From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 28 August 1767
To Deborah Franklin
ALS: Yale University Library
London, Augt. 28. 1767
My dear Child
I have staid too long in London this Summer, and now sensibly feel the Want of my usual Journey to preserve my Health. Therefore I this Morning am to set for a Trip to Paris. Sir John Pringle, the Queen’s Physician, goes with me. He has Leave for Six Weeks only, her Majesty being again pregnant.1 I shall write to you from thence. I receiv’d yours by Sir John Peyton.2 Mrs. Stevenson will forward the Things you write for.3 My Love to all. I am, ever, Your affectionate Husband
B Franklin
1. Very little is known of the details of this trip to Paris. BF and Pringle left London on August 28 and returned on the evening of October 8; London Chron., Aug. 29.–Sept. 1, Oct. 8–10, 1767; below, p. 274. The royal birth which dictated their return took place on November 2, when “the Queen was happily delivered of a Prince.” London Chron., Nov. 3–5, 1767. The infant was christened Edward Augustus; he was later named Duke of Kent and Strathearn and in 1819 he became the father of the future Queen Victoria.
2. Above, pp. 206–9. Peyton wrote DF, Sept. 10, 1767, reporting that he had fulfilled her commissions and had dined and drunk tea with BF and Mrs. Stevenson soon after reaching London. He added his best wishes for Sally’s happiness and his compliments to Richard Bache. APS.
3. On September 18 Mrs. Stevenson wrote DF that she was sending the things asked for, including silk and a “negligee made up fashionable” because she expected it was to be part of Sally’s trousseau. When BF left for France, she reported, “his Backe was full of small Blind Boils soe call’d, that for severl days, made him verey unessey other ways in good health.” He had written from Calais on August 30, and again from Paris September 14, reporting in the second letter that he was well. APS.