41431From Benjamin Franklin to Lord Kames, 17 August 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Scottish Record Office I am now waiting here only for a Wind to waft me to America, but cannot leave this happy Island and my Friends in it, without extream Regret, tho’ I am going to a Country and a People that I love. I am going from the old World to the new; and I fancy I feel like those who are leaving this World for the next; Grief at the Parting; Fear of the Passage; Hope of the...
41432From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 23 August 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Pierpont Morgan Library I have been two Nights on board expecting to sail, but the Wind continuing contrary, am just now come on shore again, and have met with your kind Letter of the 20th. I thank you even for the Reproofs it contains, tho’ I have not altogether deserved them. I cannot, I assure you, quit even this disagreable Place without Regret, as it carries me still farther from...
41433To Benjamin Franklin from John Winthrop, 29 September 1762 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Benjamin Franklin, Experiments and Observations on Electricity (London, 1769), p. 434. There is an observation relating to electricity in the atmosphere, which seemed new to me, though perhaps it will not to you: However, I will venture to mention it. I have some points on the top of my house, and the wire where it passes within-side the house is furnished with...
41434To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Collinson, 21 October 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I impatienly expect the good News of my Dear Franklin’s Safe Arrival. Wee regret Your Abscence, but there is a Time the Dearest Friends must Part but Wee Cherish our Minds with the Hopes of Long enjoyeing your Correspondence and Shareing in the Discoveries, the Effects of your Fruitfull Genius, which can happyly Imploye it Self, to your own Benefit or that...
41435From Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, 11 November 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I received your kind Letter of the 1st Instant. It was on that Day I had the great Happiness of finding my Family well at my own House after so long an Absence. I am well except a little Touch of the Gout, which my Friends say is no Disease. Cousin Benja. has been to see me as you supposed, and yesterday he return’d homewards. My Love to Brother Mecom and...
41436From Benjamin Franklin to Catharine Greene, 25 November 1762 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: American Philosophical Society I received your kind congratulations on my return, and thank you cordially. It gives me great pleasure to hear you are married and live happily. You are a good Girl for complying with so essential a duty, and God will bless you. Make my compliments acceptable to your spouse; and fulfil your promise of writing to me; and let me know everything that has...
41437From Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, 25 November 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I thank you for your obliging Letter of the 12th. Instant. My Wife says she will write to you largely by next Post, being at present short of Time. As to the Promotion and Marriage you mention, I shall now only say that the Lady is of so amiable a Character, that the latter gives me more Pleasure than the former, tho’ I have no doubt but that he will make...
41438From Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Williams, 25 November 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Mrs. George S. Maywood, Garden City, N.Y. (1955) I thank you for your kind Congratulations on my Arrival and the Promotion of my Son. I am in hopes I shall be able to see Boston the next Spring, and to have the Pleasure of finding you and my other Friends well. I congratulate you on your having such a Number of Sons. You remember the Blessing on him that has his Quiver full of them. My...
41439To Benjamin Franklin from John Hughes, 29 November 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society The lands which Hughes proposed to buy in this letter had a tangled history. On Jan. 26, 1705, Col. Thomas Byerly purchased from Robert Squibb, Jr., about 21,000 acres in present-day Hunterdon and Warren counties in western New Jersey and something less than 20,000 acres in other parts of the province. By his will, dated May 26, 1725, Byerly “conveyed his...
41440From Benjamin Franklin to John Pringle, 1 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Benjamin Franklin, Experiments and Observations on Electricity (London, 1769), pp. 438–40. During our passage to Madeira, the weather being warm, and the cabbin windows constantly open for the benefit of the air, the candles at night flared and run very much, which was an inconvenience. At Madeira we got oil to burn, and with a common glass tumbler or beaker, slung...
41441From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Jackson, 2 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I arrived here well on the 1st. ultimo and had the Pleasure to find all false that Dr. Smith had reported about the Diminution of my Friends. My House has been fill’d with a Succession of them from Morning to Night almost ever since I landed to congratulate me on my Return; and I never experienc’d greater Cordiality among them. The new Assembly had met and...
