To Benjamin Franklin from Anthony Benezet, 12 July 1781
From Anthony Benezet
ALS: Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia the 12th of 7th mo 1781
Having several times attempted to get intelligence by letter from my kindred at St Quentin, in Picardie, the place of my nativity I take the liberty to trouble thee, my kind Friend, with the inclosed Packet for M Debrissac, my near kinsman, one of the principal traders there;6 a person whose acquaintaince would, in several respects, be agreable to thee; requesting thy kind assistance in the conveyance to its destination. As also thy kind advice to him of the safest mode of making me an answer. I wrote to thee at large, by the ship Franklin, about seven months past, as also by our cousin John Benezet, in the Shillely, which we much fear is lost.7 I shall be very glad to hear from thee when time & occasion will permit. With love I remain thy affectionate friend8
Anthony Benezet
Benjamin Franklin
Addressed: Mon Ami / Benjamin Franklin / a / Paris
Endorsed: A Benezet
6. The Benezets, of French Huguenot descent, moved to St.-Quentin when Anthony’s father, Jean-Etienne, was a boy. In 1715, when Anthony was two years old, the family fled to Holland and then to England before settling in Philadelphia in 1731: XIX, 112; George S. Brookes, Friend Anthony Benezet (Philadelphia and London, 1937), pp. 6, 14–16, 19.
Debrissac de Saxey, a textile manufacturer, had written to the American commissioners in 1777 about supplying fabric: XXIII, 505–6.
7. John Benezet was a Philadelphia merchant and William Bingham’s agent and brother-in-law. He had sailed from Philadelphia on the Shelala, which was lost at sea: XXXIV, 64n, 428n.
8. BF on Oct. 24 forwarded the packet to Debrissac and offered to transmit any answer he chose to send. Library of Congress.