From Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, 15 December 1763
To Jane Mecom
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Philada. Dec. 15. 1763
Dear Sister
I thank you for your kind Congratulations on my safe Return. Brother Peter is with me, and very well, except being touch’d a little in his Head with something of the Doctor, of which I hope to cure him.9 For my own Part, I find myself at present quite clear of Pain, and so have at length left off the cold Bath; there is however still some Weakness in my Shoulder, though much stronger than when I left Boston, and Mending.1 I am otherwise very happy in being at home, where I am allow’d to know when I have eat enough and drank enough, am warm enough, and sit in a Place that I like, &c. and no body pretends to know what I feel better than I do myself.2 Don’t imagine that I am a whit the less sensible of the Kindness I experienc’d among my Friends in New England, I am very thankful for it, and shall always retain a grateful Remembrance of it. Remember me affectionately to all that enquire after Dear Sister, Your loving Brother
B Franklin
My Compliments to good Mrs. Bowles.3 Sally writes.
9. Peter Franklin (C.9) may have traveled to Philadelphia with BF and Sally, or come from Newport by himself soon afterwards. He was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia sometime in 1764, probably in October. Later letters from DF to BF report that Peter was in poor health but, fancying his own medical knowledge, treated himself repeatedly though unsuccessfully. He died July 1, 1766.
1. For the injury to BF’s shoulder incurred on a trip between Boston and Portsmouth, see above, p. 338.
2. Apparently Jane Mecom and others in Boston had been somewhat oversolicitous for her brother’s comfort and well-being while he was in Boston.
3. Grace Davenport Bowls (or Bowles) was the stepdaughter of Sarah Franklin Davenport (C.12), BF and Jane Mecom’s sister. Mrs. Bowls was the daughter of James Davenport’s first wife, Grace Tileston, and the widow of Samuel Bowls (or Bowles), an apothecary of Dorchester, Mass.