To Benjamin Franklin from Emanuel Mendes da Costa, 2 February 1767
From Emanuel Mendes da Costa7
Printed form with MS insertions in blanks: American Philosophical Society
Sir,
The Committee (to whom the Consideration of the Papers communicated to the Society at their Weekly Meetings is referred, by Virtue of a Statute of the said Society, passed at a Council, held on the 26th Day of March, 1752) having been appointed to meet at the Society’s House in Crane-Court, Fleetstreet, on Thursday the 12 of february 1767 after the Meeting (the List of papers already sent) your Presence at the said Committee is then and there desired accordingly. I am Sir Your h[umble] Servant
Emanuel Mendes DA Costa
Cl
Royal Society,
2d february 1767
Addressed: To / Benjamin Franklin LLD / p[re]sent8
7. Da Costa had been clerk of the Royal Society since 1763, but in December of this year he was dismissed for dishonesty.
8. Among the Franklin Papers, APS, is to be found one other example of this printed notice, that one undated but referring to a meeting of the committee to be held on Thursday, Feb. 25, 1768. It is signed by da Costa’s successor, John Robertson (1712–1776), a mathematician. DNB.