4891To George Washington from Robert Stewart, 14 January 1764 (Washington Papers)
I was detain’d at Philadelphia some time after Date of my last to you (by Mr Jo: Watson) however we at length embarkd, on the 28th of October we lost sight of the American Coast and after a Passage of 35 Days in which we had very boisterous weather and two dreadfull Storms on the French Coast from which we with the utmost difficulty escap’d Ship wreck, we arriv’d at Dover, where we gladly...
4892From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Jackson, 16 January 1764 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I have just now receiv’d your Favour of Nov. 12. and hear the Packet is to return directly from New York, while I have scarce time to write a Line before the Post goes. The House have past a Bill to pay the other Colonies what was over-receiv’d by us; which Bill is now before the Governor. We have lately had horrid Rioting on our Frontiers. The Inhabitants...
4893From Benjamin Franklin to Anthony Todd, 16 January 1764 (Franklin Papers)
Extract: Public Record Office In my last I wrote you that Mr. Foxcroft, my Colleague, was gone to Virginia where and in Maryland some offices are yet unsettled. We are to meet again in April at Annapolis, and then shall send you a full Account of our Doings. I will now only just mention, that we hope in the Spring to expedite the Communication between Boston and New York, as we have already...
4894To John Jay from Peter Jay, 16 January 1764 (Jay Papers)
Your letter and the Boy were immediately sent to M r . Punderson, who I’ve not seen since but am informed that he is well pleased with him. Seal the inclosed before you deliv r : it to M r . Kissam and you may conclude an agreem nt with him, viz t : To pay him £200 when the time of y r . being with him Commences, that is, immediately after the passing of y r Degrees at College in May next, tho...
4895To Benjamin Franklin from James Bowdoin, 18 January 1764 (Franklin Papers)
Letterbook copy: Massachusetts Historical Society I am very glad to hear you got home Safe with your Daughter and Mr. Foxcroft without any further accident; and hope your arm has recovered it’s former Strength. I here enclose, open for your perusal, a Letter to Mr. Canton on the Subject I spoke to you about. If any thing should occur to you to improve the Telescope further than what is noticed...
4896From Thomas Jefferson to John Page, 19 January 1764 (Jefferson Papers)
The contents of your letter have not a little alarmed me: and really upon seriously weighing them with what has formerly passed between αδνιλεβ and myself I am somewhat at a loss what to conclude. Your ‘semper saltat, semper ridet, semper loquitur, semper solicitat’ &c. appear a little suspicious, but good god! it is impossible! I told you our confab in the Apollo: but I beleive I never told...
4897Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, 20 January 1764 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1763–1764 (Philadelphia, 1764), pp. 33–4. During the summer and early autumn of 1763 hostile Indians repeatedly attacked isolated settlements and farms on the Pennsylvania frontier, killing many whites, carrying others off into captivity, and driving the rest in terror from their homes to the relatively few garrisoned forts or...
4898From George Washington to Robert Cary & Company, 22 January 1764 (Washington Papers)
Captn Mather whom I met with at this place a day or two ago, seeming to be pretty much distressd to compleat his Loading before the lay days are out, I shall, in order to facilitate his dispatch, give him all the Tobacco I have ready upon York River amounting to Fifty two Hhds, on which please to make Insurance and proportion the charge hereafter for I cannot at this Instant tell what part is...
4899To Benjamin Franklin from Francis Bernard, 23 January 1764 (Franklin Papers)
Letterbook copy: Harvard College Library I am favoured with yours of the 11th inst. and am much obliged to you for the trouble you have given yourself of sending a Messenger to Alexandria. I should have proposed this Measure long ago, if I had any Notion that the conveyance of letters to that Town had been so precarious: for tho’ I have had sevral letters from him, yet I cannot find that any...
4900From Thomas Jefferson to John Page, 23 January 1764 (Jefferson Papers)
I received your letter of Wednesday the 18th instant; in that, of this day, you mention one which you wrote last Friday, and sent by the Secretary ’s boy; but I have neither seen nor heard of such a one. God send, mine of Jan. 19 to you may not have shared the same fate; for, by your letter, I am uncertain whether you have received it or not; you therein say, ‘you hope to have received an...
