negotiation: Three Documents, [after 12 December 1774 and before 16 February 1774, 1775] (Franklin Papers)
The late Massachusets and Quebec Acts to be repeal’d and a free Government granted to Canada.Massachusets and Quebec Bills to be repealed.
9To Benjamin Franklin from John Sargent, 19 June 1760 (Franklin Papers)
Sargent’s anxiety about Quebec dates this letter in 1760. ., June 17–19, 1760, reported that Brig. Gen. James Murray had sallied from Quebec with 3000 men and attacked a French army “supposed to consist of the greatest part of the force of Canada, as they were on their march to make an attempt against the said place.” Defeated with heavy losses......the deuce was thinking of Quebec? America was...
10To James Madison from William Bradford, 1 March 1773 (Madison Papers)
who observes “That change of time and place ought never to be indulged in the same act.” But in the middle of the last act the scene shifts from Quebec to London & the time is considerably advanced. He has, however, happily preserved all the Punctuality of an historian, which may serve to gratify the curiosity of those who desire to know how Quebec was taken. But [to] call this peice a tragedy...
11To Benjamin Franklin from John Mervin Nooth, [before 22 April 1773]: extract (Franklin Papers)
...became superintendant general of all British military hospitals in America; by then he was stationed in New York. After the war he was in Canada, in charge of the hospitals in the province of Quebec. In 1799 he was appointed superintendant general of all hospitals maintained by the army, a post that put him at the top of its medical hierarchy; but his position seems to have been more...
12To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 9 September 1774 (Franklin Papers)
...evening calm returned: the Body dispersed, and the columns moving to its support turned back. Gage understood the lesson and acted on it. He recalled the regiment at Salem, and sent transports to Quebec and New York for more troops; he began to rebuild the disused fortifications on Boston Neck, armed them with cannon, and called in warships for their defense. His government had shrunk to the...
13From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 27 June 1760 (Franklin Papers)
I did not receive the Prospect of Quebec which you mention that you sent me.., Oct. 9, 1760, were “Plans of the three illustrious Gems which now sparkle with resplendent Beauty in the British Crown, viz. Of Fort Du Quesne, Quebec and Montreal. …” It may be that the publisher of this almanac, William Dunlap (above, ...through marriage, supplied her an advance copy of the plan of Quebec which...
14To Benjamin Franklin from James Alexander, 29 January 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Then in February 1753 he received from James Alexander translations of Delisle’s instructions to a Jesuit astronomer for making observations at Quebec. He printed fifty copies in a four-page leaflet,...is reproduced in facsimile in Cohen’s article. Delisle’s instructions were accompanied by two diagrams illustrating “the Situation of Mercury upon the Sun, at his going out of the Sun at Quebec...
15From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Jackson, 1 May 1764 (Franklin Papers)
This brings me to mention another Affair of the same kind. There are in the Government of Quebec, two Tracts of vacant Land, the Right of which is at present in the Crown. Inclos’d you have a short Account of their Situation. They were discover’d by two Friends of mine, Mr. John Baynton......governor of the town of Quebec since 1760, was appointed governor of the whole province on Nov. 21, 1763...
16To Benjamin Franklin from Baynton and Wharton, 3 November 1764 (Franklin Papers)
...in a rich fine Country, is of a good Soil, full of excellent Timber, such as White Oak, Walnut, Chesnut, Pine &c. is Situated on the Lake (Champlaine) and convenient for transporting any thing, to Quebec.”The Missisquoi River rises in Vermont, flows northward into Province Quebec, then back into Vermont, and empties into Missisquoi Bay, an arm of Lake Champlain, near the Canadian border.
17To Benjamin Franklin from Michel-Alain Chartier de Lotbinière, 10 March 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Mr. De Lotibiniere officier des troupes de la marine Detachées pour le Canada a québec....1750–54, to be trained. On his return he directed the construction of Fort Carillon (later Ticonderoga), 1756–58, but his plans for the defenses of Quebec were overruled. He became captain, 1757. Granted the seigneury of Alainville on Lake Champlain, he went to England, 1763–64, to secure British...
