1To Benjamin Franklin from Jonathan Potts, 10 December 1766 (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society I wrote to you upon my arrival in Liverpool as did my Friend and Relation Mr. Benjamin Rush, we also sent you some Letters from your Friends in Philadelphia in our favour, the design of which Letters was that you would be so kind as to write to any of your Friends in this place in our behalf, as I am somewhat apprehensive you have not received those Letters,...
2To Benjamin Franklin from James Balfour, 1 August 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Permit me leave to thank you for your kindness to me when in London and to wish you with unfeignd sincerity health, happiness, and Sucess in all you wish or desire. I must leave you for the news of the Country to my worthy friend Colo. Hunter. Believe me Sir, I have, and shall continue with a persevering warmth to sett forth your late services done America....
3To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Wharton, 9 May 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I had the pleasure of writing thee a few Lines per Packet. Since which our Assembly met and have this day adjourned to meet the 2d of June next. It is with great pleasure that, I acquaint thee, that the reason for this short Adjournment is, that they may take the earliest Opportunity of returning to the King, Lords and Commons their unfeigned Thanks for the...
4From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 18 May 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I wrote to you pretty fully per the Packet, and shall write again by some of our Ships: But Capt. Cruikshanks kindly offering to carry a Letter to you, I write just to let you know I am well, as I hope you any [and] my dear Sally and all our Relations and Friends continue to be. Mrs. Stevenson is getting something to send you, and presents her Compliments....
5Pennsylvania Assembly Committee of Correspondence to Richard Jackson and Benjamin Franklin, 21 January 1766 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania . . ., v (Philadelphia, Henry Miller, 1775), p. 454. Inclosed is a Copy of our last, with a Duplicate of the Address to the House of Commons therein mentioned, on the Subject whereof, and the other Matters recommended to your Attention in the said Letter, we have nothing more to add. We have laid Mr. Richard...
6James Parker: Valuation of the Printing Office, 27 January 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ADS : Columbia University Library The partnership agreement between Franklin and Hall provided that at its termination Hall should “have the Preference of purchasing the said Printing-Presses, Types and Materials (if he shall be so disposed . . .) at their present Value, allowing for the Wear thereof what shall be judged a reasonable Abatement, considering the Time they shall have been used”...
7From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Galloway, 13 December 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : William L. Clements Library I congratulate you cordially on the News I see with much Pleasure in the Papers, that you are chosen Speaker of the Assembly. I foresee great Good to our Country from your being in that Station, as I know you will fill it ably and worthily. It is long since I have heard from you; not a Line of later Date than Sept. 22. not a Word since the Election, or the...
8From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Galloway, 11 October 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : William L. Clements Library I received your Favour of Aug. 23. almost the only one I had by that Packet. It gives me great Pleasure to learn that our Friends keep up their Spirits, and that you have little doubt of the next Election. I have occasionally had several Conferences lately with our present Secretary of State, Lord Shelbourne, and some on the Affair of the Petitions. He was...
9To Benjamin Franklin from Philip Syng, 1 March 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I received yours of the 26th of September last, with your very agreeable Present Doctor Lewis’s new Work. You judged very right that I should find in it entertaining Particulars in my Way— the Management of Gold and Silver is treated of in it better and more particularly than I have met with in any Author. The regard you have always shewn me requires my...
10To Benjamin Franklin from Amelia Evans, 6 March 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I write to beg ten thousand pardons for not having waited on you before I left town but having been excessively hurried with the necessary preparations for our embarkation I deferred seeing most of my friends till I found I was not mistress of a moment. But I hope you will pardon me Sir and allow me to intreat yours and Mrs. Stevensons wishes for success to...
11From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 13 December 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Since my last I have received your kind Letters of Sept. 28. and Oct. 4. I wonder you had not heard of my Return from Germany, as I wrote by the August Packet, and by a Ship from Holland just as I was coming over. It is not amiss that the Reverend Doctor refused that Privilege. We shall not want it. And it will be a good Reason for us to refuse him...