4901To Benjamin Franklin from Solomon Williams, 25 January 1764 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: Lyme Historical Society-Florence Griswold Association, Inc., Old Lyme, Conn. You Will Pardon this Trouble and My Freedom In using your Name When I inform you that Mr. Webster for Whom is the Enclosed Desired me thus to Make use of your Name to Carry a Letter to him with the Assurance that he had your Favorable permission for it. Since I have this Occasion to Speak to you Allow me sir in...
4902To Benjamin Franklin from Richard Jackson, 26 January 1764 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I have wrote to you by every Packet that has sailed and one that has not, I mean that of the present Month, which not being in England at the time, has been detained for the next, in the mean time, I write a line or two, by a Merchant Vessel that sails tomorrow or next day. I got pretty early intelligence of Major Barker’s arrival in England, but at the...
4903The Postmasters General to the Lords of the Treasury: Memorandum on the American Postal Service, 28 January 1764 (Franklin Papers)
Letterbook copy: General Post Office, London This document is preceded in the letterbook by a letter of the same date from Anthony Todd, secretary of the British Post Office, to Charles Jenkinson, secretary to the Treasury, indicating that the paper would be given to George Grenville “the beginning of next Week” and that Jenkinson might “depend on a Copy of it.” Todd probably prepared at least...
4904A Narrative of the Late Massacres, [30 January? 1764] (Franklin Papers)
A Narrative of the Late Massacres, in Lancaster County, of a Number of Indians, Friends of this Province, By Persons Unknown. With some Observations on the same . Printed in the Year M , DCC , LXIV . (Yale University Library) News of the massacre of six Indians at Conestoga Manor by men from Paxton and Donegal, two communities on the Susquehanna, on December 14, 1763, reached Governor Penn on...
4905From George Washington to John Searle, 30 January 1764 (Washington Papers)
Your favour of the 22d of August last I have had the pleasure to receive, as also the Wine accompanying of it which lyes yet untasted, but from your recommendation of it I shall suppose it good and therefore desire you will send me such another Pipe and draw as before upon Robert Cary Esqr. & Co. who are advised thereof and will pay accordingly. If no oppertunity shoud offer soon to Potomack...
4906Cash Accounts, February 1764 (Washington Papers)
Contra Feby 2— By Servants Mr Wormleys £0.10. 6 By Ferriage at Urbanna 0. 3. 0 By Ditto at Piscataway 0. 1. 3 3— By Expences at Hobbs hole 9/4. Do at Evans’s 7/6 0.16.10 By Do at Bowlers 4/9—little Ferry 1/3 0. 6. 0 4— By Servants 7½ 0. 0. 7 1/2 By Ferriage & Exps. at Boyds hole 0.12. 0 By other Expences there
4907Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, 11 February 1764 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1763–1764 (Philadelphia, 1764), p. 43. The plan of early January to send the Indians lodged on Province Island to Sir William Johnson for safety had failed because the New York authorities had refused to cooperate. Governor Penn received a letter on Saturday, January 21, from Capt. J. Schlosser of the Royal American Regiment...
4908From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Jackson, 11 February 1764 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I have just received your Favour by the extra Packet of Nov. 26. and am pleas’d to find a just Resentment so general in your House against Mr. W.’s seditious Conduct, and to hear that the present Administration is like to continue. If Money must be raised from us to support 14 Batallions, as you mention, I think your Plan the most advantageous to both the...
4909To Benjamin Franklin from Francis Bernard, 13 February 1764 (Franklin Papers)
Letterbook copy: Harvard College Library I am favoured with yours of Jan 27. and have received one from my Son dated New York Feb 2 informing that being apprehensive of the badness of the Roads on the change of Weather, He had returned your Horse and intended to take his passage in the Newport packet boat with some other Gentlemen who were waiting for it. However He is not yet arrived. I am...
4910From George Washington to Robert Cary & Company, 13 February 1764 (Washington Papers)
The Inclosed is a Copy of my last of the 22d Ulto—We have been curiously entertained of late with the description of an Engine lately constructed (I beleive in Switzerland, and undergone some Improvements since in England) for taking up Trees by the Roots—among other things it is related that Trees of considerable Diameter are forced up by this Engine—that Six hands in working one of them will...