1821 Sunday. (Adams Papers)
, 8 Sept. 1755, was not written by the Bishop of Quebec and did not purport to be from his hand. (It is a transparent fabrication, designed to stir up anti-French and anti-Catholic feeling in New England.) But the discussion at Parson Wibird’s house no doubt... ...as Le Loutre, the Bishop of Quebec’s vicar-general in maritime Canada. Le Loutre’s work among the French Neutrals, or Acadians, had...
19To Benjamin Franklin from Francis Maseres, 26 October 1773 (Franklin Papers)
...mention the Abbé Reynal’s account of the European colonies, and to quote a passage from it in my French memoire written in defence of my draught of an Act of parliament for settling the laws of the province of Quebec,The former Attorney General of Quebec, and an F.R.S. for the past two years, had been appointed the previous August a baron of the exchequer. See above,
20Benjamin Franklin and John Foxcroft: Tables of Rates of Postage, [1763] (Franklin Papers)
Two similar but smaller triangles of boxes provided information of the same sort for the route between New York City and Quebec and the inland route from New York to Boston via Hartford and Springfield. On the New York-Quebec route: Albany, Montreal, Quebec.
21To Benjamin Franklin from Francis Maseres, 17 June 1772 (Franklin Papers)
I desire your acceptance of the copy I herewith send you of a draught of an act of parliament for settling the Laws of Quebec. It has cost me a good deal of time and pains, and has been prepared merely of my own accord, without directions from any body to do so, in order to expedite the Settlement of that province,......went on for years before the Quebec Act of 1774. By the time Guy Carleton...
22[October 1774] (Adams Papers)
It was not, however, until 21 Oct. that Congress resolved to prepare an address to the people of Quebec, which was brought in by a committee (on which ...of including the “Canada Bill” (Quebec Act) among the colonists’ grievances was repeatedly debated, but the parallels in substance and even in phrasing between the present rough notes and Duane’s Notes tentatively assigned by Burnett to 17...
23From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Cushing, 30 June 1774 (Franklin Papers)
’s notes in May, now missing, that are mentioned in his letter of June 1. Those most “lately pass’d” were the Quebec, the Quebec Revenue, and the Quartering Acts. For the first see
24Abigail Smith to Isaac Smith Jr., 16 March 1763 (Adams Papers)
, who had been captured by Indians in Wells, Maine, in 1703 and taken to Canada, where she became a nun and eventually, in 1760, Mother Superior of the Ursuline Convent in Quebec. She kept in periodic touch with her family in New England, and very likely her “Letter, to her Nephew,” here discussed, was written to her sister’s son, Joshua Moody, who visited Quebec in 1761 and brought back a...
25From Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Shipley, 10 March 1774 (Franklin Papers)
We presume that the bill was what became the Quebec Act, for which see the note on , 202–4. This is our only evidence that Bernard was associated with him, and we have no evidence at all that Sir Francis was involved in the Quebec Act.
26From Benjamin Franklin to Anthony Todd, 14 April 1763 (Franklin Papers)
You may possibly remember that a little before I left England, a Complaint of the Merchants of Quebec concerning the Difficulty and Uncertainty of Correspondence there, was communicated to the Postmaster General by Governor Murray.For a complaint of the British merchants at Quebec on the same subject, perhaps the same one mentioned here, see above, p. 233.
27“A Traveller”: News-Writers’ Nonsense, 20 May 1765 (Franklin Papers)
Those who made this Objection perhaps did not know, that at the same Time the Agents from the King of Spain were at Quebec contracting for 1000 Pieces of Cannon to be made there for the Fortifications of Mexico, with 25,000 Axes for their Industrious Logwood-Cutters; and at New-York engaging an annual Supply of warm Floor-Carpets for their West... ..., said to be from Quebec, in the Papers of...
