From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, [30 September 1766]
To William Franklin
MS not found; reprinted from extract in [Jared Sparks, ed.,] A Collection of the Familiar Letters and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Franklin (Boston, 1833), p. 279.
[September 30th, 1766]
I have just had a visit from General Lyman, and a good deal of conversation on the Ilinois scheme.7 He tells me, that Mr. Morgan,8 who is under-secretary of the Southern department, is much pleased with it; and we are to go together to talk to him concerning it.
7. See above, p. 414.
8. Maurice Morgann (1726–1802), Shelburne’s private secretary and at this time under-secretary of state for the Southern Department. He obtained the post of secretary of New Jersey in 1767, discharging it by deputy, first Joseph Reed, then Charles Pettit. In 1773 he suggested to BF that he would be willing to replace him as N.J. agent. In 1782 Morgann again served as under-secretary to Shelburne, who at this time was conducting the peace negotiations with America as first lord of the Treasury. In 1783 Morgann was one of the secretaries to the embassy for ratifying the peace treaty with the United States. In 1777 his Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff established his reputation as a literary critic. DNB; i N.J. Arch., x, 1–6, 133–5; Franklin B. Wickwire, British Subministers and Colonial America 1763–1783 (Princeton, 1966), pp. 96–7; BF to WF, July 14, 1773, Lib. Cong.