12To Benjamin Franklin from David Hall, 19 August 1766 (Franklin Papers)
Letterbook copy: American Philosophical Society Your Favour of May 19th. by Captain Cruikshanks I received for which I thank you, and shall act as you desire, with respects to the Contents of it. I presented the Account from the Post-Office to Mr. Bradford, who seemed surprised it was not paid, as he said he had given Orders for the Payment, and has told me since, that he has desired a Person...
13To Benjamin Franklin from Charles Thomson, 24 August 1766 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: Library of Congress I do not know whether the intimacy with which you have honoured my acquaintance gives me a right to introduce any to your notice with out first having your leave; yet as I have knowledge enough of the goodness of your heart[?] to be assured of the pleasure it will give you to encourage rising genius I am induced to recommend to your notice, Ben. R a native of this...
14To Benjamin Franklin from Isaac Hunt, 21 May 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (mutilated): American Philosophical Society It is with great Reluctance that I trouble you with [ torn ] at a time when you must be busily engaged in Affairs of the [ torn ] to Great Britain and her Colonies. I hope however you will pardon [ torn ] indulge me in a Freedom which I do and ever shall esteem a great [Favour?]. One of the Medals which Mr. Sargent sent to the College [was...
15“Pacificus”: Pax Quaeritur Bello, 23 January 1766 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted by Verner W. Crane, ed., Benjamin Franklin’s Letters to the Press 1758–1775 (Chapel Hill, [1950]), pp. 54–7, from The Public Advertiser , January 26, 1766. While there is no certainty that Franklin wrote this piece, the probability is strong, as Verner W. Crane has pointed out in Letters to the Press , pp. 54–5. The satirical vein is characteristic of a good deal of Franklin’s...
16Magna Britannia: Her Colonies Reduc’d, [January–February 1766] (Franklin Papers)
“Explanation” and “Moral” reprinted from William Temple Franklin, ed., Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin, LL.D. F.R.S. &c. (quarto edition, London, 1817–18), i, 219–20. Philadelphia “Explanation” reprinted from print in American Philosophical Society Library. Among the methods Franklin used during the winter of 1765–66 to gain support for the repeal of the Stamp Act was the...
17To Benjamin Franklin from Isaac Hunt, 14 December 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (mutilated): American Philosophical Society Your friendly and obliging Favour by Captain Falconer came safe to Hand. I think myself happy in so good a Friend, and shall always endeavour by an upright Conduct to deserve your Friendship. The Judgment you have passed on my Essay does me great Honor, and [offers?] a Pleasure in reading that Part of your Letter which I want Words to express. I...
18To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Franklin, 11 October 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I have Received all the Letters You have been so good as to Send and am not Able to Express my Self with humble thanks to you for all these great favours I and My Daughter Receive from you Likewise humbly thank Mrs. Stevenson for all her E[x]terordinary Goodness to my Daughter. It is joyfull news to me to hear my Daughter is getting better I Bless God for...
19To Benjamin Franklin from Jonathan Potts, 22 October 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society You will receive by this post several Letters in my favour from Gentlemen of your Acquaintance in Philadelphia and by the first Vessels from Pennsylvania you will receive Letters, in favour of my Good friend and Relation Mr. Rush and myself from your Son the Govenour of the Jerseys (who has honoured me with a Letter to Sir Alex: Dick of Edinburgh) and also...
20To Benjamin Franklin from David Hall, 3 March 1766 (Franklin Papers)
Letterbook copy: American Philosophical Society I was in hopes of a Letter from you by the Packet, but disappointed, was glad however to know from those that had, that you was well. Inclosed have sent you a Copy of the Accounts settled by Mr. Parker with me on your Account, which I hope will be Satisfactory, as, to the best of my Knowledge I think they are right; tho’, as I suppose he told...