4911To George Washington from Robert Cary & Co., 13 February 1764 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: from Robert Cary & Co., 13 Feb. 1764. On 1 May GW wrote to Robert Cary & Co. : “The Copy of your Letter of the 13th of February . . . is come to hand.”
4912Invoice from Robert Cary & Company, 13 February 1764 (Washington Papers)
Invoice of Costs and Charges of Goods Ship’d on Board the William & Mary John Boyes Master for Virginia on the proper Acct & Risque of Colo. Geo. Washington and to him Consignd Theodosia Crowley Iron 6 Ex[tr]a Broad Axes 4/ £ 1. 4. 2 Lathing Hammers 1/2 . 2. 4 ½ dozn Augers sorted . 8. 1 dozn large socket headg Chissels .14. 1 dozn large socket Gouges .19. 1 dozn Splinter padlocks A...
4913To John Adams from Jonathan Sewall, 15 February 1764 (Adams Papers)
You may remember we had some Confab. together about having the Small Pox in Concert. I intend next week (Thursday) to be inoculated by Doctr. Joseph Gardner at Point Shirley, and I expect to have Brother Thacher’s Company; —now if we could make a Triumvirate, I am perswaded it would be for our mutual Support, Com fort and Edification—but if Brother Thacher should not have Courage enough, yet...
4914From Benjamin Franklin to Catharine Greene, 15 February 1764 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I have before me your most acceptable Favour of Dec. 24. Publick Business and our public Confusions have so taken up my Attention, that I suspect I did not answer it when I receiv’d it, but am really not certain; so to make sure, I write this Line to acknowledge the Receiving it, and to thank you for it. I condole with you on the Death of the good old Lady...
4915Hannah Storer Green to John Adams, 20 February 1764 (Adams Papers)
I think myself greatly indebted to you, for the honor you do my judgment, in refering so important a debate to my decission; and I ought, in strict justice, to apologize for my not answering it before; however, I trust to your Candor to excuse the seeming neglect, I say seeming, for I have not been unmindful of you, but have well consider’d the thing, and shall give you my thoughts upon the...
4916Pennsylvania Assembly Committee: Report, 21 February 1764 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1763–1764 (Philadelphia, 1764), pp. 50–1. When several clergymen and others went from Philadelphia to German-town on Monday, February 6, to talk with the Paxton Boys, they were given a “Declaration” of the frontiersmen’s grievances, which they brought back to the city and delivered to Governor Penn. Most of this paper is taken...
4917From Benjamin Franklin to Francis Bernard, 21 February 1764 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania I ought sooner to have answered yours of the 23d past, but the dangerous Riots and Tumults we have lately had here, took up all our Attention. I hope Mr. Bernard is well with you before this Time. As our Navigation was stopt by the Ice, and it was uncertain when our River would be open, and a good Vessel offer for Boston, I thought it might be best for...
4918From Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Williams, 24 February 1764 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I have taken the Liberty to trouble you with a Box put this Day on board the Sloop William Capt. Ephraim Jones, directed for you. In it is a Portmantle and Mail Pillon belonging to Mr. Bernard, your Governor’s Son, which please to send to the Governor’s as soon as it gets to hand: Also a Parcel for Sister Mecom; and some Books on Inoculation, which I should...
4919To John Jay from Peter Jay, 28 February 1764 (Jay Papers)
I have recd: your Letter of last Friday.— I’m of your oppinion that M r . Ernest’s Terms are too high—I shall be well pleas d : to have you lodg’d at M rs . John Livingston’s or any other more private Family than I take D—n’s to be, & w th . whom (between us) I apprehend it would not sute very well—If you can get suted near M r . Kissam’s or in that part of the Town, it will be more convenient...
4920Cash Accounts, March 1764 (Washington Papers)
Cash Mar. 18— To Mr Robt Rutherford on Acct Thos Digges £17.10.0 30— To Mr [Charles] Green 5. 0.0 Contra Mar. 2— By Captn McCabes order paid Mr Thos Digges viz. Sterling £5.0.0 50 prCt Excha. on Do 2.10. 7.10.0 4— By Exps. at Leesburg 0.10.0 5— By Edwd Violette to pay Sundries 2. 0.0 By Servants 11/—Sent to Phila. for a pr Lr Breeches 35/—gave Taylor takg Mea[sur]e 1/ 2. 7.0 By Exps. at...