28From Benjamin Franklin to John Foxcroft, 14 July 1773 (Franklin Papers)
I suppose Mr. Finlay will be some time at Quebec in settling his Affairs. By the next Packet, you will receive a Draft of Instructions for him.Hugh Finlay, the former postmaster at Quebec, had been in England the previous autumn with a recommendation from Foxcroft, and had finally been appointed surveyor general of the colonial postal system. See above,
291774 Tuesday. Octr. 4. (Adams Papers)
It was not, however, until 21 Oct. that Congress resolved to prepare an address to the people of Quebec, which was brought in by a committee (on which
30“Pacificus”: Pax Quaeritur Bello, 23 January 1766 (Franklin Papers)
Transport them early in the Spring to Quebec: They with the Canadians, natural Enemies to our Colonists, who would voluntarily engage, might make a Body of Five or Six Thousand Men; and I doubt not, by artful Management, and the Value of two or......, governor of Quebec, whose arbitrary and illegal exactions from British merchants there and alleged favoritism to the French Canadians had...
31I. Heads of Grievances and Rights, 9 September 1774 (Adams Papers)
&c—And whereas in the same Session, another Statute was made “for making more effectual provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec” &c...made in the same Session, “for making more effectual provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec” &c is not only unjust to the People in that Province, but dangerous to the Interests of the Protestant Religion and of these Colonies, and...
32Franklin’s Proposals to Lord Howe for Resolving the Crisis, [between 28 and 31 December 1774] (Franklin Papers)
And that at the same time Orders should be given to withdraw the Fleet from Boston, and remove all the Troops to Quebec or the Floridaes, that the Colonies may be left at perfect Liberty in their future Stipulations....to raise an American revenue, extend admiralty jurisdiction, bring accused colonists to Britain for trial, coerce Massachusetts, and alter the government and boundaries of Quebec...
33To Benjamin Franklin from Baynton, Wharton & Morgan, 6 December 1765 (Franklin Papers)
For Gen. James Murray, military governor of Quebec, 1760–63, and civil governor until 1766, see above, , 428 n) was evidently the firm’s agent at Quebec.
34To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Kalm, 6 August 1749 (Franklin Papers)
postmaster at Philadelphia, my very special friend, had had printed in the Philadelphia gazette an extract from the letter which I had written to him from Quebec, Canada. … All of the French were especially pleased at this, as they had [in this article] been given considerable honor for their learning.” Kalm,
35To George Washington from William Fairfax, 22 January 1757 (Washington Papers)
Loudoun arrived in Boston on 20 Jan. 1757 to meet with officials of the New England colonies in preparation for his planned expedition to Quebec. It was not until 1 May that Loudoun received specific orders from William Pitt to attack the French fortress at Louisburg instead of Quebec. In order to launch the attack on Louisburg, Loudoun in late May sailed from New York to Halifax, Nova Scotia....
36From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 25 July 1773 (Franklin Papers)
Livius was resilient. When he lost his case he remained in England for a time, and was then sent to Quebec as a judge. From 1776 to 1778 he was chief justice of the province; then he was dismissed by the governor as he had been in New Hampshire. Again he went to England to seek redress, this time... ...was restored, but he never returned to Quebec. A. L. Burt, “The Tragedy of Chief...
37Extract of a Purported Letter from London, 25 July 1774 (Franklin Papers)
is declared by the Boston Port Act, the others for altering your Charter, and licensing the Soldiery and Custom-house Officers in murder and bloodshed, and above all by the Quebec Bill. These are the fruits of the seeds that have been sowing ever since 1764, therefore it will be necessary in your bill of rights, which it appears the Congress means to draw up,...forwarded the plan of the Quebec...
38From John Adams to Edward Biddle?, 12 December 1774 (Adams Papers)
The Letter to Quebec, Shall be faithfully and Speedily forwarded. Our Provincial Congress, and the Committee of Correspondence in Boston, have had under Consideration, various Planns, for opening a Communication, with Several Parts of that Province. the letter to Quebec for distribution (
Bernard, publishes his select letters, and his principles of polity: his son writes in defence of the Quebec bill:The port bill, charter bill, murder bill, Quebec bill, making all together such a frightful system, as would have terrified any people, who did not prefer liberty to life, were all concerted at once: but all this art and violence have not succeeded. This people...
