Benjamin Franklin Papers

Christian Stenger and William Straughan: Petition to the American Commissioners, 18 May 1778: résumé

Christian Stenger and William Straughan: Petition to the American Commissioners6

DS: American Philosophical Society

<On board the Ranger, May 18, 1778: One of us commanded the Dolphin, sunk with her cargo, and the other the Lord Chatham, captured in the Irish Channel. We have dependent children, eleven and eight of them respectively, and they will be reduced to begging if we are held for long. Capt. Jones gave us an “Ovasif Promisse” to release us in return for our help in navigating off the Irish coast. If you agree, let us be put on one of the Dutch ships now in Brest, which will take us to some French or Spanish port where we are sure to find merchant friends.>

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

6. Published in Taylor, Adams Papers, VI, 134–5. Another petition from the two, dated merely June, says virtually the same thing. A third, undated and from Straughan alone, mentions that he is nearly sixty and in poor health; sending him to America would finish him. He asks for his release and that of his mate and son-in-law, one Thomas Truman. APS.

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    Franklin Papers
    Title
    Christian Stenger and William Straughan: Petition to the American Commissioners, 18 May 1778: résumé
    Authors
    Stenger, Christian
    Straughan, William
    Date
    18 May 1778

    Reference

    Cite as
    “Christian Stenger and William Straughan: Petition to the American Commissioners, 18 May 1778: résumé,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-26-02-0435. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 26, March 1 through June 30, 1778, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987, p. 500.]