Editorial Note on Franklin’s Accounts
Editorial Note on Franklin’s Accounts
The following previously identified accounts cover the period of this volume: VI and VII (XXIII, 21); XVII (XXVI, 3); XXV, XXVII (XXXII, 3–4); XXX (XXXVI, 3). We offer here a summary of entries that have not found a place elsewhere in annotation but provide insights into Franklin’s private and public life.1
Account XVII (Franklin’s Private Accounts with Ferdinand Grand, XXVI, 3) contains the usual mixture of household and personal expenses. Maítre d’hôtel Jacques Finck received five payments: 2,217 l.t. 10 s. on August 19; 2,000 l.t. on October 7; 1,500 l.t. on November 19; 2,000 l.t. on December 24; and 5,724 l.t. 18 s. on February 5.2 L’Air de Lamotte, Franklin’s secretary, received 1,200 l.t. on December 6 and 2,000 l.t. on January 10. La Hure, the tailor, received 1,714 l.t. 19 s. 3 d. on August 27.3 Madame Fremont, the laundress, received 663 l.t. 18 s. on March 9.4 In the fall of 1784, Franklin began selling his shares in the Caisse d’escompte. On September 30, he was credited for the sale of ten shares, yielding 70,911 l.t. 5 s., as well as three months’ interest on those shares at 4½ percent. On December 31, he sold another twenty-five shares, for 11,250 l.t. On February 28, he received a dividend of 1,500 l.t. on his ten remaining shares. On December 31, Franklin invested 200,000 l.t. in a new French government loan issued that month.5
Account XXV (Account of Postage and Errands, XXXII, 3). These records, kept by L’Air de Lamotte, survive for every month covered in this volume except August. They include Lamotte’s accounting of every letter and packet, and the monthly statements submitted by the postman, Berthelot, and Bonnefoÿ, who ran errands. Letters and packets for Franklin that were sent to the Duke of Dorset were retrieved on September 14 and 20, October 6, and December 9. On December 17, almanacs were delivered for Temple from the abbé Poncelin de La Roche-Tilhac.6 On January 3, Berthelot received a New Year’s gift of 6 l.t. Lamotte paid the postage for letters for John Paul Jones and Matthew Clarkson on January 20. On February 4 and 13, Lamotte recorded letters that he himself had received from Francis Coffyn; the earlier one was “au sujet d’une Caisse.”
Account XXVII (Accounts of the Public Agents in Europe, XXXII, 4). Franklin drew quarterly salary payments of 14,583 l.t. 6 s. 8 d. on October 4 and December 31. On January 7, Temple received 3,622 l.t. 10 s. (two quarters’ salary) plus the 1,000 l.t. that he was underpaid for salary on Aug. 6, 1784. On January 8, Lamotte received wages for nine months’ work in Franklin’s office, a total of 1,260 l.t.; he was also reimbursed monthly for the statements detailed in Account XXV. Chaumont received quarterly rent payments of 1,500 l.t. on October 6 and January 7. On September 14, 51 l.t. was paid for “medals.”
1. One financial instrument from Philadelphia is not covered by these accounts: a renewal of the policy that BF held with the Philadelphia Contributionship on the house he rented to Mary Jacobs (IX, 329n). The insurance premium amounted to £2 10s. for property valued at £200. The renewal took effect on Dec. 31, 1784, and was dated and witnessed on Feb. 1, 1785 (APS). It was doubtless paid on BF’s behalf by RB. On Jan. 27, 1785, RB recorded an outlay of £1 2s. 6d. for the renewal of three other policies for houses owned by BF: Penrose R. Hoopes, “’Cash Dr to Benjamin Franklin,’” PMHB, LXXX (1956), 66.
A miscellaneous expense incurred at Passy but not recorded in these accounts was mentioned by BFB in his journal on Nov. 19: a hole was being dug for a lamppost that was to be erected at BF’s expense opposite their home “a l’Exemple de plusieurs personnes de Passy.” BFB’s own account book (XLII, 3n) shows the allowance he received from BF, as well as his own incidental expenses.
2. As of May, 1784, Finck was supposed to submit monthly itemized and receipted bills for household expenses; see XLII, 3. The round sums disbursed in October, November, and December for the previous months’ outlays must have been estimates; February’s large and specific payment probably covered expenses for December and January, and may also have reconciled the three previous months’ estimates against bills that Finck had presumably presented.
Only two of Finck’s itemized monthly bills have been located for the period between May, 1784, and July, 1785, when Franklin left France. They cover February and March, 1785, and were submitted and paid by Grand on March 19 and April 9, respectively (University of Pa. Library). February’s expenses totaled 2,974 l.t. 14 s. Stores for the larder were replenished, and Finck laid in 16 loads of coal and six loads of wood, four for the kitchen and one each for the printing office and porter’s lodge. (Finck added a forgotten charge from Dec. 29, 1784, for 32 loads of unseasoned wood, split and stacked.) The separate list of “extraordinary expenses” included two dozen goblets and two cruets of Bohemian crystal, wine and beer, a carpet for the dining room, potatoes shipped from Dunkirk, and a payment of 1 l.t. 10 s. to the duc de La Rochefoucauld’s servant. The expenses for March, totaling 1,856 l.t. 13 s., reveal a far wider variety of foodstuffs than were available in February: fowls and fishes, as well as pigeons and oysters; early spinach and many other vegetables and herbs; and more kinds of fruits. Heating was provided, as before, by a combination of coal and wood. The water carrier, baker, butcher, and laundress received payments. The extraordinary expenses included beer, glue, and a tip for the carter.
3. Itemized bills for this clothing are at the University of Pa. Library. Presented by the tailor Angenend on Aug. 19, 1784, they cover work done over the previous year, and are the first such annual bills to survive since the 1779 bill for BF’s clothing published and explained in XXXI, 102–4. In the present instance, the total paid to La Hure covers three separate invoices: or BF, BFB, and “domestiques.” In September, 1783, BF had a suit made of fine blue Dauphin cloth, with gold buttons and a pair of black silk breeches, at a cost of approximately 405 l.t. The clothing made for BFB, after his return to Passy from Geneva in July, 1783, came to about 305 l.t. The bill for servants’ clothing totaled more than 958 l.t.; most of their suits were gray, with scarlet waistcoats trimmed in gold braid and black serge breeches.
The tailor’s final set of invoices (presented in July, 1785, shortly before BF left France) are also at the University of Pa. Library. They show that in September and December, 1784, BF’s clothing required mending, one of his waistcoats was let out, and BF ordered a pair of black silk breeches and new underclothes.
4. WTF maintained his own account with Mme Fremont. He paid her bill on March 10: WTF’s private account with Ferdinand Grand, Jan. 26, 1784–July 25, 1785 (Library of Congress).
5. The receipt that Grand gave BF, issued on Dec. 31, 1784, specified that it was for a purchase from the Royal Treasury of 200 shares, each worth 1,000 l.t., bearing interest of 5 percent per annum (APS). That year’s subscription yielded a total of 125,000,000 l.t. for the French treasury, the repayment with interest over 25 years to be supported by annual lotteries: Lüthy, Banque protestante, 11, 548.
6. The publication of Poncelin de La Roche-Tilhac’s Almanach américain, asiatique & africain, ou état physique, politique, ecclésiastique & militaire des colonies d’Europe, en Asie, en Afrique & en Amérique for 1785 was announced in the Jan. 6, 1785, issue of Affiches, annonces et avis divers ou jour. général de France. Poncelin had consulted with BF and WTF on several occasions regarding previous editions: XXXVII, 699–701.