From Benjamin Franklin to Jehu Curtis, 15 March 1753
To Jehu Curtis4
ALS: Yale University Library
Philada. March 15. 1753
Sir,
We send herewith all the Bills in a Trunk, containing as follows5
1s. | 1s. 6d. | 2s. | 2s. 6d. | 5s. | 10s. | |||
1st Sort | 40 | Quire, containing | 4000 | 4000 | 4000 | 4000 | — | — |
2d Sort | 11 | Quire containing | 1100 | — | — | 1100 | 1100 | 1100 |
3d Sort | 9 | Quire containing | 900 | 900 | — | 900 | 900 | — |
4th Sort | 4 | Quire of half Sheets | — | 200 | — | 200 | 400 | — |
6000 | 5100 | 4000 | 6200 | 2400 | 1100 |
In the above, it is to be observed, that there are 100 of the 1s. 6d. Bills, more than there should be, which must be cut off, and put among the Overplus.
The Overplus is as follows
1st Sort | 38 | Sheets, which is one Short of our Memorandum |
2d Sort | 13 | Sheets which is one over |
3d Sort | 13 | Sheets which is three over |
4th Sort | 7 | half Sheets, which is right. |
So that I either made some small Mistake in our first Counting, or in this, I cannot tell which, for the Boat is just going, and we have not time to count again.
We send also, 49 Law Books.6
I am glad to hear you are getting the better of your Fit of the Gout. I have at this Instant a violent Pain in my Head, that half distracts me. I wish it were in my Foot, I think I could bear it better. Our Compliments to Mrs. Curtis, I am, Sir, Your obliged humble Servant
B Franklin
You will receive the Key of the Trunk per Post.
[For a letter from Aaron Burr, March 20, 1753, see below, p. 514.]
4. Jehu Curtis (1692?–1753), speaker of the Assembly, judge of the Supreme Court, and treasurer and trustee of the Loan Office of the Lower Counties (Delaware). It was he who notified the Pennsylvania Council of the Spanish raid on Bombay Hook, July 12, 1747 (see above, III, 180). According to J. Thomas Scharf the tradition is that BF composed the epitaph on his tombstone in Immanuel churchyard, New Castle, Del. History of Delaware, 1609–1888 (Phila., 1888), I, 536.
5. To replace torn and ragged bills of the 1746 emission, £3000 of Delaware currency was printed in 1753. Richard S. Rodney, Colonial Finances in Delaware (Wilmington, Del., 1928), p. 27.
6. Probably copies of the Laws of the Government of New-Castle, Kent and Sussex, printed by Franklin and Hall, 1752.