To Benjamin Franklin from [John] Foxcroft, [1769?]: résumé
From [John] Foxcroft4
AL: American Philosophical Society
[1769? A note in the third person, dated only Friday, asking Franklin to visit him for a game of chess “on his New Invented Table.” A very bad cold has prevented Foxcroft from calling, and the visit would be an act of charity.]
4. So identified by the handwriting. But his brother Thomas, the Philadelphia postmaster, wrote a closely similar hand, and visited England briefly in 1771. Thomas, unlike John, is known to have been a chess-player: see John Foxcroft to BF below, Jan. 14, 1771. Hence it is possible, though in our opinion unlikely, that the invitation was from Thomas in 1771. John arrived from America in the late spring of 1769; see Parker to BF above, July 22. He stayed late into the following year, and the invitation could of course have been at any time during his stay.