To Benjamin Franklin from Edward Church, 19 November 1784
From Edward Church3
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Dunkerque 19th Novr: 1784
May it please your Excellency
Before I enter upon the particular motives of this address, permit me, Sir! to mention a circumstance, or two, which, if you shou’d recollect, may possibly apologize for the Liberty which I have taken, upon the grounds of some small pretensions to the honor of a former short acquaintance.
In the Autumn of 1771, I took a Tour through the Island of Gt. Britain in company with Heny: Marchant Esqr.4 On our Arrival at Edinburgh, I had the honor of being introduced to you, I accompanied you to Glasgow,5 where on the third day after our arrival, I was honored with a presentation of the freedom of that City,6 and thro’ the favor of your kind notice, and Introduction, had the honor of dining several times with you at the tables of your friends.
I am a Native of Boston, where I have now a Wife & five children, was educated at Harvard College in Cambridge, graduated A.D. 1759, have been more than twenty years a Merchant of no inconsiderable Rank in Boston, and at the Commencement of the late War was possessed of a moderate Competence, of which I have since been unfortunately deprived, partly by the plunder of the british at Boston,7 and at St: Eustatius, and by other unavoidable casualties.8
I sailed from Boston for London last Decr:, with a view of renewing a commercial connection with that Country, but finding it impracticable upon terms of equal reciprocal Advantage by reason of some late british acts which operate directly against the principal Remittances from our State, I came over to France, hoping to find greater Encouragement here, but unfortunately for the State of Massachusett’s in particular, There is a Company of Merchants in this place just enaging in the Whale-fishery with such Encouragement, and liberal Support, from his Majesty, as must insure Success,9 which will of course soon be followed with a prohibition against the importation of Oil & Bone from the United States, or a duty thereon, as in England, tantamount to a prohibition.—1 But, this being a free port,2 joined to it’s many local advantages with respect to neighbouring nations, will probably soon become one of the best markets in Europe for the produce of America, particularly the Southern States for Rice & Tobacco, and as the trade will be carried on principally in american bottoms, there must of course be many of our fellow citizens constantly in this place, These in general will most probably be unacquainted with the Laws, Language &ca. of this Country. It is therefore with all due deference submitted, whether it will not be requisite that some Person be established here who shall be duly authorized, formally received, and competent to the important purposes of giving advice & protection when needed—it is said—and I have reason to think, not without just grounds, that the Want of such a Person has already been often and severely felt here.— I presume not to dictate, but—if it shou’d be tho’t necessary or expedient to place such a person here—Cou’d I be favor’d with your Support, joined to the Interest which I flatter myself the Members from the Massachusett’s wou’d exert in my favor, shou’d you think proper to propose me to Congress, I wou’d humbly hope for the honor of the appointment,3—or shou’d there be any other Employment known to your Excellency, public or private, in this, or any other Kingdom, wherein I can be usefull to you, or my Country, and at the same time procure only a decent Support for my Family, I beg Leave to make the Tender of my constant and faithfull Services, with respect to my Character in the small Sphere in which I have moved, I flatter myself that upon the strictest Scrutiny it will appear without a Spot, with which, and the advantages of a liberal Education, and much travelling, I might hope not to discredit your Patronage.
If it is possible to snatch a moment from your more important Concerns, to favor me with a Line directed to the Care of Mr. James Gannan Mercht. here it will be most gratefully received.4
I am—with the most perfect Respect, Most honorable & honored Sir! Yor. very dutifull & humble: Servant5
Edward Church
His Excellency Benjamin Franklin Esqr
Addressed: To / His Excelly: Benjamin Franklin Esqr. / Paris
3. Prior to the Revolution, Church was a successful merchant in Boston, but the ravages of war forced him to sell his business. He was the younger brother of Benjamin Church, the spy: XII, 424n; Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, XIV, 389–91.
4. R.I. attorney general from 1771 to 1776, Henry Marchant sailed to England in the summer of 1771 to attend to matters connected with his legal practice as well as to act on behalf of the colony. That fall he and Church traveled to Scotland, where they linked up with BF, who had been in Ireland since welcoming Marchant to London: X, 316n; XVIII, xxviii, 144–7; XXXIII, 248n; J. Bennett Nolan, Benjamin Franklin in Scotland and Ireland, 1759 and 1771 (Philadelphia, 1938), pp. 137, 174–7; DAB.
