1To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Collinson, 3 July 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Received June the 30. 1753. On Board the London for Philadelphia One long Case Mark’d L 4 M C No. 1 which I promise to Deliver (Dangers of the sea Excepted) . paid Freight and primage 6 s. besides one Brown paper bundle of Books of which I cannot give the particulars for I am Just come to Town and To Morrow the Letters are taken away and I go out of Town by...
2To Benjamin Franklin from William Franklin, 12 July 1753 (Franklin Papers)
AD : American Philosophical Society On Sunday last, about 45 Minutes after 3 in the Morning, a Dwelling House, one of a continued Row on the West Side of Second-Street in this Town, was struck by Lightning, but, being at that Time untenanted, no Person was hurt. About 6 aClock the same Morning, I went to take a View thereof, and at that Time made some Notes of the Course which I observ’d the...
3Charter of the Academy of Philadelphia, 13 July 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Bureau of Land Records, Department of Internal Affairs, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania With the Academy organized and functioning (see above, IV , 101), the trustees, thinking a charter would give the institution prestige and permanence, on June 9, 1752, directed one of their number, Tench Francis, then attorney general of the province, to prepare a draft to send to London for the approval...
4From Benjamin Franklin to Hugh Roberts, 16 July 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : R. Sturgis Ingersoll, Penllyn, Pa. (1956) By a Vessel yesterday from London I receiv’d the enclos’d from the Agent Rd. Patridge, which please to communicate to the Speaker. I had a delightful Journey hither, and have felt but one hot Day since my Arrival. On the Road I often thought of you and wish’d for your Company, as I pass’d over some of the best punning Ground perhaps in the...
5To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Collinson, 20 July 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society It is a great pleasure to Mee to receive so many repeated Instances of my Dear friends regard for Mee, In his Sundry favours of Aprill 17: May 9 June 1. I omitted in a Hurry in mine by Shirley to tell you that your £60 Bill on Lane is accepted and shall be applyed as you have Directed. I know not who Mr. Blair Is or where he Dwells Elce should Inquire after...
6From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 23 July 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I am pleas’d to learn by yours of the 12th that you have taken a circumstantial Account of the Appearances at Trumbles’s House, which you think sufficient to establish my new Hypothesis of the Direction of Lightning. Mr. Kinnersley has sent me a Pane of the Glass with a Letter in which he mentions his Suspicions that the Stroke was upwards. I now write him...
7To Benjamin Franklin from Harvard College: Degree of Master of Arts, 25 July 1753 (Franklin Papers)
DS : American Philosophical Society Franklin’s first academic honor was from Harvard. On July 23, 1753, the President and Fellows recommended him to the Overseers for the degree of master of arts, citing his “great Improvements in Philosophic Learning, and particularly with Respect to Electricity, Whereby his Repute hath been greatly advanc’d in the learned World, not only in Great-Britain,...
8General Post Office: Appointment of Franklin and Hunter, 10 August 1753 (Franklin Papers)
MS Order Book: General Post Office, London Ordered that Mr. Benjamin Franklin, of Philadelphia, in Pensylvania, and Mr. William Hunter of Williamsburgh, in Virginia, be appointed Deputy Postmasters and Managers of all His Majesty’s Provinces and Dominions, on the Continent of North America, in the stead of Elliott Benger Esqr: Deceased, to commence this day, at an Allowance or Salary of £600...
9To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Collinson, 12 August 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I have much to say but am on the Eve of marrying My Daughter and many Orders in hast from Abroad that I can only add a few Lines to Informe you that your bill of 60 pound is Accepted, and I Intend to pay Osbourn £50. The remainder is for your Disposal when I can find time to Lett you know the Ballance. Your Impartial Account of the state of the Germans came...
10From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Clap, 20 August 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Miss S. Berenice Baldwin, Woodbridge, Conn. (1959) I arrived here well (Thanks to God) on Friday about Noon, and had the Pleasure of hearing from my Family, that all were well at home. I see the Proposal of Purchasing from the Six Nations is mention’d in the Boston Papers, which I wish had not been done, as it may give Notice to the French, and put them on taking some preventive...