21To Benjamin Franklin from Mary Stevenson, 9 March 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society You will give us great pleasure if you will favour us with your company to day, our dinner shall be ready at any hour you will appoint, four o’clock will be as convenient to us as any other time; say you will come and you make us happy. My mother gave us hope that you might come to day, and thought it was the only one you could. I will flatter myself that I...
22From Benjamin Franklin to the Speaker and Committee of Correspondence of the Pennsylvania Assembly, 22 August 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library In mine of June 10th. I acquainted you that I was about to make a Journey for the Establishment of my Health. I accordingly went to Pyrmont, where I drank the Waters some Days; but relying more on the Air and Exercise of Travelling, I proceeded to Hanover, and from thence thro’ Cassel to Frankfurt and Mentz, thence down the Rhine to Cologne, and so thro’ Treves to...
23From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 25 August 1766 (Franklin Papers)
Extract: reprinted from [Jared Sparks, ed.,] A Collection of the Familiar Letters and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Franklin (Boston, 1833), p. 275. I can now only add, that I will endeavour to accomplish all that you and our friends desire relating to the settlement westward. The scheme for establishing an Illinois colony in which WF was one of the principal movers. See above, pp. 257 n,...
24To Benjamin Franklin from Joseph Galloway, 23 May 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I have now the inexpressible Pleasure of informing you that we have, Via Poole, the great News of the Royal Assent to the Repeal of the Stamp Act. Upon its Arrival agreable to your Advice, Our Friends exerted their utmost Endeavours to prevent any indecent Marks of Triumph and Exultation. We opposed the Intended Fire Works Illuminations, firing of Canon...
25To Benjamin Franklin from William Dunlap, 1 February 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society It is now upwards of a Twelve month since I sail’d from Philadelphia for Barbados, in order to inspect into the State of my Affairs there, and if possible procure some Kind of Subsistance on the Spot that might Support my Family: When I arriv’d, I found my little Interest on the Island badly regulated, and the Partnership Accounts in worse Order; the...
26To Benjamin Franklin from James Parker, 15 December 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Not having received any more than one Letter from you since last May: and the Packet expected this Month not arrived, while this Opportunity offering by a Merchant-man, I take the Liberty to scribble again to you, especially as I this Post have News from Mr. Foxcroft that you consent to allow me £20, per Annum more, for which I return you my Sincere and...
27To Benjamin Franklin from Timothy Lane, 15 October 1766 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: The Royal Society Being employed in some Electrical Enquiries about the beginning of the year 1762 it occured to me, that many Experiments on this Subject might be made with a much greater degree of precision if we could determine with any tolerable accuracy the comparative quantity of Electric Fluid, with which for any given Experiment, the Coated Phial is impregnated. An In[s]trument,...
28To Benjamin Franklin from Benjamin Rush, 22 October 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society As I have the Happiness of being born in the Province where you have resided many years, I was anxious to come under your Patronage, as I well knew your great Love and Partiality to the Province of Pennsylvania would readily induce You to favour any One of its Natives even though unknown to You. With this view I have procured a few Letters from some of your...
29Pennsylvania Assembly Committee of Correspondence to Richard Jackson and Benjamin Franklin, 6 June 1766 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Library of Congress Our Assembly now sitting, having purposely adjourned, in May last, to this Time, have their Expectations joyfully gratified by receiving an authentic Account, in Secretary Conway’s Letter to the Governor, of the Repeal of the Stamp Act, which has been the Occasion of great Distress and Anxiety to the Colonies for Several Months past; We are ordered by the House to...
30To Benjamin Franklin from Sarah Franklin, 23 March 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Our dear Friend Mrs. Smyth after an illness of 5 months and 6 days Expired Yesterday morning. In the whole time she had not been out of bed a quarter of an hour at a time, so thankfull she was for any thing her friends did for her and patient to a Miracle. Poor Mrs. Dufield and poor Mama are in great distress, it must be hard to lose a Friend of 50 Years...
