To Benjamin Franklin from Benjamin Vaughan, 25 June 1782
From Benjamin Vaughan
ALS: American Philosophical Society
London, 25 June, 1782.
My Dear sir,
I beg to introduce to your acquaintance my friend Dr. Lister,4 whom I first became acquainted with at Edinburgh, and who was there a good deal respected for his good character and assiduity, and who I find bears an equal character among his connections here in London. I know him to be a person of very amiable & honorable character in his private conduct, from transactions in which I have seen him engaged; and I believe that his public principles are likewise upright.— Your attentions & civility to him will not only oblige me considerably, but be very acceptable to some of your dissenting friends here; and I am convinced that you will gratify by him by your philosophy & philanthropy, as well as by the other circumstances of your character. Should you find him over-modest, you will not the less incline to admit him into your society.
I am, my dearest sir, your most obliged, devoted, & affectionate
Benjn: Vaughan
Addressed: A Monsr. / Monsr. Franklin, / Passy, / pres Paris.
4. Probably Dr. William Lister (1756–1830), who received his medical degree at the University of Edinburgh in 1781 and became a physician at St. Thomas’ Hospital, London: List of Graduates in Medicine in the University of Edinburgh from MDCCV to MDCCCLXVI (Edinburgh, 1867), p. 16; P. J. and R. V. Wallis, comps., Eighteenth Century Medics (subscriptions, licences, apprenticeships) (2nd ed., Newcastle, Eng., 1988), p. 368; The Royal Kalendar … for the Year 1783, p. 222.