40The Postmasters General to the Lords of the Treasury: Memorandum on the American Postal Service, 28 January 1764 (Franklin Papers)
The necessity of a regular Post between New York and Quebec, has been so strongly pressed by General Murray the Governor, and by such a Body of British Merchants residing there, as well as at Montreal, and other intermediate Places, that it has been undertaken about once a...., and from N.Y. to Quebec from 3
411774. Wednesday [26 October]. (Adams Papers)
Among other things Congress this day debated and approved the address to the people of Quebec, signed the address to the King, voted a resolution of thanks to the Pennsylvania Assembly “for their politeness to this Congress,” and “then dissolved itself” (
42To James Madison from William Bradford, 17 October 1774 (Madison Papers)
merely quoted Montesquieu and Cesare B. Beccaria in their series of “Addresses”; and Beccaria only in the one entitled, “To the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec” (...shared by other critics during his own and later generations. Brackenridge used the same heroic style of verse in his poems on the Battle of Bunker Hill and on the death of Montgomery at Quebec, but most of his later literary...
43The Interest of Great Britain Considered, [17 April 1760] (Franklin Papers)
From the start the main issue between the writers was whether Britain should retain the whole of Canada (Louisbourg had fallen in 1758, Quebec in 1759, and the surrender of the principal remaining enemy force at Montreal in the next campaign was confidently expected), or should merely restrain the French on the North American continent at a safe distance from the existing......Quebec, 1766–...
44II., 3 July 1754 (Washington Papers)
, sold by Parke Bernet, Sale no. 1385, 1952;
copy in French, Archives Nationales de Quebec;
copy, in French, ;
copy, in French, Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères;
copy, in French, Contrecoeur Papers, Le Seminaire de Quebec.
A translation of the capitulation appears as part of Document IX of
45From George Washington to Bryan Fairfax, 24 August 1774 (Washington Papers)
GW is referring to what is known as the Quebec Act, passed by Parliament in June 1774. By the act, the boundaries of Quebec were extended south to the Ohio and west to the Mississippi, and it was to be governed by an appointed governor and council.
46To John Adams from William Tudor, 17 September 1774 (Adams Papers)
...of the Town and Entrenchments &c. on the Neck advance rapidly, they have three hundred Soldiers constantly at Work there. Seven Regiments are already here with a Train of thirty Peices of Cannon, and two more Regiments from Quebec...17 Oct. 1774 Gage mentioned the imminent arrival of the 10th and 52d regiments from Quebec and the 47th from New York. As early as 2 Sept., Gage had expressed...
47To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Foxcroft, 10 November 1770: résumé (Franklin Papers)
[Philadelphia, Nov. 10, 1770. Encloses a bill of exchange from the Quebec post office for £50 and will send the duplicate by Capt. Osborne.
48IV. The Bill of Rights; a List of Grievances, 14 October 1774 (Adams Papers)
...law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in the province of the Massachusetts-bay in New-England.” And another statute was then made, “for making more effectual provision for the government of the province of Quebec, &c.” All which statutes are impolitic, unjust, and cruel, as well as unconstitutional, and most dangerous and destructive of American rights....province of Quebec,...
49To Benjamin Franklin from James Parker, 23–24 April 1770 (Franklin Papers)
and McEvers, on Harley and Drummond, the first of which I now send you; Also another Bill I just received from Quebec for £100 Sterling J Drummond, on Nesbit, Drummond and Franks, Esqrs in London, the first of which I send you. The 2d of each I shall send per the Harriot. I also send the 2d of......wrote to Quebec, for the Papers that have your Examination in, and this is the first Opportunity...
50The Farmer Refuted, &c., [23 February] 1775 (Hamilton Papers)
N. B. The destruction of the Tea at Boston, the act for altering the government of Quebec, and the Suffolk resolves, shall be considered in some future publications....of informing you, that there is now, more lumber annually shipped from Quebec, than from any colony on the continent. This, with what would come from Mississippi, the Floridas, and what the Islands themselves afford, would...