Benjamin Franklin Papers

To Benjamin Franklin from John Shuttleworth, 24 November 1784

From John Shuttleworth

ALS: American Philosophical Society

Annapolis, 24th. Novr: 1784.

Your Excellency will do me a very essential Service if you will be pleased to inform His Excellency William Paca Esqr. our Governor7 that when I had the honor of a conversation with you at Plassy in June 1782 relative to my own affairs and those of Mr Harford8 I told you it was my intention to serve in the army of the united states in the line of my Profession; and that, at my request, you gave me a letter to Genl: Washington for permission to pass his lines, with my family, in consideration of the great expence it wd have been to bring it round thro’ France.9 I hope yr Excellency enjoys good health, and I am with the utmost respect yr Excellency’s much obliged and very Humble Servt

John Shuttleworth

Addressed: His Excellency Benjn Franklin / Esqr: Minister for the United / States.— near / Paris

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

7Paca (DAB) served as the governor of Maryland from 1782 to 1785.

8Shuttleworth could not have been in Passy in June, as he did not leave London until after July 19. For his meeting with BF, at which he apparently discussed his land claims and those of Henry Harford, Maryland’s last proprietor, see XXXVII, 650, 745–6; XL, 120–1.

9BF’s letter has not been found. Shuttleworth did not enclose it in his Dec. 22, 1782, letter to GW, as we speculated in XXXVIII, 15n; he offered to show it to GW if they met in person. On Jan. 1, 1783, GW declined a meeting and referred Shuttleworth to Paca: Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington, XXVI, 2–3. Paca, not wishing to establish a precedent of granting passports to Britons, refused Shuttleworth’s request. He suggested that Shuttleworth could become a Md. citizen. Shuttleworth did so on April 4: Archives of Maryland (72 vols., Baltimore, 1883–1972), XLVIII, 359, 394.

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