31From Benjamin Franklin to Mary Franklin, 26 August 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society It has pleased God at length to take from us my only remaining Brother, and your affectionate Husband, with whom you have lived in uninterrupted Harmony and Love near half a Century. Considering the many Dangers and Hardships his Way of Life led him into, and the Weakness of his Constitution, it is wonderful that he lasted so long. It was God’s Goodness...
32From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Waller, 6 June 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library I hear with Pleasure from Philadelphia, that Billy Hunter behaves well and improves in his Learning; but I am concern’d to hear that Mr. Royle is dead, who manag’d the Printing house jointly for his Account, and that Mr. Holt, whom I wish’d to succeed there, as one from whom a greater Care might be expected of the Child’s Interest, does not incline to leave New...
33[William Hall]: Account of Benjamin Franklin with the Estate of David Hall, [1 February 1766] (Franklin Papers)
AD : American Philosophical Society After the partnership of Franklin and Hall had come to an end and James Parker had completed his examination of the books, as reported in the document immediately above, David Hall opened an account of his financial relations with his former partner. From time to time he sent Franklin a statement of the transactions shown in his records, but neither man...
34To Benjamin Franklin from [Samuel] Potts, 19 December 1766 (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society Mr. Potts presents his Compliments to Mr. Francklin and Dsires the favour of his Company to Dine on a Doe of the Postmaster Generals at the Kings Arms Tavern in Cornhill on Monday next at 3 OClock in Afternoon. Addressed: To / Benjamin Francklin Esqr / Craven Street / Strand For Samuel Potts, comptroller general of the General Post Office, see above, X , 149...
35“A Lover of Britain”: Preface to Three Letters to William Shirley, [8 February 1766] (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The London Chronicle , February 6–8, 1766. In the issue of Feb. 6–8, 1766, the London Chronicle printed three letters Franklin had written to Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts twelve years earlier, together with an introductory letter that Verner W. Crane has identified as being also written by Franklin. His letters to Shirley, Dec. 3, 4, 22, 1754, have been printed earlier...
36From Benjamin Franklin to [William Robertson], 20 December 1766 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: American Philosophical Society The young Gentlemen who will have the Honour of presenting you this Letter are Mr. Potts and Mr. Rush, drawn to Edinburgh by the Fame your Medical School has so justly acquired; intending there to accomplishing them selves there in the Study of Physic. They are recommended to me in the fullest and strongest Manner, by a Number of my Acquaintance in...
37To Benjamin Franklin from Sir Alexander Dick, 28 October 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Your Letter of the 11th. gave me and all my Family the greatest pleasure it being so long since we heard from your self of your and your familys wellfare and particularly your Son the Governor. I return you and your Son my most hearty thanks for the very great friendship you have shown to me and my friend Mr. Swinton in taking so much effectual pains to be...
38From Benjamin Franklin to Baynton, Wharton & Morgan, [8 June 1766] (Franklin Papers)
Extract: reprinted from Clarence W. Alvord and Clarence E. Carter, eds., The New Régime 1765–1766 , in Collections of the Illinois Historical Library, xi (Springfield, Ill., 1916), 366. I approve much of the Preposal of a strong Colony at the Illinois. It is well listned to here; But all affairs, except what immediately relate to Great Britain are laid aside, until the Season of Publick...
39To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Hutchinson, 26 March 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society; letterbook copy: Massachusetts Archives, Office of the Secretary of State My son being bound to London I give him a letter to you that he may have a better Pretence for waiting on you and Paying his own as well as my respects to you. I expected to have gone my self some of my friends advising to it; others thought it best for me to remain here and that I...
40From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 6 April 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society As the Stamp Act is at length repeal’d, I am willing you should have a new Gown, which you may suppose I did not send sooner, as I knew you would not like to be finer than your Neighbours, unless in a Gown of your own Spinning. Had the Trade between the two Countries totally ceas’d, it was a Comfort to me to recollect that I had once been cloth’d from Head...