4921To Benjamin Franklin from Francis Bernard, 1 March 1764 (Franklin Papers)
Letterbook copy: Harvard College Library I am favoured with yours and shall immediately order the sum of £40 1 s . 10 d . (which I suppose is at 7 s . 6 d . per dollar) to be paid to Mr. Williams. There is still wanting the charge at Annapolis. I have heard that there has been a Dutch trading Ship seized at Anchor at Sandy hook. As the forfeiture arises from importing &c. Is it not worth...
4922Pennsylvania Assembly Committee: Report, 6 March 1764 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1763–1764 (Philadelphia, 1764), pp. 57–8. On Feb. 25, 1764, a petition was read before the Assembly from a “Number” of inhabitants of Philadelphia, praying that debates in the House be henceforth open to the public and asking the House to adopt “a standing Order, that the Freemen of the Province shall have free Access, at all...
4923To Benjamin Franklin from George Price, 7 March 1764 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I would be wanting in Gratitude if I did not make some Acknowledgement for the honour of your Letters to Messrs: Timothy and Lemprie: My Name barely mentiond in them by you would have been sufficient but the Additional Compliment on my behaviour makes me as much at a loss how to Thank you as to restrain my Vanity. Mr: Timothy receiv’d me very kindly, but I...
4924From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Jackson, 8 March 1764 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I hear our Money Bill is to come down this Day from the Governor with a Negative. It comply’d with four of the Stipulations made at the Council Board, viz. 1. The Proprietaries unappropriated Lands are explicitly exempted from Taxation. 2. Provincial Commissioners of Appeal are appointed. 3. The Paper Currency is made no legal Tender to the Proprietaries....
4925From Benjamin Franklin to John Canton, 14 March 1764 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : The Royal Society When I left London, I promis’d myself the pleasure of a regular Correspondence with you and some others of the ingenious Gentlemen that compos’d our Club. But after so long an Absence from my Family and Affairs, I found, as you will easily conceive, so much Occupation, that philosophical Matters could not be attended to; and my last Summer was almost wholly taken up in...
4926From Benjamin Franklin to John Fothergill, 14 March 1764 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library I received your Favour of the 10th. of Decemr. It was a great deal for one to write, whose Time is so little his own. By the way, When do you intend to live? i.e. to enjoy Life. When will you retire to your Villa, give your self Repose, delight in Viewing the Operations of Nature in the vegetable Creation, assist her in her Works, get your ingenious Friends at...
4927From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Jackson, 14 March 1764 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I wrote to you on the 8th Instant, intending that Letter via Bristol, but it goes with this. The Bill I mention’d is since come down with an absolute Refusal, as the Proprietary Instructions were not comply’d with, to have his Town Lots exempted, and his best located unimprov’d Lands rated no higher than the lowest of the People’s. The House, extreamly...
4928From Benjamin Franklin to Mary Stevenson, 14 March 1764 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I have received your kind Letters of Augt. 30. and Nov. 16. Please to return my Thanks with those of my Friend, to Mr. Stanley for his Favour in the Musick, which gives great Satisfaction. I am glad to hear of the Welfare of the Blunt Family, and the Additions it has lately received; and particularly that your Dolly’s Health is mended. Present my best...
4929Notice of Truro Parish Vestry Meeting, 20 March 1764 (Washington Papers)
Notice is hereby given to any Person or Persons, who are willing to undertake the Building a Brick Church at the Falls in Truro Parish in the County aforesaid, (to contain 1600 Feet superficial Measure, with convenient Galleries) That on the Third Monday in June next, there will be a meeting of the Vestry, at what is commonly called the Upper Church: At which Time and Place, any Person or...
