From Benjamin Franklin to John Witherspoon, 19 November 1781
To John Witherspoon5
AL (draft): Library of Congress
Passy, Nov. 19. 1781
Revd Sir,
I hope you will have the Pleasure of receiving, with this, your long absent Son, who appears to me a valuable young Man. On the Receipt of your Letter, I wrote to a Friend in London to furnish him with what Money he should have occasion for to bring him hither, which was done;6 and here I deliver’d to him the second of your Letter of Credit on Messrs. Couteulx & Co. whereby he has been enabled to repay me. I wish him a good Voyage, & happy Meeting with his Friends,7 And am, with Great Esteem, Revd Sir
Dr Witherspoon
5. The congressional delegate and president of the College of New Jersey, who had written in June about his captured son: XXXV, 48, 169–70.
6. See BF’s second letter to William Hodgson of this date.
7. John Witherspoon, Jr., was in Princeton during the summer of 1782: James B. McLachlan et al., eds., Princetonians: a Biographical Dictionary (5 vols., Princeton, 1976–91), II, 356.