To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Franklin, 28 January 1765
From Thomas Franklin7
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Lutterworth, Janr. 28. 1765.
Sir
I humbly ask pardon for giving you the trouble of this but hearing you was att Lutterworth Some time Since8 and Inquired after me but had not the happyness of Seeing you has gave me a great deal of uneasyness but now I am in my way again of bussiness, and am Inform’d you are in London9 have taken this Opportunity to Write to you. I have not heard you purpose to come into the Country att this time but if this Letter comes Safe to your hands humbly beg the favour I may have a Line or two from you by the next post, having a great Desire to see you With Your Leave will come to London to See you.1 I have Sent you a Hare Which I humbly beg you will Accept you will Receive it on Wensday Night or on Thursday Morning next. I and my Wife joyn in Love to you and am, Sir Your Very humble Servant
Thos: Franklin.
Addressed: To / Benjamin Franklin Esqr: / att Mrs. Stevenson / Craven Street Strand / London
7. Thomas Franklin (A.5.2.3.1.1), BF’s first cousin once removed, was a dyer at Lutterworth, Leicestershire, who seems to have been between 40 and 50 years of age at the writing of this letter. In 1766 he visited BF in London and left a daughter, Sally (A.5.2.3.1.1.1), in Mrs. Margaret Stevenson’s care, possibly because of the recent death of his wife.
8. BF probably visited Lutterworth on his genealogical excursion through the English Midlands in the summer of 1758, although he may have passed through the town on his way to Birmingham (thirty miles west) in 1759 or 1760; see above, VIII, 133–46; IX, 231 n, 258. There is every reason to believe that he had remained continuously in London since his recent arrival from Philadelphia in December 1764.
9. Thomas Franklin probably got his information from a mutual relative, Hannah Farrow Walker (A.5.2.3.3.1), to whom BF had written in December 1764. See above, XI, 524.
1. BF’s reply to this letter has not been found.