From Benjamin Franklin to John Shirley, 23 October 1755
To John Shirley6
Draft: American Philosophical Society
Philada. Oct. 23. 55
Sir
I receiv’d your Favour of the 1st Instant,7 with the Discharges for Ewins and Rieger.8 I shall take Care to observe your Directions relating to them. Please to accept my hearty Thanks for the Favour shown them. And if in any Thing I can serve you here, you will, by commanding freely, oblige yet farther, Dear Sir, Your most obedient Servant
B Franklin
Capt. Shirley
6. John Shirley (d. 1755), son of Gov. William Shirley, register of wills in Suffolk Co., Mass., 1754; recruiting officer and captain in his father’s regiment. He was on recruiting service in Pennsylvania in 1755, accompanied his father on the Oswego expedition, became ill with fever and dysentery, and died in New York, November 23. He and his brother William (see above, p. 27 n) were both very friendly with Governor Morris, to whom he wrote vividly of the Oswego campaign. I Pa. Arch., II, 332, et passim; 2 Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., XVI (1902), 72–7.
7. Not found.
8. Probably two indentured servants or apprentices from Pennsylvania recruited in violation of General Shirley’s standing orders.