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...
3To 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...
4To 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,...
5To 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...
6To 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...
7To 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...
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...
9To 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....
10To 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...
11To 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...
12To 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...
13To 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...
14To 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...
15To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Collinson, 14 January 1754 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I am so disheartend at the Loss of Capt. Davis, that I cannot tell how to sett Penn to paper. I had so amply Employed my Budget in 2 or 3 pacquetts with a Large pack and Books per M. Dalibard at Paris a Box with 6 of Bird thermometers books Magazins all gone and Poor John Bartram has lost his Two Guinea Microscope and prints for Billey Seeds and Two or...
16To Benjamin Franklin from Nathan Whiting, 16 January 1754 (Franklin Papers)
Copy (autograph): Chicago Historical Society In my passage to N York I met the Post by whom Received your Letter by it percieve you have Suspended the Building your Printing office for the present. I shall be sorry If in the Cost we made upon it we inhanced the price more than we ought, and by that means hinderd your proceeding but I believe we did Not, however should be Glad it might Not Cost...
17To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Collinson, 26 January 1754 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society As I emptied my Budget Largely by unfortunate Capt. Davis and as our Friend Smith comes in Capt. Shirley it will save Mee a very Long detail of what has passed between Mee and your proprietor as He has been privy to most of It, in General I can tell you He is Ardent in promoting Enlish Schools for teaching the Germans, as you will see by the Scheme When Mr....
18To Benjamin Franklin from Edward Shippen, 8 February 1754 (Franklin Papers)
Letterbook copy: American Philosophical Society After paying yourself for the Postage of the Inclosed Letter to Boston please to send the remainder of the Piece of 8/8 in a few [of] your best Quills (I mean English) by our Post. Some time ago I sent a six shilling bill to Doctor Shippen for some and he sent me feathers which he Sayd he had from Mr. Halls. If you can send me a few good ones you...
19To Benjamin Franklin from Cadwallader Colden, 13 February 1754 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society The want of an opportunity is the only reason why I have not before this acknowleged your favor of the 6th of Decr. and the same cause prevented my having the pleasure of yours of the 1st of last month till a few days since that my son Alexander brought it with him. I am exceedingly pleased with the friendly complement you make me in that of Decr. 6th for...
20William Smith to Richard Peters and Benjamin Franklin, [February 1754] (Franklin Papers)
Letter: ALS : American Philosophical Society; enclosure: draft: American Philosophical Society The attitudes and behavior of the Germans of Pennsylvania toward politics, defense, and war had concerned Franklin as far back as 1747, when he flattered them in Plain Truth , hoping to win their support for the Association (see above, III , 203). He did not succeed in detaching them from the...
21To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Collinson, 7 March 1754 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Your favours of the 16 and 7th and 29 came not to My Hands untill the First of March and the Philosophical pacquet you Mention intended for my Winters amusement is not yett Come to hand. But indeed a Large pacquet came by Capn. Mitchell and that unworthy Man (tho in particular Directed to the Contrary) putt it into the Post Office and I was Charged Thirty...
22Samuel Chandler to James Hamilton, William Allen, Richard Peters, Benjamin Franklin, Conrad Weiser, and William Smith … (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Horace W. Smith, Life and Correspondence of the Rev. William Smith, D.D. (Philadelphia, 1880), I , 40–2. William Smith delivered this letter to Governor Hamilton a few days after he returned from England on May 22. Hamilton communicated it at once to the others named in it. Franklin, Peters, and Weiser were about to set out to Albany, so no meeting could be held...
23To Benjamin Franklin from Richard Jackson, 17 March 1754 (Franklin Papers)
ALS and AD : American Philosophical Society I would fain merit a Correspondence, I have so much Pleasure in, and have therefore ventured to digest and commit to paper the Thoughts I have before mentioned to you, on the Subject of a Medium of Commerce, including a Plan of a Provincial Bank, which if any way Eligible, you will be able to adapt to the Circumstances of the Province of...
24To Benjamin Franklin from William Clarke, 18 March 1754 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Massachusetts Historical Society The enclosed Account I had some time ago from a Gentleman in this Town as the substance of what he had collected from conversing with Mr. Pattin, when he was last here, but as it was only from recollecting what had passed between them Months before, some Articles may be wrong; and as I should be glad of a particular information of several other things not...
25To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas-François Dalibard, 31 March 1754 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Je Reçus, Monsieur et très cher ami, le 15. Janvier dernier votre très obligeante lettre du 28. 8bre.1753. et je n’y répondis pas sur le champ, parceque je jugeai à propos d’attendre ce que vous deviéz m’envoyer par le prochain vaisseau que vous me marquiéz devoir partir 8. ou 10. jours après; j’ai toujours attendu jusqu’à présent sans avoir reçu autre...
26To Benjamin Franklin from Cadwallader Colden, 2 April 1754 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: New-York Historical Society I should have acknowleged your favour of the 1st of January sooner if you had not at the same time told me that you was to be from home for some time after the writing of it and I had my thoughts engaged in a chain of thinking that I was unwilling to interrupt as that season was the only time of the year in which I could hope to pursue it without...
27To Benjamin Franklin from Cadwallader Colden, 2 April 1754 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: New-York Historical Society Any knowlege I have of the winds and other Changes which happen in the atmosphere is so very defective that it does not deserve the name. Neither have I receiv’d any Satisfaction from the attempts of others on this subject. It deserves then your thoughts as a subject in which you may distinguish your self and be usefull. Your notion of some things conducting...
28To Benjamin Franklin from Jonathan Belcher, 26 April 1754 (Franklin Papers)
Letterbook copy: Massachusetts Historical Society As you are not only a lover of Learning but without a Compliment an Ornoment to it in the Age wherein you live you will forgive the freedom I take in Recommending to your Favour and Friendship Mr. John and Samuel Winthrop two worthy young Gentlemen making a Journey this Way partly for their Health as also to see this Country. The elder is...
29To Benjamin Franklin from William Clarke, 6 May 1754 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Massachusetts Historical Society I received your Favours, by the two last Posts; for both of which I am very much obliged to you; the former I should have acknowledged, by the return of the Post; but was obliged to be out of Town. I now return you the Papers, with my hearty thanks for the trouble you have taken. I fully agree to your observation in your last, that although several of the...
30To Benjamin Franklin from Edward Shippen, 24 May 1754 (Franklin Papers)
Letterbook copy: American Philosophical Society The inclosed came to hand just now, which I send to you, to let you see the Spirit of some of our back Setlers. If the Managers of the Lottery for the Battery should think Proper to encourage those People, they may be pleased to send fifty small Arms to Captain John Harris, who ought to engage himself to see them forthcoming. I am out of all...