11Pennsylvania Assembly Committee: Report on Suspending Clause in Legislation, 3 September 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1752–1753 (Philadelphia, 1753), pp. 34–7. On September 1, 1753, the House appointed Evan Morgan, Franklin, Hugh Roberts, Mahlon Kirkbride, George Ashbridge, Peter Worrall, David McConnaughy, Joseph Armstrong, Moses Starr, and James Burnside a committee to consider the clause which Governor Hamilton insisted upon in his message...
12Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, 5 September 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1752–1753 (Philadelphia, 1753), pp. 38–40. After considering the report of a committee on the suspending clause, which Governor Hamilton insisted upon as a condition for approving the £20,000 money bill (see immediately above), the House appointed Evan Morgan, Franklin, Hugh Roberts, Mahlon Kirkbride, and George Ashbridge to...
13Pennsylvania Assembly Committee: Report on the Governor’s Message, 11 September 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1752–1753, pp. 43–7. On September 7 Governor Hamilton returned to the Assembly the Bill for Striking Twenty Thousand Pounds, with a long message rebutting the arguments the House had raised in its reply of September 5 (see above, p. 29). In particular, he pointed out that in 1746 the Assembly had not objected in principle to...
14Pennsylvania Assembly Committee: Report on the Proprietors’ Answer, 11 September 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1754–1755 (Philadelphia, 1755), pp. 46–51. In August 1751 the Assembly sent a representation to the Proprietors asking them to reconsider their refusal to share in the expenses of Indian treaties (see above, IV , 188). On May 23, 1753, the Assembly asked the governor if he had yet received an answer. He sent it to them the next...
15To Benjamin Franklin from Yale College: Degree of Master of Arts, 12 September 1753? (Franklin Papers)
Draft: Yale University Library; also copy: Yale University Library Six weeks after receiving a master’s degree from Harvard (see above, p. 16), Franklin was similarly honored by Yale. The resolution of the Corporation, September 12, 1753, read: “by his ingenious Experiments and Theory of Electrical Fire [he] has greatly merited of the Learned World.” Praeses et Socii Academiae Yalensis in novo...
16To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Collinson, 15 September 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society As no Ship will Sail from Hence in a Month or 3 Weeks I take this oppertunity to Send by the Way of New York. I thank you for your Letter by Mr. Smith who has been Several times With Mee and by all that I can Judge and haveing your approbation I have recommended Him to Mr. Penn. What Effects it will have I cannot Saye but to Strengthen It. I hope the...
17To Benjamin Franklin from Charles Woodmason: Poetical Epistle, 20 September 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Gentleman’s Magazine , XXIV (1754), 88. *By the application of a rod of iron, or a wire, the effect of thunder and lightening is prevented. †The steeple and organ of St. Philip’s church at Charles Town, have been twice damaged by lightning. Charles Woodmason (b. c. 1720), came from England to South Carolina, 1752, settling as a planter and merchant beyond the Peedee River, where he...
18James Hamilton: Commission to Treat with the Indians, 22 September 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania , V (1851), 658–9. The renewal of the French advance into the Ohio Valley was signalized in June 1752 by the attack on the Indian town of Pickawillany. Awakening slowly to the threat, the Pennsylvania Assembly the following May voted £200 to the Twightwees as a condolence, and £600 to the other tribes on the Ohio for “the Necessities...
19Memorandum: Preliminary Conference with the Indians, 26 September 1753 (Franklin Papers)
AD : American Philosophical Society Peters, Norris, and Franklin were commissioned on September 22 to meet the Indians at Carlisle and they proceeded to the westward immediately. They reached the house of Conrad Weiser, the province interpreter, on the Tulpehocken on September 24 and, setting out next morning and making all speed, they covered sixty miles and rode into Carlisle on the...
20To Benjamin Franklin from Elizabeth Douse: Mortgage Deed, 27 September 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Transcript: Suffolk County Registry of Deeds, Boston Franklin’s eldest sister Elizabeth (C. I ) inherited from her first husband Joseph Berry a house and lot on Unity Street, Boston, and continued to live there with her second husband Richard Douse. On August 22, 1748, Richard and Elizabeth Douse mortgaged the property to Benjamin Franklin as security for a debt of £60 Pennsylvania currency....
