To Benjamin Franklin from Jonas Green, 4 July 1752
From Jonas Green
ALS: Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Annapolis July 4. 1752
Dear Sir,
We have had for 3 or 4 Days past, most extreme hot Weather: I heartily pity those who are now down with the Small Pox at Boston; since my Remembrance I think I never heard of such a distressing Time in our native Country.7 A Gentleman desired me to write to you to correct in the description of the Roads Southwestward, instead of [To Hoe’s Ferry 20] say [10] which he says is right, which makes the Road from hence to Williamsburg but 178 Miles. In mentioning the Courts in Maryland, leave out the Assizes; for we have now no such Court, nor have had for several Years.8 My Daughter Becky sends Miss Sally by this Post 3 pieces of 8, on account of her Books; she proposes to send the Account next Post; as she is learning to Cypher, she may perhaps draw it off herself by next trip.9 Our kind Respects and best Wishes attend you and yours. I am Dear Sir, Your obliged Friend and humble Servant,
Jonas Green
Addressed: To Mr. Franklin Post-Master in Philadelphia
7. Green, like BF, was a native of Boston. See above, III, 153 n. The small-pox was especially severe in Boston in 1752. See below, p. 336.
8. The references are to Poor Richard’s Almanack for 1752. BF made the corrections in the 1753 almanac.
9. Rebecca, Green’s second child, was nearly 12, three years older than BF’s daughter Sarah. Lawrence C. Wroth, A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland (Baltimore, 1922), p. 76 n.