From Benjamin Franklin to Mary Stevenson, [October? 1768]
To Mary Stevenson
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Wednesday morning. [Oct., 1768?]
I return my dear Polly her Letters with Thanks for the Sight of them. Dr. Hawkesworth’s Account of Mr. Stanley’s8 Loss of Hair, is full and Satisfactory. Young Mr. Henckell has left our well-spelt Letters9 with me for you: but those I take the Liberty to keep. We are all well and all love you. Adieu. Yours affectionately
B Franklin
8. For John Hawkesworth, LL.D., essayist, editor, and playwright, see above, IX, 265 n; for John Stanley, organist and composer, see ibid., p. 320 n.
9. Henckell was probably the same young man mentioned in BF to Mary Stevenson above, Oct. 20, 1768. “Our well-spelt Letters” were almost unquestionably the correspondence between Polly and BF in the latter’s new phonetic alphabet, printed above under July 20, Sept. 26, and Sept. 28, 1768; hence this note is assigned to October as the earliest likely date.