41442From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 2 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society As good Dr. Hawkesworth calls you, to whom my best Respects. I got home well the 1st. of November, and had the Happiness to find my little Family perfectly well; and that Dr. Smith’s Reports of the Diminution of my Friends were all false. My House has been full of a Succession of them from Morning to Night ever since my Arrival, congratulating me on my...
41443From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Jackson, 6 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS , duplicate LS , and (incomplete) draft: American Philosophical Society I have already wrote to you via New York, but hear my Letter did not reach the Pacquet; so this may come first to hand. I arrived the 1st. of November, after a long but pleasant Passage, having in general fair Winds and good Weather; but being in a Convoy could sail no faster than the slowest. I had the Happiness to...
41444From Benjamin Franklin to Peter Collinson, 7 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Pierpont Morgan Library I arrived here the first of last Month, and had the great Happiness, after so long Absence, to find my little Family well, and my Friends as cordial and more numerous than ever. Mr. Bartram I suppose writes to you concerning the great Bones at the Ohio. I have delivered to him and to the Library Company what you sent by me. There is great Complaint here of the...
41445From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 7 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Pierpont Morgan Library I wrote you some time since to acquaint you with my Arrival, and the kind Reception I met with from my old and many new Friends, notwithstanding Dr. Smith’s false Reports in London of my Interest, as declining here. I could not wish for a more hearty Welcome, and I never experienc’d greater Cordiality. We had a long Passage, near ten Weeks from Portsmouth to this...
41446From Benjamin Franklin to John Fothergill, 8 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: American Philosophical Society On Nov. 8, 1762, William Shippen (above, IX , 219 n), who had recently arrived in Philadelphia from London, informed the treasurer and managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital that Dr. John Fothergill had sent by the Carolina (the ship which had brought Franklin home) a present of seven cases of materials for the study of anatomy. Three contained drawings by...
41447From Benjamin Franklin to Edward Nairne, 8 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: American Philosophical Society I forget whether I paid you for the Magnet. Let me know. If you can make a Thermometer agreable to the enclos’d Directions, please send it me. Mrs. Stevenson where I lodg’d will pay you. My Respects to Mr. Canton when you see him. I am &c. Edward Nairne (1726–1806), F.R.S., 1776, was an English electrician and instrument maker. In 1774 he published a paper...
41448From Benjamin Franklin to Caleb Whitefoord, 9 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : British Museum; draft: American Philosophical Society I thank you for your kind Congratulations on my Son’s Promotion and Marriage. If he makes a good Governor and a good Husband (as I hope he will, for I know he has good Principles and good Dispositions) those Events will both of them give me continual Pleasure. The Taking of the Havanah, on which I congratulate you, is a Conquest of...
41449From Benjamin Franklin to Elias Boudinot, Junior, [11 December 1762] (Franklin Papers)
MS not found: reprinted from extract in American Art Association Sale Catalogue, Dec. 2, 3, 1926, Item no. 428. I thank you for your kind congratulations on my return to my family and country. It gives me great pleasure to hear that you are married and well-settled and your brother and sister also. … I hope your good father’s indisposition will be of no long continuance. … Elias Boudinot, Jr....
41450From Benjamin Franklin to Jared Ingersoll, 11 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New Haven Colony Historical Society I thank you for your kind Congratulations. It gives me Pleasure to hear from an old Friend, it will give me much more to see him. I hope therefore nothing will prevent the Journey you propose for next Summer, and the Favour you intend me of a Visit. I believe I must make a Journey early in the Spring, to Virginia, but purpose being back again before...
41451From Benjamin Franklin to James Bowdoin, 15 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : The Royal Archives, Windsor Castle; transcript: Massachusetts Historical Society I have read with great Pleasure the College Poems you were so kind as to send me: I think, and I hope it is not merely my American Vanity that makes me think, some of them exceed in Beauty and Elegance those produced by the Mother Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, on the same Occasion. In return, please...
