From Benjamin Franklin to Smith, Wright, & Gray, 13 February 1769
To Smith, Wright, & Gray4
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Cravenstreet, Feb. 13. 69
Friends,
Be so kind as to procure a Letter of Credit on Paris for Dr. Benjamin Rush,5 a young Physician from Pensylvania, of excellent Character, and a particular Friend of mine; the Sum Two Hundred Pounds. He sets out to-morrow. I will be answerable to you for what he may take up there on such Letter.
I inclose a Bill of £100 for which please to send me a Receipt per Bearer. Mr. Galloway, in whose favour the Bill was drawn has omitted to indorse it, but I suppose that on sight of his Letter, which I send with it, Messrs. Barclay6 may accept it.
Send me by the Bearer, Mr. Coombe,7 Twenty Guineas, one in Silver. I am, very respectfully, Yours, &c
B Franklin
Addressed: To / Messrs Smith, Wright & Gray / Bankers / Lombard street
4. For this London banking firm see above, X, 350 n, and XI, 179–80.
5. Benjamin Rush had come to London after receiving his medical degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1768; he stayed at Mrs. Stevenson’s and continued his medical studies. In February, 1769, he left for a month’s visit to Paris. George W. Corner, ed., The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush … ([Princeton], 1948), pp. 43, 52–73.
6. For David Barclay & Sons see above, IX, 190 n; XIV, 256 n.
7. Thomas Coombe, for whom see above, XV, 53.