From Benjamin Franklin to John Ross, 19 February 1780
To John Ross
Copy: Library of Congress
Passy, feb. 19. 1780.
Dear Sir,
I am contented that as many of the Public Woollens go in the Alliance as Comme. Jones shall be willing to take on board, he being the best judge of the Quantity that may be carried, consistent with allowance of sufficient Room for the People, Provisions Water, &c. and shall write to him this Day accordingly;4 I shall also write to him to permit your taking your passage with him if that is your final Resolution. I shall trouble you with a few letters if you go in Capt. Bell.—5
With great Esteem, I am sir. Y. m. ob. &c.
Mr. Ross.
4. Above.
5. Ross had written WTF on Jan. 25 that he had decided to sail to America with Capt. Bell and volunteered to carry dispatches. APS. Since the previous October, Thomas Bell had commanded the 18–gun ship Chevalier de La Luzerne: Charles Henry Lincoln, comp., Naval Records of the American Revolution 1775–1788 (Washington, D.C., 1906), p. 253; Claghorn, Naval Officers, p. 21; Jones to BF, Feb. 25, below. For Bell’s earlier voyages to Europe see, for example, XXIII, 469n; XXVII, 408n.