To Benjamin Franklin from Jérôme-Joseph Geoffroy de Limon, 6 May 1784
From Jérôme-Joseph Geoffroy de Limon1
AL: American Philosophical Society
Paris rue du fauxbourg St. honoré
prés la rue St. charle, le 6 may 1784.
M. de Limon a l’honneur de faire mille complimens a Monsieur le Docteur franklin et de lui envoyer un boete et un paquet qu’il a trouvé pour lui dans une caisse qu’il vient de recevoir de M. B. Vaughan.2 Si M de Limon ne partoit pas demain matin pour aller passer huit jours a la campagne il auroit eu l’honneur d’aller lui porter lui-même ces effets et de profiter de cette occasion de rendre ses hommages à un grand homme qui fait autant d’honneur a son Siécle qu’a son pays
Notation: Limon 6 Mars 1784—
1. After being dismissed from a clerical position in the household of Monsieur, the king’s brother, Limon went to London in October, 1782, and, claiming intimacy with the court, offered his services to Lord Shelburne as a mediator between Britain and France should the Anglo-American peace negotiations fail. Fitzherbert warned Shelburne against Limon, writing that although he was believed to have performed secret missions for Vergennes, he had a reputation for possessing neither scruples nor morals: Fortescue, Correspondence of George Third, VI, 148–9; Fitzherbert to Lord Shelburne, Dec. 4, 1782 (Clements Library); Vicomte de Lastic Saint-Jal, “Notice sur Geoffroy de Limon,” Bulletins de la Société des antiquaires de l’Ouest, 2nd ser., I (1877–79), 389–400.
2. Limon met Vaughan in Paris in November, 1782, and impressed the Englishman with his self-confidence and his alleged connections with Vergennes: Vaughan to Shelburne, Nov. 27, 1782 and Jan. 11, 1783 (APS). The boxes that Vaughan sent to Paris in June, 1783 (XL, 176), contained items for Limon, as well as for BF and others: Benjamin Vaughan to WTF, June 6, 1783, APS. Enclosed in the letter just cited was a paper by Benjamin Rush that Vaughan hoped would be translated into French and sent to Limon, at the address given in the present letter.