To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Pownall, [1765–1775]
From Thomas Pownall
ALS: American Philosophical Society
New Portugall St. Saturday Morning [1765–1775]1
Govr. Pownall presents his Compliments to Mr. Franklin and shou’d be very glad to the favour of his company to Dinner to Day. If he is engaged Govr. Pownall shou’d be very glad to see him any Part of this Evening if not otherwise engaged.
[Memo in Franklin’s hand:] Forts. and Indian Expenses. Ministers make an impossible Act and run mad that it will not execute.2
1. The close and almost continuous collaboration between BF and Pownall during 1765, most prominently shown in their attempts to secure the adoption of an alternative to the Stamp Act and in their successful efforts to alter the Quartering Bill (see above, pp. 47–61, 106–7), suggest this year as the one in which this and the following notes were most likely to have been written.
2. The precise significance of these notations is not clear, but they probably relate, in part at least, to the provision of the original Quartering Bill for placing troops in private houses.