41452From Benjamin Franklin to Joshua Babcock, 16 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library I thank you most cordially for your kind Congratulations on my Arrival, which I have the more Pleasure in, as among my other Friends, I find you and yours alive and well: I rejoice with you likewise in the safe Return of your two valuable Sons, to whom, on Account of their own Merit as well as the Obligations I am under to you, I wish it had been in my Power to...
41453From Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles, 19 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library This Line is just to salute you, and acquaint you with my Return to America, Thanks to God, well and hearty. I hope you are so. With this you will receive a Thermometer which craves your Acceptance. With the greatest Esteem, I am, Dear Sir, Your most obedient and most humble Servant BF had promised to send Stiles a thermometer, May 23, 1757; above, VII , 217. On...
41454From Benjamin Franklin to John Winthrop, 23 December 1762 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from American Autograph Shop, American Clipper (Merion Station, Pa.), December 1935, p. 171. Mr. Short’s Remarks were only in a Letter of his to me. I now send you the Original. You will observe that the Perallax [Parallax] mentioned in this, differs from that I sent you; But this was in the Beginning of February, the other he gave me in August; and I suppose had been...
41455From Benjamin Franklin to Hughes and Co.: Directions for Making a Musical Instrument, [1762] (Franklin Papers)
AD : The Assay Office, Birmingham, England In an advertisement for the armonica in the London Chronicle , June 17–19, 1762, addressed “To the Nobility, Gentry, &c., ”Charles James of Purpool Lane, near Gray’s Inn, called himself “The Maker [who] has been employed by the Gentleman who is the real Inventor, in the First ever made in England, and continues to be honoured with his Approbation.” In...
41456Notes on Reading an Account of Travel in China, [1762?] (Franklin Papers)
AD : American Philosophical Society These notes in Franklin’s hand appear to have been memoranda jotted down during the reading of some unidentified account of travel in the Far East. The listing of the eclipses suggests that the date was not earlier than 1762, though Franklin’s reading might well have taken place considerably later. Painted Candles, of what are they made? Vinegar of Liche,...
41457From Benjamin Franklin to Peter Franklin, [1762?–1764] (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from extract in Benjamin Franklin, Experiments and Observations on Electricity (London, 1769), pp. 441–3. You may acquaint the gentleman that desired you to enquire my opinion of the best method of securing a powder magazine from lightning, that I think they cannot do better than to erect a mast not far from it, which may reach 15 or 20 feet above the top of it, with a...
41458To Benjamin Franklin from [Grey] Cooper, [1762?] (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society Mr. Cooper presents his Compliments to Mr. Franclin and begs he will give Mr. Cooper leave to bring Lady Abdy and Miss Baldwyn to hear the glasses on Monday or Thursday Evening next (which is most convenient to Mr. Franclin) about seven oClock. The Ladies have heard Mr. Franclin perform once before which has only given them a greater desire to hear him...
41459To Benjamin Franklin from [Keane] Fitz Gerald and [Charles] Morton, [1759–1775?] (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society Mr. Fitzgerald and Dr. Morton’s Compliments to Dr. Franklyn, and if it be agreable, purpose to wait upon Him on Friday even next, about 6 o’clock, with 2 Ladies. Addressed: To / Benjamn. Franklyn / Esqr. Dr. of Laws. / Craven Street The first of these men may have been Keane Fitz Gerald, or Fitzgerald, of Poland St., London, F.R.S., 1756, who contributed...
41460To Benjamin Franklin from Isaac Garrigues, [1762?] (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society You will please to Excuse my thus addressing as I am personally an intire Stranger to you and I can find nobody at present that knows me or my Family. You have been pleased once to do a great favour for my Mother with Respect to her finding her Father the late Mr. Ralph for which you have laid us all under a lasting Obligation to you. And as my Mother is...