Benjamin Franklin Papers

From Benjamin Franklin to Samuel Franklin, 7 July 1773

To Samuel Franklin11

ALS: Mr. John H. Bradshaw, Lahaska, Pa. (1975); letterbook draft:12 Library of Congress; transcript: New England Historic, Genealogical Society

London, July 7. 1773

Dear Cousin,

I received your kind Letter of Nov. 6. and was glad to hear of the Welfare of yourself and Family, which I hope continues.

Sally Franklin is lately married to Mr. James Pierce, a substantial young Farmer at Ewell, about 13 Miles from London; a very sober industrious Man, and I think it likely to prove a good Match, as she is likewise an industrious good Girl.1

I would not have you be discouraged at a little Dullness of Business which is only occasional. A close Attention to your Shop, and Application to Business will always secure more than an equal Share, because every Competitor will not have those Qualities. Some of them therefore must give way to you: And the constant Growth of the Country will increase the Trade of all that steadily stand ready for it. I send you a little Piece of mine which more particularly explains these Sentiments.2

My love to your good Wife and Daughters, and believe me ever, Your affectionate Cousin3

B Franklin

Mr Saml Franklin

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

11The Boston cutler who was BF’s first cousin once removed: above, XIV, 215 n and subsequent vols.

12We have silently supplied from the draft a few words now missing in the ALS.

1The draft omits the final clause. BF gave Sally twenty-five guineas as a wedding present: above, XIX, 395 n.

2For the “Dullness of Business,” and the similar recipe for overcoming it that BF gave Richard Bache, see ibid., pp. 100–1, 267. The “little Piece of mine” was probably “Advice to a Young Tradesman” (above, III, 306–8), included in George Fisher, The American Instructor: or Young Man’s Best Companion … (Philadelphia, 1748); Samuel’s reply below, Dec. 17, acknowledged a “book of advice.”

3Instead of the final paragraph the draft reads “and am ever, Your affectionate Kinsman.” Samuel’s second wife, née Eunice Greenleaf, bore him four daughters between 1756 and 1767: Eunice, Hannah, Sarah, and Elizabeth. Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, XXIV (1894), 289, 294, 301, 314.

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