From Benjamin Franklin to David Hall, 22 February 1758
To David Hall
ALS: Salem County [New Jersey] Historical Society
Pensa. Coffee house Feb. 22. 58
Dear Mr. Hall
I have wrote you a long Letter by this Vessel,5 and only add this Line to inform you, that I have receiv’d of your Papers but twice since my Arrival here; and when I want to know what they contain am oblig’d to borrow them of Mr. Neate,6 who has them regularly. The Reason of this I do not know. I am Yours affectionately
B Franklin
Addressed: To / Mr David Hall / Printer / Philadelphia / Per the Myrtilla / Capt. Budden7
Endorsed: Mr. Franklin Feb. 22. 1758.
5. Not found, but in it BF may have mentioned that he, WF, and William Strahan had attended the premier performance of the play Agis, by John Home, on the 21st. Strahan to Hall, Feb. 22, 1758, APS. The play, full of patriotic zeal, produced “not a clap only, but sometimes a shout of applause,” from the audience. Gent. Mag., XXVIII (1758), 117–19.
6. William Neate (d. 1775), of the Philadelphia-London firm of Neate & Neave; see above, IV, 115 n; Gent. Mag., XLV (1775), 254.
7. The Myrtilla, Capt. Richard Budden, left Spithead under convoy on March 11, and reached Philadelphia before May 18. Pa. Gaz., May 18, 1758.