41To Benjamin Franklin from Baynton, Wharton & Morgan, 28 August 1766 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Library of Congress We are now to acknowledge the Receipt of your very kind Favors, of the 26th February, the 10th of May and the 8th of June; and at the same Time, to do Ourselves the pleasure of heartily thanking you, for your many and great Kindnesses to Us. It was with inexpressible Joy We received your Congratulations on the Repeal of the Stamp Act; and found the several agreable...
42To Benjamin Franklin from George Read, [August? 1766] (Franklin Papers)
Draft: Library of Congress I now return you my most sincere thanks for the immediate Application you were so good as to make at the Treasury on my behalf, as I am informed by your Letter of the 12th. of June and shou’d the event be otherwise than successful to me it will not prove a matter of much disappointment. I am but little troubled with that Passion for Offices so generally prevalent....
43Observations on Mr. Parker’s State of the Account, [undated] (Franklin Papers)
AD : Haverford College Library This undated document is placed here for convenience because it relates so closely to Parker’s final report on the accounts between Franklin and Hall, Feb. 1, 1766 (above, pp. 87–99), and his letter of February 3 about that report (immediately above). Franklin could hardly have received the report and letter before the middle of March 1766, but they had reached...
44From Benjamin Franklin to William Cullen, 20 December 1766 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: American Philosophical Society I beg Leave to recommend to your favourable Notice two young Gentlemen the Bearers of this Letter, Messrs. Rush and Potts Sons of my Friends in Philadelphia. They are at Edinburgh to improve themselves in the Study of Physic, and from the Character they bear of Ingenuity, Industry and good Morals, I am persuaded they will improve greatly under your learned...
45Privy Council: Referral of Franklin’s Application for a Land Grant, 10 February 1766 (Franklin Papers)
MS Minutes: Public Record Office Franklin’s interest in Nova Scotia lands has been examined in the preceding volume, where documents were printed showing that, as a member of two land speculating syndicates headed by Alexander McNutt, he acquired in 1765 claims to thousands of acres in what is now the province of New Brunswick. See above, XII , 345–50. The petition summarized here differs from...
46To Benjamin Franklin from John Tunnicliff, 21 December 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I Received your kind Letters for which I return you my Best Thanks. If I can get a good Plantation either in Pensylvania or the Jerseys provided the same, is in a good Neighbourhood and the House High and Ary Sittuation to render it Healthy and near the River Delaware or the River Schoolkill with sufficiant Meadow and Pasture of the White Honey-Suckle,...
47From Benjamin Franklin to Peter Templeman, 29 October 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Royal Society of Arts I received with the enclos’d Letter an improv’d Compass for the Surveying of Land, sent me by Mr. Aaron Miller of New-Jersey, with a Request that I would lay it before the Society of Arts, which I will do whenever call’d upon for that purpose; I am, with great Respect for the Society, Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant Endorsed: Octor. 29, 1766 Mr. Aaron Miller...
48From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, [8 November 1766] (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from extract in [Jared Sparks, ed.,] A Collection of the Familiar Letters and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Franklin (Boston, 1833), pp. 279–80. Mr. Jackson is now come to town. The ministry have asked his opinion and advice on your plan of a colony in the Ilinois, and he has just sent me to peruse his answer in writing, in which he warmly recommends it, and enforces...
49To Benjamin Franklin from Baron Behr, 10 June 1766 (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society Baron Behr presente ses complimens à Mr. le Docteur Franklin, et souhaitant un heureux voyage, lui remet les incluses. Addressed: To / Dr. Franklin / Baron Behr The Hanoverian minister in London, who had obviously been informed of the impending visit of Pringle and BF to Germany. In a letter tentatively dated June 15, 1770, to an unidentified correspondent...
50Heads of a Bill to Authorize Paper Currency, [31 March–5 April 1766] (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; facsimile of ad: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Catalogue 223, The John Gribbel Sale, October 31, 1940, no. 252; photostat: American Philosophical Society Franklin’s belief that a viable system of paper currency was essential to the colonial economy goes back to 1729, when he published a pamphlet he called A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper-Currency . His most...