To Benjamin Franklin from Daniel Charles O’Connell, [12 February 1783]
From Daniel Charles O’Connell2
AL: American Philosophical Society
Paris wednesday morning [February 12, 1783]3
Mr. O’Connell has the honour to present his respects to his Excellency Dr. Franklin, requests he may be so good to grant him a quarter of an hour’s Audience on friday Morning about some business, If that Day shu’d not be convenient to his Excellency Mr. O’Connell shall wait on him any other moment he shall be pleased to appoint.
Notation: O’Connell.
2. O’Connell (1745–1833), officer in the Royal Suédois and chevalier de Saint-Louis, had distinguished himself at the siege of Gibraltar and been promoted to Colonel Commandant of his regiment. Supposedly he saved the life of the comte d’Artois, who was instrumental in conferring on him the colonelcy of the Salm-Salm regiment and the title of count: Mary Anne Bianconi O’Connell, The Last Colonel of the Irish Brigade, Count O’Connell and Old Irish Life at Home and Abroad, 1745–1833 (2 vols., London, 1892), I, 278, 281–95, 300–2; II, 3–7, 304; Mazas, Ordre de Saint-Louis, II, 273–4; Etat militaire for 1784, p. 235; ODNB.
3. Dated on the basis of the preceding letter.