21From Benjamin Franklin to Peter Collinson, September 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Massachusetts Historical Society In my former Paper on this Subject, wrote first in 1747, enlarged and sent to England in 1749, I considered the Sea as the grand source of Lightning, imagining its luminous Appearance to be owing to Electric Fire, produced by Friction between the Particles of Water and those of Salt. Living far from the Sea I had then no opportunity of making Experiments...
22From Benjamin Franklin to James Bowdoin, 18 October 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : J. William Middendorf, Jr., Ruxton, Md. (1955) I recollect that I promis’d to send you Dr. Brownrigg’s Treatise on Common Salt. You will receive it herewith. I hope it may be of use in the Affair of your Fishery. Please to communicate it to Capt. Erwin, Mr. Pitts, Mr. Boutineau, or any other of your Friends who may be desirous of seeing it. Since my Return from Boston, I have been to our...
23From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 25 October 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New-York Historical Society This last Summer I have enjoy’d very little of the Pleasure of Reading or Writing. I made a long Journey to the Eastward, which consum’d 10 Weeks; and two Journeys to our Western Frontier: One of them to meet and hold a Treaty with the Ohio Indians, in Company with Mr. Peters and Mr. Norris. I shall send you a Copy of the Treaty as soon as ’tis printed. I...
24From Benjamin Franklin to Samuel Johnson, 27 October 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Columbia University Library I herewith send you Twelve of the Noetica’s. Ten are bound as you desired; which are all I have of that best Paper, the other two are more ordinary. I hope they will go safe to hand. My sincere Respects to good Madam Johnson and your valuable Sons. With great Esteem and Regard, I am, Dear Sir, Your most humble Servant Addressed: To The Revd. Dr Saml Johnson...
25From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 27 October 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library I have your Favour of June 27, and am quite surpriz’d at the Conduct of Mr. Harris. He is return’d to Maryland as I hear, a Parson! I have now received Bower’s 2d Vol. and shall send to the Trenton Library to enquire after Crito and Delaresse. The Sum was £25 to which I limited the Books, &c. to be sent my Nephew Benja. Mecom. But if you have sent to the Amount of...
26Treaty of Carlisle, 1 November 1753 (Franklin Papers)
A Treaty held with the Ohio Indians, at Carlisle, In October, 1753. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by B. Franklin, and D. Hall, at the New-Printing-Office, near the Market. MDCCLIII . (Yale University Library) November 1, 1753. A Treaty , &c. To the Honourable James Hamilton , Esq; Lieutenant-Governor, and Commander in Chief, of the Province of Pennsylvania, and Counties of New-Castle, Kent...
27From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Clap, 8 November 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library The first Intimation I find of the New Airpump, is in a Piece of Mr. Watson’s, read to the Royal Society, Feb. 20. 1752 where describing some Experiments he made in Vacuo, he says, “The more compleat the Vacuum, caeteris paribus, the more considerable were the Effects; and here I should not do Justice to real Merit, were I silent in regard to Mr. Smeaton. This...
28To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Mix: Deed, 8 November 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: New Haven Land Records, Office of the Town Clerk, New Haven, Conn. At about the time when Franklin was ordering a press and type from England for a printing office in New Haven, he bought a lot in the town from Samuel Mix. Presumably his purpose was to provide a site for the printing house in which he planned to install his nephew James Franklin, Jr. (see above, p. 82). The plot occupied...
29To Benjamin Franklin from James Bowdoin, 12 November 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Massachusetts Historical Society I received your Favour of the 18th Ult. accompanied with Dr. Brownrigg’s Treatise on Salt which I shall comunicate to the Gentlemen you mention. According to your desire I send you our Law for regulating the Trade with the Indians. Our Indians formerly (as yours now) made great Complaints of the Abuses they suffer’d from private Traders, which induced the...
