From Benjamin Franklin to Noble Wimberly Jones, 4 August 1773
To Noble Wimberley Jones
ALS (letterbook draft): Library of Congress
London,3 Augt. 4. 1773
Dear Sir,
I hope you continue well tho’ I have not had the Pleasure of hearing from you since your Favour of Jan. 13. The Seeds I sent you last Year were not as you supposed from that Mr. Ellis who had been your Governor, but from another of the Name, Author of the enclos’d Pamphlet.4
I now send you a few more East India Seeds which I had from another Quarter. I hope some of them may be in a vegetating State and prove of Use. With great Esteem, I am ever, Dear Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant
B F
Noble Wimberley Jones Esqr
3. BF was actually at West Wycombe visiting Lord Le Despencer, and mail was being forwarded to him there; see BF to WF above, Aug. 3, and Fevre’s notes below of Aug. 4 and 5. We have commented earlier on BF’s habit, when out of town, of writing to American friends as if from London.
4. See the letter to which BF is replying. The most likely pamphlet by John Ellis, given the context, is Directions for Bringing Over Seeds and Plants, from the East Indies and Other Distant Countries, in a State of Vegetation … (London, 1770).