John Bondfield to the American Commissioners, 16 July 1778
John Bondfield to the American Commissioners
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Bordeau 16 July 1778
Honorable Sirs
Permit me to lay before your honors the foregoing State which by your interpossion we flatter ourselves may be relieved.5 I am most respectfully Honorable Sirs your most Obedient Humble Servant
John Bondfield
The Honble. Benj Franklin Arthur Lee John Adams Esqrs.
Notation: Mr. [Bondfield] Bordeaux 1778
5. Bondfield’s letter was written at the bottom of a request in French in another hand on behalf of Captain William Jones. Jones had had to pay much higher duty on the salt he loaded at Bordeaux than he would have had to pay at the Île de Ré or at Croisic, near Nantes. The request asks on Jones’s behalf that Necker, director general of finances, order the farmers general to grant Americans the lower rate. For William Jones, captain of the brigantine Nancy, see Charles H. Lincoln, comp., Naval Records of the American Revolution 1775–1778 (Washington, 1906), p. 398.