30From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 16 November 1753 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from extract in Merwin Sales Company, Catalogue No. 557 (1914), p. 16. I wrote to you via Bristol and desired you to bespeak some Letter and a Press for me. I desired Mr. Hall to look out for such a Bill for me, but he has not been able to procure one at any reasonable rate. Among the lost [long?] list of type is 300 lb. long Primer with Figures and Signs sufficient for...
31From Benjamin Franklin to Peter Collinson, 23 November 1753 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Benjamin Franklin, Experiments and Observations on Electricity (London, 1769), p. 165. In my last, via Virginia, I promised to send you per next ship, a small philosophical pacquet: But now having got the materials (old letters and rough drafts) before me, I fear you will find it a great one. Nevertheless, as I am like to have a few days leisure before this ship...
32Pennsylvania Hospital: Report of the Weekly Committee, 24 November 1753 (Franklin Papers)
MS Minutes: Pennsylvania Hospital The Weekly Committee appointed to attend the Hospital for the Month past, do Report as follows. Octr: 31st No Application for Admission nor was any Discharg’d. Novr: 3d Mary Brown admitted 22d Sept. being cur’d was order’d to be discharg’d. Elizabeth Ellis of this City, Wife of Jos: Ellis, being a Lunatick was admitted, as a poor Patient, Doctor Cadwallader...
33To Benjamin Franklin from John Franklin, 26 November 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Im Glad the Clay is so forward and hop the quantity we Expect from Philadelphia will be sufficient to Repair the works in the spring. Our furnice stands well at present and the Glassmen are fulley Employd in makeing Window Glass and Bottles. The former made of our own Materials is Light and Cleere beyond our Expectation so that we Expect it will be thought...
34From Benjamin Franklin to William Smith, 27 November 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Having wrote you fully via Bristol, I have now little to add. Matters relating to the Academy remain in Statu quo. A Majority of the Trustees, I find, would be glad to see a Rector establish’d there, but they dread entring into new Engagements ’till they are got out of Debt; and I have not yet been able to bring them over to my Opinion, that a good...
35From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 27 November 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS and duplicate: Yale University Library I inclose you a Bill of Philip Gibbes jr. drawn on Messrs. Lascelles and Maxwell, Merchants in London, for £50 Sterling. Also a Bill of John Hutchings on Mr. James Buchanan Merchant London for £50 Sterling which I hope will be readily paid. Twelve Pounds in these Bills is what I received of Mr. Dove for Mr. Young; the remaining £88, please to carry to...
36To Benjamin Franklin from Cadwallader Colden, 29 November 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Draft (letter and enclosure): New-York Historical Society; copy (enclosure only): American Philosophical Society I have your favour of the 25th of last month. While you are employed in affairs of consequence to the public I must submit to the Want of that pleasure which I allwise receive from your letters. You will oblige me much by a Copy of your Treaty with the Ohio Indians as I hope thereby...
37Earl of Macclesfield: Speech Awarding the Copley Medal, 30 November 1753 (Franklin Papers)
AD : American Philosophical Society Sir Hans Sloane being now dead, who was the surviving Trustee of the late Sir Godfrey Copley Bart., the Right of disposing of that Gentleman’s annual Benefaction, is incontestably devolved upon your President and Council, who have accordingly taken that matter into consideration. And in deliberating thereupon, they thought it their Duty to keep these two...
38From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 4 December 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library This serves to enclose second Bills for One Hundred Pound Sterling, sent per Richey. I am, ut supra. Addressed: To Mr Wm Strahan Printer London Per Capt. Mitchell. Written on the same sheet with the duplicate of his letter to Strahan, Nov. 27, 1753.
39David Colden: Remarks on Nollet’s Letters, [4?] December 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: New-York Historical Society In considering the Abbe Nolet’s Letters to Mr. Franklin I am oblidged to pass by all the experiments which are made with or in bottles hermetically Sealed, or exhausted of Air because not being able to repeat the experiments I could not second any thing which occurs to me thereon by experimental proofe. Wherefore the first point of which I can dare to give my...
