From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 6 April 1773
To Deborah Franklin
ALS: American Philosophical Society; letterbook draft: Library of Congress
London, April 6. 1773
My dear Child
I received yours of Dec. 28 and Jan. 6. and am glad to find you were so well.
I do not recollect the Miss Moore’s you mention, whom Ben visited before they went away.9 As to Mrs. Wright, I have done all I could to serve her here; but I have somehow or other, I know not which way, displeas’d her of late, so that she does not now come near me.1 I wish her well.
I condole with you on the Death of our good Friend Mr. Hall.2 My old Friends so drop off one after another, that I am afraid, when I come home, I shall find myself a Stranger in my own Country.
Your Accounts of your Kingbird please me exceedingly. I hope soon to see him and you. Last Night I was at Mr. West’s. They desire to be remember’d to you. Their youngest Boy, my Godson, is a very fine one,3 as is also my other Godson, young Hewson. I continue well, Thanks to God, and am ever, my dear Debby, Your affectionate Husband
B Franklin
Addressed: To / Mrs Franklin / at / Philadelphia / via N York / per Packet / B Free Franklin
9. The letters from DF to which he was replying, if they had survived, might have thrown light on the Moore sisters. We are inclined to think that they were the same pair who had appeared at a party of Sally’s six years before: above, XIV, 137.
1. BF’s draft here inserts a delightful sentence: “Some Folks Friendship is of such brittle Stuff, it costs more than it is Worth to keep it in repair.” For Patience Wright see above, XIX, 93.
2. The news was probably in DF’s letter of Dec. 28, for David Hall died on the 24th.
3. Benjamin West, Jr. These sentences about the Wests were an afterthought, omitted in the draft.
4. Also lost. BF’s postscript must have been written some time after his letter, because the packet, the Duke of Cumberland, reached Falmouth on April 6: Lloyd’s Evening Post, April 5–7, 1773.
5. The bridegroom was a farmer, James Pearce; see above, XIX, 395 n.