To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Courtauld II, 16 September 1782
From Samuel Courtauld II
ALS: Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Paris 16 sepr. 1782
Sir
I always flatter’d myself that the recommendations I had the honor to deliver you on my Arrival here, were such, as might have secur’d me your Confidence,5 but am sorry to find they seem to have produc’d the Contrary Effect— I am totally Ignorant of the cause, being confident I have acted with Propriety:
Least you shou’d be tempted to think I might make an ungenerous use of the kind letter of Introduction you gave me for Mr. Franklyn your Son in Law6 I here take the liberty of Returning it:
I have the honor to be Sir Your most Obedient & most humble Servt.
Saml. Courtauld
5. For Courtauld and the letters he brought BF from Richard Price and Benjamin Vaughan in early 1782 see XXXVI, 406n.
6. He must mean RB. The letter has not been found, but Courtauld, who earlier signed an oath of allegiance to the United States and received a passport from BF, did eventually immigrate to Philadelphia, where he became a merchant and married Sarah Norris Wharton: XXXVI, 406n; XXXVII, 132n; Anne H. Wharton, “The Wharton Family,” PMHB, II (1878), 211.