From Benjamin Franklin to All Captains of Armed Vessels in the United States Service, 6 July 1778
To All Captains of Armed Vessels in the United States Service8
ALS (draft) and copy: Yale University Library
Passy, near Paris, Jul 6. 1778.
Gentlemen
Being well informed that William Gray, Esqr., formerly Provost-Marshal General of the Island of Jamaica, and Member of the Assembly there, has on several Occasions in his public Capacity and otherwise, manifested his Good Will to the American Cause and towards our Countrymen in general: I beg Leave to recommend him to your particular personal Civilities, in case the Fortune of War should put him into your Hands.9 I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, Your most obedient humble Servant
B Franklin
One of the Commissioners from the
United States to the Court of France
8. Derived from a deleted notation on the ALS; another, in the same hand, identifies it as “Dr. Franklin’s Rough Draft.”
9. He held the former post in 1768 and served in the Jamaica assembly during the 1770’s and 1780’s; he died in 1788: Caribbeana, II (1911), 128. BF would not have issued such a pass lightly, but we have found no indication of the way in which Gray “manifested his Good Will to the American Cause.”