To Benjamin Franklin from ––– Saint Sauveur fils, 12 September 1778: résumé
From ––– Saint Sauveur fils8
ALS: American Philosophical Society
<Trieste, September 12, 1778, in French: No Frenchman venerates your qualities more than I. Born under the same sky as your Excellency, of a mother descended from a Franquelin, I submit the following along with my respectful sentiments.
My great-grandfather, a Franquelin, served the King in Canada. He married there, had children, and returned to France. He sent for his family, who embarked on a ship which was wrecked on an island in the St. Lawrence. M. Franquelin believed that none of his children had survived; but my grandmother, who had been ill, had remained in Canada under a nursemaid’s care. Thinking herself an orphan, she married and never followed the traces of her father. From my own father’s research, we learn that after he left his country, my great-grandfather was never seen again there.
Please excuse this minute detail. I offer it in hopes that the similarity in names might merit some title to your benevolence.>
8. He signs himself vice-consul in Trieste. His father, consul in that city, wrote on the same day in support of this letter. He, too, wishes a place in BF’s esteem. He might have the good fortune of being known to him, having served in Canada as “secretaire du Gouvernement.” He and his son owe their careers to M. de Sartine. APS. Father and son are listed under consuls in Trieste in the Almanach royal for 1778, p. 502.