This Letter will be delivered to you by my Son Wm., whom agreable to President Dwights1 Recommendation and advice I commit to your Care. He has hitherto been so good a Boy as to render any Degree of Severity unnecessary,—even private and gentle admonitions have very rarely been requisite, & have in no Instance proved ineffectual. I regret that since the Death of the Revd. Mr Ellison,2 Circumstances occurred wh prevented his being regularly employed. Habits of Punctuality and Industry are so important thro’ Life, that they cannot be too early and carefully formed. Altho’ it never appeard to me useful to confine Boys to their Books for more hours than they can possibly be attentively employed, yet I think it indispensable that they do study in study Times, and that exact punctuality to all appointments be rigidly insisted upon.

I herewith inclose Fifty Dollars— Out of this money be pleased ^from time to time^ to provide for him such Cloathing and other articles as may be requisite & proper; and also make him a weekly allowance of one quarter of a Dollar to spend without acct., for postage of Letters and otherwise as he may chuse. In my opinion Boys ought not to be kept entirely without money on the one hand, nor profusely supplied with it on the other. Let me request the favor of you to favor me now & then with a candid acct. of my Sons progress and Behavior— that if Delinquencies or Errors shd. take place, I may co-operate with you in correcting them. Hitherto I have not percieved in him the least Propensity to any Vice, and I pray God to render yr. Endeavours to preserve him from it effectual.

I am exceedingly sollicitous that his College Education be perfected by the time he shall be 18 Years old.3 He will be 14 next June— He has been unfortunately tho’ unavoidably retarded by Mr. Ellisons Death & other Circumstances— That Loss of Time may I think be retrieved, but as it can only be done by more than ordinary attention on your part, I ought not now only to request that favor of you, but also to express my Readiness amply to remunerate it— I am Sir yr. most obt. Servt