40From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 6 December 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Letter: ALS : New-York Historical Socity; enclosure: draft: American Philosophical Society I receiv’d your Favour of the 29th past, with some Remarks on my meteorological Paper, for which I thank you, and return some Observations on those Remarks, hoping by this Friendly Intercourse of Sentiments and Objections, some Advantage will arise to the Increase of true Knowledge. I sent you our Treaty...
41From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Jackson, 6 December 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I received your Favour of the 29th June, with the curious astronomical Piece, for which please to accept my Thanks. Our Vessel fitted out for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage, is return’d without entring Hudson’s Bay, being prevented by unusual Quantities of Ice. She has, however, made some Discoveries of the Harbours on the Labrador Coast, that may be...
42John Canton: Electrical Experiments, 6 December 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Royal Society, Philosophical Transactions , XLVIII , pt. 1 (1753), 350–8. Experiment 1. From the cieling, or any convenient part of a room, let two cork-balls, each about the bigness of a small pea, be suspended by linen threads of eight or nine inches in length, so as to be in contact with each other. Bring the excited glass tube under the balls, and they will be separated by...
43From Benjamin Franklin to James Bowdoin, 13 December 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Massachusetts Historical Society I receiv’d your Favour of the 12th ult. with the Law of your Province for Regulating the Indian Trade, for which I thank you, and for the Remarks that accompany it, which clearly evince the Usefulness of the Law, and I hope will be sufficient to induce our Assembly to follow your Example. I have yet received no Particulars of the unhappy Gentleman’s Death...
44From Benjamin Franklin to Samuel Johnson, 13 December 1753 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Henry S. McNeil, Plymouth Meeting, Pa. (1962) I received your Favour of the 5th Inst. and thank you for your kind Congratulations. I wrote to you sometime since, and sent you a Dozen of the best bound Books; the Parcel was recommended to the Care of Mr. Stuyvesandt at New York: I wonder it is not yet got to hand. I wish I could with Truth give you a good Account of the Sale of those...
45Franklin and Hall: Appeal to Subscribers, 27 December 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , December 27, 1753. The Subscribers to this Paper who live remote from Philadelphia, many of whom are many Years in Arrear, are once more requested to consider how impracticable it is for us to wait on every one of them at their Houses for the Money, and how easy it is for them to find proper Opportunities of conveying it to us. As a News-paper, which is a...
46From Benjamin Franklin to Peter Collinson, 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Transcript: Historical Society of Pennsylvania With regard to the Germans, I think Methods of great tenderness should be used, and nothing that looks like a hardship be imposed. Their fondness for their own Language and Manners is natural: It is not a Crime. When People are induced to settle a new Country by a promise of Privileges, that Promise should be bonâ fide performed, and the...
47From Benjamin Franklin to John Franklin, 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Transcript (fragment): American Philosophical Society [ Missing ] Riding offend the Part, and occasion small Ulcers. The Bougie or Wax Candle I have heard is excellent in such Cases. But whether it be an Ulcer in the Passages or a Stone, I believe Onion Pottage may be properly taken and to advantage as it lubricates, and at the same time is a Dissolvent of Calcarious Matter. Enclosed I Send...
48Post Office Instructions and Directions, 1753 (Franklin Papers)
I. Broadside: University of Pennsylvania Library. II. Broadside: Yale University Library The British post office in America, when Franklin and Hunter were appointed deputy postmasters general (see above, p. 18), had never paid its own expenses, much less provided an adequate return to the deputy postmasters. In 1753 the postmaster general determined to raise the salary of his American deputies...
49To Benjamin Franklin from James Alexander, 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Benjamin Franklin, Experiments and Observations on Electricity (London, 1769), pp. 280–1. If I remember right, the Royal Society made one experiment to discover the velocity of the electric fire, by a wire of about four miles in length, supported by silk, and by turning it forwards and backwards in a field, so that the beginning and end of the wire were at only the distance of two...
50From Benjamin Franklin to James Alexander, 1753 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Benjamin Franklin, Experiments and Observations on Electricity (London, 1769), pp. 282–3. Suppose a tube of any length open at both ends, and containing a moveable wire of just the same length, that fills its bore. If I attempt to introduce the end of another wire into the same tube, it must be done by pushing forward the wire it already contains; and the instant I press and move...