From Benjamin Franklin to Mary Stevenson, 26 March 1767
To Mary Stevenson
ALS: American Philosophical Society
March 26. 67
We want to hear how our dear Polly does after the Loss of her Two great Teeth together; whether the Jaw is easy and not swell’d &c.
Sir Cha. Blount2 call’d in Cravenstreet last Night, and we learnt with Pleasure that your Friend Dolly and all that Family were well. Dr. Hawkesworth3 is to spend this Evening there, and I am mortified that I cannot be with them.
Your good Mama bade me send you the enclos’d Verses,4 and so I scribbled this Line just to let you know we are well. Present my Compliments to Mrs. Tickel,5 &c. and believe me ever Your affectionate Friend
B Franklin
P.S. Dr. and Mrs. Hawkesworth are to drink Tea with us on Tuesday: It is said to be clever to kill two Birds with one Stone: You may make three or four more alive by one little Visit at the same time.
Endorsed: Mar 6 - 67
2. Sir Charles William Blunt, 3d Baronet (1731–1802), was a brother of Polly Stevenson’s warm friends, Dorothea (Dolly) and Catherine Blunt (above, IX, 327 n). [Henry] Kent’s Directory For the Year 1770 (London, 1770), p. 22, lists “Sir Charles Blunt, Bart. & Comp.” as sugar refiners at 1 Joiners Hall Alley, Thames Street. Apparently falling into financial difficulties, he went to India in the lowly post of a “writer” in about 1783, where he accumulated a fortune of some £100,000 before he died near Calcutta in 1802. Gent. Mag., LXXIII (1803), 283.
3. For John Hawkesworth, friend of Polly Stevenson and BF, who was running his wife’s school for young ladies at Bromley, see above, IX, 265–6 n. At the time of this letter he had also been for about two years reviewer of “New Publications” for Gent. Mag. DNB.
4. Not found.
5. One of the two aunts with whom Polly was living at Kensington. The “&c.” following probably refers to the other aunt, Mrs. Rooke.