From Benjamin Franklin to the Chevalier de Cambray-Digny, [before 27 June 1783]
To the Chevalier de Cambray-Digny9
Reprinted from Valentine Giamatti, “Le Chevalier de Cambray in America, 1778–1783” (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, 1940), p. 149.1
[before June 27, 1783]2
Dr. Franklin requests the honour of Mr. Cambray’s Company at dinner on Sunday the 29th inst.
Passy, June 1783
The favour of an Answer is desired
9. A military engineer who served with distinction in the American army and spent two years as a British prisoner. He was finally exchanged in the fall of 1782 and granted a one-year leave of absence from the American army. Cambray was in Paris by mid-June, 1783, and carried letters to BF: XXXVIII, 535n and the references there; Harold E. Selesky, ed., Encyclopedia of the American Revolution (3 vols., Detroit, 2006), I, 146; Laurens Papers, XV, 234–5n; Morris, Jay: Peace, p. 607.
1. Giamatti transcribed the text from a copy made by an Italian archivist. The original must have been one of BF’s printed dinner invitations, the first known example of which is reproduced in XXXIX, facing p. 409.
2. Cambray answered on a “Friday morning,” which had to have been June 27. He was “extremely Sorry” that a previous engagement prevented him from attending. APS.