4930From Thomas Jefferson to William Fleming, 20 March 1764 (Jefferson Papers)
As the messenger who delivered me your letter, informs me that your boy is to leave town tomorrow morning I will endeavor to answer it as circumstantially as the hour of the night, and a violent head ach , with which I have been afflicted these two days, will permit. With regard to the scheme which I proposed to you some time since, I am sorry to tell you it is totally frustrated by Miss R....
4931Pennsylvania Assembly: Message to the Governor, 22 March 1764 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1763–1764 (Philadelphia, 1764), pp. 64–5. The Assembly passed its £50,000 supply bill on February 24 and delivered it to Governor Penn. He held it until March 7 when he sent it back with a message of rejection. It was expressly contrary to the decree of the Privy Council of Sept. 2, 1760, he said, particularly in the following...
4932Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, 24 March 1764 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1763–1764 (Philadelphia, 1764), pp. 69–72. Governor Penn apparently spent most of the morning of March 23 composing a reply to the Assembly’s message of the 22d (see immediately above). He signed it in the afternoon and sent it to the Assembly. In it he expressed his deep concern that in the critical military situation the...
4933Pennsylvania Assembly: Resolves upon the Present Circumstances, [24 March 1764] (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1763–1764 (Philadelphia, 1764), pp. 72–4. As soon as the Assembly had considered on March 10 the governor’s message of the 7th rejecting the £50,000 supply bill and had appointed a committee to bring in a new £55,000 bill, it named a second committee of eight members, including Franklin, “to draw up and bring in certain...
4934From Benjamin Franklin to Francis Bernard, 28 March 1764 (Franklin Papers)
Photostat of ALS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania I am favour’d with yours of the 17th. with the Letters return’d concerning Sturgeon. I lately sent you a good Receipt for Pickling, which I hope got to hand. I shall forward your Son’s Letter to Mr. Johnston. Enclos’d is one I received a few Days since from that Gentleman. I paid his Order, as you will see by the Receipt. Please to pay the...
4935To George Washington from Robert Cary & Co., 28 March 1764 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: from Robert Cary & Co., 28 Mar. 1764. On 10 Aug. GW wrote to the firm , mentioning “your other Letter of the 28th of March.”
4936Explanatory Remarks on the Assembly’s Resolves, [29 March 1764] (Franklin Papers)
Broadside: Library Company of Philadelphia On March 30, 1764, the day after the Pennsylvania Gazette printed the recent messages between the governor and the Assembly and the twenty-six Assembly “Resolves upon the Present Circumstances,” Joseph Galloway wrote to William Franklin enclosing “a Copy of your worthy Father’s Remarks on our Assembly Resolves. No answer has yet been attempted by the...
4937Petition of the Pennsylvania Freeholders and Inhabitants to the King, [29 March 1764] (Franklin Papers)
Draft: American Philosophical Society When the Assembly adjourned on Saturday, March 24, it gave its members a recess of seven weeks “in order to consult their Constituents, whether an humble Address should be drawn up, and transmitted to His Majesty, praying that he would be graciously pleased to take the People of this Province under his immediate Protection and Government.” It is clear that...
4938From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Jackson, 29 March 1764 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society In my last I inform’d you that the Agreement between the Governor and Assembly was not likely long to continue. The enclos’d Paper will show you that the Breach is wider now than ever. And ’tis thought there will be a general Petition from the Inhabitants to the Crown, to take us under its immediate Government. I send you this early Notice of what is...
4939March [1764] (Washington Papers)
29. Grafted as follows viz. 8 Bullock Heart Cherry’s: these are a fine large bla: Cherry, ripe in May, but not early. They begin the first Row in the Nursery next the Quarter—& at that end next to the Ray Grass Field. Between these and the rest a Stake is drove. Then— 8 of the finest early May Cherry—ending at another Stick. Then— 6 of the large Duke Cherry, ending at a stick likewise all in...
4940[Diary entry: 29 March 1764] (Washington Papers)
29. Grafted as follows viz. 8 Bullock Heart Cherry’s: these are a fine large bla: Cherry, ripe in May, but not early. They begin the first Row in the Nursery next the Quarter—& at that end next to the Ray Grass Field. Between these and the rest a Stake is drove. Then— 8 of the finest early May Cherry—ending at another Stick. Then— 6 of the large Duke Cherry, ending at a stick likewise all in...