Deborah Franklin to Peter Collinson, 30 April 1755
Deborah Franklin to Peter Collinson
LS: Huntington Library
Philada. Apl. 30. 1755
Sir
Mr. Franklin is from home, and can not have by this Conveyance an Opportunity of answering your Favours by the last Ships. I have forwarded your Letters to Mr. Elliot, Mr. Bartram, Mr. Barton and Mr. Franklin.1 My Husband is now in the Back Counties,2 contracting for some Waggons and Horses for the Army, which tho’ so much out of his Way, he was obliged to undertake, for preventing some Inconveniencies that might have attended so many raw Hands sent us from Europe, who are not accustomed to necessary Affairs.
I am very sincerely and truly Your very sincere Friend and humble Servant
Deborah Franklin
Addressed: To / Mr. Peter Collinson / Mercht / in London
1. Jared Eliot and John Bartram have appeared frequently in these pages. “Mr. Barton” is probably Rev. Thomas Barton (1730–1780), who had just returned to Pennsylvania, April 10, after ordination by the Bishop of London, Jan. 29, 1755. He went at once to Carlisle as a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Frederick L. Weis, “The Colonial Clergy of the Middle Colonies,” Amer. Antiq. Soc. Proc., LXVI (1956), 175.
2. See above, pp. 13–15.