Benjamin Franklin Papers

From Benjamin Franklin to Isaac Norris, 19 November 1760

To Isaac Norris

Copy:8 American Philosophical Society

London, Novr. 19. 1760

Dear Sir

This is just to acknowledge the Receipt of your Favours of August 24 and 27. with the Bill for £100 on Messrs. Thomlinson &c. No. 1876,9 and to acquaint you, that I have at length receiv’d the Money from the Exchequer and lodg’d it in the Bank as nearly agreeable to the Directions of the Act as I possibly could;1 for they would not, as I acquainted you before, receive it subject to the Drafts of the Trustees in Pensylvania, it being contrary to their Rules. The House will consider what is to be done with it, and send me the necessary Directions.2 If I were to advise, it should be to lay it out in the Stocks, which will certainly at a Peace produce a Profit of near 20 per Cent. besides the intermediate Interest. I am applying for the Grant of 1759, but nothing is yet done in it.3 I shall write more fully per Bolitho.4 With the greatest Esteem, I am &c.

B.F.

P.S. The Sum lodg’d in the Bank belonging to the Province is £26,648 4s. 6d. out of which I have some Fees to pay, of which I have not had the Account.

To Isaac Norris, Esqr. Speaker (Copy)

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

8In WF’s hand.

9See above, pp. 184–6, 193–4; for the bill on “Messrs. Thomlinson,” see p. 184 n.

1For BF’s account of his transaction at the Exchequer, see above, pp. 241–2; the act to which he was trying to conform was that passed by the Pa. Assembly on Sept. 29, 1759 (above, VIII, 442 n), appointing him agent to receive Pa.’s share of the parliamentary grant for the year 1758 and directing him to deposit it in the Bank of England, subject to the drafts of the trustees of the General Loan Office. For the Bank’s objections to this act, see above, p. 186 n.

2On Oct. 18, 1760, the Pa. Assembly ordered BF to deposit its share of the parliamentary grant in the Bank of England in the names of himself, Robert Charles, and four London merchants, and directed the trustees of the Loan Office to draw on these men personally. Apparently, however, BF never received these instructions. See above, pp. 236–7 n.

3On March 31, 1760, Parliament resolved to grant the American colonies a second £200,000 to reimburse them for their expenditures in the campaign of 1759; see above, p. 223 n.

4The Myrtilla, Capt. John Bolitho, reached Deal by November 27 and remained there with other outward-bound vessels, held back by adverse winds, until January 6. It reached Spithead under convoy on the 8th and, apparently a part of the West Indian convoy, sailed a few days later. It reached Philadelphia by March 5. London Chron., Nov. 27–29, Dec. 16–18, 1760; Jan. 6–8, 8–10; Pa. Gaz., Feb. 26, March 5, 1761.

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