5. After spending time with Marchant in Edinburgh, BF invited him to be his companion on a westward trip that would take them to Lord Kames’s estate (Blair Drummond), Glasgow, and the Carron ironworks. Church, who had apparently been occupied with Alexander Fleming (XXXIII, 248n) and other relatives in the vicinity of Edinburgh, joined BF and Marchant in Glasgow: XVIII, xxviii—xxix, 250; Nolan, Franklin in Scotland and Ireland, pp. 175–97.
6. Church was made an honorary burgess and guild brother of Glasgow, a status bestowed on BF in 1759: VIII, 436; Nolan, Franklin in Scotland and Ireland, p. 189.
7. Following the British siege of Boston from April, 1775, to March, 1776, much of the town lay in ruins as a result of widespread pillaging by both the king’s troops and Loyalists, the Continental Army’s bombardment of the city, fire, and other disasters: Jacqueline B. Carr, After the Siege: a Social History of Boston, 1775–1800 (Boston, 2005), pp. 29–40.
For much of the Revolutionary War the Dutch colony of St. Eustatius functioned as a major conduit for military supplies bound for America. The British, however, shut off this smuggling pipeline when they captured the island in February, 1781, seizing numerous ships, their cargoes, and other goods, the total value of which was more than £3,000,000: XXXIV, 465n; XL, 238; J. Franklin Jameson, “St. Eustatius in the American Revolution,” American Hist. Rev., VIII (1902–03), 687, 698–701.
8. Church may have been thinking of the decision that went against him the year before in the United States Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture. In 1782 Church and other Boston merchants sent the privateer Patty to the Gulf of Mexico to capture a Spanish brigantine, the San Antonio, which Church claimed was really owned by a Loyalist trading with the British. A Mass. maritime court declared the prize to be legal, but in May, 1783, the Court of Appeals overturned the decree. The captors, however, refused to abide by the appellate decision, which could not be enforced, and it is not clear whether the San Antonio was ever restored to its owner: Jefferson Papers, XXIII, 272–3n; Smith, Letters, XX, 145–6n.
9. The French government began to finance whaling expeditions in 1784, and subsequently recruited Nantucket whalers to Dunkirk: Thierry Du Pasquier, Les Baleiniers français de Louis XVI à Napoléon (Paris, 1990), pp. 34–66; Edouard A. Stackpole, Whales & Destiny: the Rivalry between America, France, and Britain for Control of the Southern Whale Fishery, 1785–1825 ([Amherst, Mass.], 1972), pp. 97–112.
1. A British Order in Council of Dec. 26, 1783, had excluded whale oil from the list of American nonmanufactured goods that could be imported on the same footing as products from the colonies, thereby subjecting the oil to a prohibitive duty of more than £18 per ton. France did not follow suit, keeping duties on American whale oil low: London Gaz., Dec. 23–27, 1783; Stackpole, Whales & Destiny, pp. 4, 13; Jefferson Papers, XIV, 244–6.
2. Dunkirk had become a free port in May: XXXIX, 106.
3. Benjamin Morel Dufaux and Francis Coffyn had also been seeking the American consulship at Dunkirk. Coffyn was appointed to the position in December, 1794: XLII, 227n.
4. Son of Bartholomew Gannan, a British merchant residing at Dunkirk. In April, 1778, Bartholomew wrote to Arthur Lee about the possibility of James’s being appointed U.S. agent there. At some point James, while apparently remaining in Dunkirk, became a partner in the London firm Gardner, Gill and Company, which specialized in the bleaching of linen: XXXVII, 37; London Chron, Oct. 9–12, 1773; Justin Winsor, ed., Calendar of the Arthur Lee Manuscripts in the Library of Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass., 1882), p. 18; London Gaz., Nov. 22–26, 1791.
5. This, the only extant letter from Church, produced no known result. Neither, it seems, did his letter to JA of Jan. 14, 1786, written from Lisbon and requesting a consulship there. Church then took his family to Savannah and tried unsuccessfully to establish himself in the cotton business. In 1789 he begged GW to appoint him to either a collectorship in that port or a consulship in Holland. GW appointed him consul at Bilbao, but he was not received, as foreign consuls were barred. In 1792, he was named consul at Lisbon, a post he held until 1797: Adams Papers, XVIII, 101–3; W. W. Abbot et al., eds., The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series (19 vols. to date, Charlottesville, 1987– ), 11, 267–70; Jefferson Papers, XXII, 30–1n; XXXV, 277n.