To Benjamin Franklin from Jonathan Williams, Jr., 3 August 1780
From Jonathan Williams, Jr.
ALS: University of Pennsylvania Library; copy: Yale University Library
Nantes Augt 3. 1780
Dear & honoured Sir.
I have received your Favour of the 29 Ulto. with Mr Schweighausers Letter to you & a Copy of your Answer, the former of which I return inclosed. I have given my Opinion as you desire on a Paper annexed.6
I have heard nothing from M de Chaumont about the Ship since I left Passy. I suppose he has not yet received a decisive Answer from Bordeaux where the Vessell is. As soon as I receive answers to the Letters I have written to him I hope the matter will go on expeditiously, in the mean Time I am preparing so as to prevent any Delay on my part.
I inclose a List of the Bills as you desire,7 the amount you will see at the Foot. I have not yet drawn for all because I delay drawing as much as I can in order to avoid payment before you receive the Funds, and on the whole it will be found none has been advanced.
I am with the greatest Respect Dear & hond Sir Your dutifull & affectionate
Jona Williams J
P.S. Inclosed is an order on Mr. Puech & Co for 12 of Capt. Hutchins Maps & Pamphlets.8
Notation: J. Williams Augt. 3. 1780
6. That sheet, in a clerk’s hand, is also at the University of Pa. If the 20,000 gun barrels are “not worth the boxes,” as BF has written, then JW agrees that they are not worth sending to America. He recommends having a disinterested party determine which should be sold for old iron. If the guns already packed are newly stocked and repaired, they should remain as they are. Barrels only should remain as they are. But old arms with old stocks should have the stocks removed before shipping, since the [old] wood is useless and cannot serve again. The locks and barrels should be oiled before packing.
7. Missing.
8. On March 15, Hutchins had written JW from Passy, requesting these items which were under JW’s care (see XXXII, 121n). Evidently, JW had transferred them to Puech fils & Cie.; on the bottom of Hutchins’ letter to him, he drafted an undated note to the Paris firm requesting them to remit to BF twelve each of Hutchins’ maps and brochures of the interior of North America. APS.