To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Vaughan, 14 June 1783
From Samuel Vaughan
ALS: American Philosophical Society
London 14th. June 1783
My dear Sir,
Well knowing Your engagements, I have hitherto declined encroaching upon Your important time, but as I shortly embark with my family for Philadelphia,5 I could not refrain returning You my very sincere and affectionate thanks, for your repeated friendly & affectionate attention to each of my sons when on the continent, and which (if possible) has added to that respect affection, and I may say reverence I have retained for You, ever since I have had the pleasure of Your acquaintance, and I rest with pleasing expectation of renewing and perpetuating an intercourse with You in America, which I shall esteem as the most valuable of the many advantages I expect to derive in that new World, being with perfect regard, My dear Sir, Your affectionate and obliged hble Servt.
Saml Vaughan
Honble. Benjn. Franklin Esqr.
5. Vaughan began making preparations to emigrate as soon as the peace was declared. By March, 1783, his household effects were packed, his country home was for sale, and he anticipated a departure in April or May: XXXIX, 293. His son John had gone to Philadelphia to look for property the previous year, and after a brief return to England was sailing back to Philadelphia in advance of the family: BF to John Vaughan, June 3; John Vaughan to BF, June 10. The youngest son, Samuel, Jr. (21 years old), was on his way to Germany: BF to Ingenhousz, June 1. Benjamin and William, the two eldest, stayed in London. The remaining children were Ann (1757–1847), Charles (1759–1839), Sarah (1761–1818), Barbara (b. 1764), and Rebecca (1766–1851): John H. Sheppard, “Reminiscences and Genealogy of the Vaughan Family,” New England Hist. & Geneal. Register, XIX (1865), 355. The family sailed on July 9: William Vaughan to WTF, Aug. 8, 1783 (APS). For this final chapter in Vaughan’s life see Sarah P. Stetson, “The Philadelphia Sojourn of Samuel Vaughan,” PMHB, LXXIII (1949), 459–74.