A Committee of the Managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital to Franklin, David Barclay, and John Fothergill, 20 October 1772
A Committee of the Managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital to Franklin, David Barclay, and John Fothergill
Minutebook copy: Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia
Philadia. 10th. Mo. 20th. 1772
Esteemed Friends
It is with much satisfaction we received Intelligence from our Friend David Barclay, by his Letter of the 27th Augst. That, “by Order of the Court of Chancery there is transferred to you, for the use of the Pennsylvania Hospital, Seven thousand, six hundred and thirty four pounds 11s. 1d. three per Cent reduced Bank Annuities, Also that the Court has directed the payment of Nine hundred and Nine pounds 1s. 4d. the Amount of dividends due thereon”, which transfer we conclude you will have accepted, and received the said Dividends long before this can come to your hands.
The Managers have therefore agreed to dispose of Bills of Exchange to the Amount of Three thousand pounds Sterling, which they expect to be able to Effect in a Short time, in such manner as to have the money immediately placed out here on good real securities at our Legal Interest.9
You are therefore requested to sell out so much Capital Stock, as with the Payment for the dividends will Enable You to discharge our Drafts to the Amount above mentioned, the particulars of which you will hereafter be duly advised of, and we hope you will have it in your Power to make Sale of the Stock at the rate mentioned viz. 89 per Cent or in case of any emergency reducing the Value of them below that rate, that you act therein with such precaution, as to provide against any material Loss.1
Expecting to have the further pleasure of hearing again from you soon, agreeable to the intimation of our Friend David Barclay; and to receive the Solicitors Bill for transacting the Affair We are respectfully Your Obliged Friends
The Managers for the present year are2
| Israel Pemberton | Jacob Lewis |  |
And it is agreed that the Bills to be drawn be Signed by at least, Eight of us |
| Samuel Rhoads | Thomas Wharton | ||
| John Reynell | Daniel Roberdeau | ||
| Isaac Jones | Isaac Cox | ||
| Joseph Morris | William Logan |
To Docr. John Fothergill Benjamin Franklin and David Barclay Agents in London for the Pennsylvania Hospital
9. See BF to the Managers above, Aug. 28, and their letter below, Nov. 4.
1. Barclay answered on Dec. 2 that the rate of 89% he had quoted was on the eve of a semiannual dividend, and that the annuities had now fallen to 87%; there was also, he added, a solicitor’s bill of £38 8s. 6d. Pa. Hospital Minutebook.
2. The form of the MS makes it impossible to tell whether this paragraph was part of the letter or of the minutes, but we are inclined to think the former. Four of the managers—Pemberton, Rhoads, Roberdeau, and Wharton—have appeared so often in these volumes that they need no introduction. For Jones, Logan, Morris, and Reynell see above, respectively, XI, 339 n; III, 456 n; IX, 274 n, 372 n. Isaac Cox was a sea captain who was a manager from 1770 until his death five years later, and who left the Hospital £50 in his will; Jacob Lewis (1714?–74), a Quaker merchant, had been an original contributor and a manager since 1759. Thomas G. Morton and Frank Woodbury, The History of the Pennsylvania Hospital … (Philadelphia, 1895), pp. 367, 405–6; PMHB, XXIX (1905), 100–1; above, V, 328; Pa. Gaz., April 6, 1774.