.jpg?w=1)
THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
FRANKLIN, Benjamin. Autograph letter signed ("B Franklin," with large flourish) to his grandson William Temple Franklin (1760-1823), Passy, France, 29-30 August 1784. 1 full page, 4to, matted and enclosed in a fine giltwood frame.
Details
FRANKLIN, Benjamin. Autograph letter signed ("B Franklin," with large flourish) to his grandson William Temple Franklin (1760-1823), Passy, France, 29-30 August 1784. 1 full page, 4to, matted and enclosed in a fine giltwood frame.
WITH THE REVOLUTION SUCCESSFULLY CONCLUDED, FRANKLIN ASKS HIS GRANDSON TO PURCHASE A PRINTING PRESS FROM AN ENGLISH MAKER
A fine letter, avuncular in tone, written after the end of the Revolution, mentioning John Adams and asking a favor of his young grandson, who was proceeding to London for the first time since the end of the war: "Dear Child, I received last night your Letter from Calais, and was glad to hear you were so far safe. When I liv'd in London, there was a Letter-founder of the name of Moore who liv'd somewhere near Moorfields. He made Printing-Presses of a new Construction, which I lik'd much, and bought me one for Lord le Despencer. I have undertaken to procure one for a Friend here, and desire you would buy it & send it to Calias by the Stage from London first to Dover, or, which is better, by some Vessel to Rouen. That which I bought cost I think but Five Guineas: perhaps they may now be cheaper."
"Mr. le Veillard is better, & gets up. I think I am better too. I dine'd yesterday at Autueil with Mr. [John] Adams. Made. Helvetius took me there in her Coach & Mr. Healey brought me home, and I suffer'd no Inconvenience. Aug. 30. I intended this for the Post of this Day, but have been prevented. I shall try to write some other to send with Mr. [David] Hartley's Courier on Thursday. Bring with you two or three small Pencils, black Lead, for my Pencil Case. They must not be bigger in Diameter than this circle [a carefully drawn circle, 3/16 in. in diameter]. I am ever your affectionate Grandfather...."
William Temple Franklin, the "Dear Child," was the illegitimate son of Franklin's illegitimate son William (ca. 1731-1813), last colonial Governor of New Jersey and a dedicated loyalist. William Franklin's support of England against the American rebels naturally poisoned relations between the three generations of Franklins, for William Temple Franklin sided with his grandfather in support of the American cause. In fact, the young man was a signer (along with his grandfather, John Adams and Henry Laurens) of the recent Treaty of Paris (1783) which ended the war and acknowledged American independence. Now that the war was over, William Temple was proceeding to London to visit his father and to carry out various errands on his grand-father's behalf: he was furnished with a letter of introduction to Lord Shelburne, and was also instructed to persuade Benjamin Franklin's intimate friend Mary Hewson to visit Passy.
With the end of hostilities, "For both men and nations, it was a season of reconciliation," writes one recent biographer, and William lost little time in seeking a reconciliation with his estranged father, though Benjamin Franklin remained aloof, with William Temple as a designated go-between: "You may confide to your son the family affairs you wish to confer upon with me" (quoted in Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, p.430). The patriarch remained in Passy, still at work on his classic autobiography and working to perfect his newly invented spectacles.
WITH THE REVOLUTION SUCCESSFULLY CONCLUDED, FRANKLIN ASKS HIS GRANDSON TO PURCHASE A PRINTING PRESS FROM AN ENGLISH MAKER
A fine letter, avuncular in tone, written after the end of the Revolution, mentioning John Adams and asking a favor of his young grandson, who was proceeding to London for the first time since the end of the war: "Dear Child, I received last night your Letter from Calais, and was glad to hear you were so far safe. When I liv'd in London, there was a Letter-founder of the name of Moore who liv'd somewhere near Moorfields. He made Printing-Presses of a new Construction, which I lik'd much, and bought me one for Lord le Despencer. I have undertaken to procure one for a Friend here, and desire you would buy it & send it to Calias by the Stage from London first to Dover, or, which is better, by some Vessel to Rouen. That which I bought cost I think but Five Guineas: perhaps they may now be cheaper."
"Mr. le Veillard is better, & gets up. I think I am better too. I dine'd yesterday at Autueil with Mr. [John] Adams. Mad
William Temple Franklin, the "Dear Child," was the illegitimate son of Franklin's illegitimate son William (ca. 1731-1813), last colonial Governor of New Jersey and a dedicated loyalist. William Franklin's support of England against the American rebels naturally poisoned relations between the three generations of Franklins, for William Temple Franklin sided with his grandfather in support of the American cause. In fact, the young man was a signer (along with his grandfather, John Adams and Henry Laurens) of the recent Treaty of Paris (1783) which ended the war and acknowledged American independence. Now that the war was over, William Temple was proceeding to London to visit his father and to carry out various errands on his grand-father's behalf: he was furnished with a letter of introduction to Lord Shelburne, and was also instructed to persuade Benjamin Franklin's intimate friend Mary Hewson to visit Passy.
With the end of hostilities, "For both men and nations, it was a season of reconciliation," writes one recent biographer, and William lost little time in seeking a reconciliation with his estranged father, though Benjamin Franklin remained aloof, with William Temple as a designated go-between: "You may confide to your son the family affairs you wish to confer upon with me" (quoted in Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, p.430). The patriarch remained in Passy, still at work on his classic autobiography and working to perfect his newly invented spectacles.