To Benjamin Franklin from John Alleyne, 11 February 1772
From John Alleyne6
ALS: Historical Society of Pennsylvania
11 Febry 1772
Dear Sir
Having often experiencd the Effects of your Benevolence and Friendship, I am emboldened to request the Favour of the Loan of £50 ’till Monday next. The Occasion of my troubling You is a desire to pay a Sum of Money which I cannot make up without some Assistance before Monday. If you will be so good as to send Me a Draught enclos’d in a Letter by the Bearer it will come safe, and on the other Side I have made a Draught which being presented on Monday (the Day on which it is dated) will be certainly paid.7 I have the Honor to be Your Friend and Servant
J Alleyne
P.S. I wo’d wait on You but am very much busied.
Addressed: Doctor B Franklin
6. The English friend whom BF had felicitated on marrying young: above, XV, 182–3.
7. Alleyne had borrowed from BF before, £10 in November, 1769, and £25 in January, 1771; both had been repaid the following December. Ledger, p. 40. This larger loan of £50 does not appear in BF’s accounts; if it was made and Alleyne kept his promise, however, such a short-term transaction would doubtless not have been recorded.