From Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, 21 February 1763
To Jane Mecom
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Philada. Feb. 21. 1763
Dear Sister
I have now the Pleasure of acquainting you that my Son and Daughter are safely arriv’d at my House, and both very well. They present their Duty to Brother Mecom and you. He sets out for his Government on Wednesday.7
I am greatly to blame for not sending the enclos’d sooner. It was wrote by your Sister8 several Weeks since, and given to me to be forwarded. I thought it was done or rather did not think of it at all till this Morning, when I found it on my Desk cover’d with some Papers. Excuse me, if you can.
Tell me how you do, and where you live, and what you would advise me to concerning Lodging when I come to Boston.9 As I think I shall stay two or three Months, I have half a Mind to keep House, that is, Bachelor’s Hall, in that which was Sister Douse’s.1 Cannot one hire Furniture for a Quarter or Half a Year? In London one may very easily. I hope to see you in May or June.
My Love to all. I am as ever Your affectionate Brother
B Franklin
7. WF and his wife arrived at Philadelphia on Feb. 19, 1763, and he and BF left for N.J. on February 23.
8. DF; the enclosure has not been found.
9. At this time Jane apparently lived, and kept boarders, at a house in Hanover Street which had belonged to her father. Van Doren, Franklin-Mecom, pp. 7–8.
1. BF had acquired his half-sister Elizabeth Douse’s house on Unity Street as part payment for debts owed him by her estate. He spent £148 4s. 8d. repairing the house so that it might be rented and then arranged to have the rent paid to his sister Jane. She moved into the house in 1784. Ibid., pp. 21–2, 78–9.