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CXXXIX: TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN - Benjamin Franklin, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. III Letters and Misc. Writings 1753-1763 [1904]

Edition used:

The Works of Benjamin Franklin, including the Private as well as the Official and Scientific Correspondence, together with the Unmutilated and Correct Version of the Autobiography, compiled and edited by John Bigelow (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904). The Federal Edition in 12 volumes. Vol. III (Letters and Misc. Writings 1753-1763).

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CXXXIX

TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN

Williamsburg, 30 March, 1756.

My Dear Child:—

I wrote to you viâ New York the day after my arrival, acquainting you that I had a fine journey and passage down the Bay, being but four days from Philadelphia to Colonel Hunter’s, though stopped near a day on the road.1 I have been well ever since, quite clear of the dizziness I complained of, and as gay as a bird, not beginning yet to long for home, the worry of perpetual business being yet fresh in my memory. Mr. Hunter is much better than I expected to find him, and we are daily employed in settling our affairs. About the end of the week we are to take a tour into the country. Virginia is a pleasant country, now in full spring; the people obliging and polite. I shall return in the man-of-war to New York with Colonel Hunter and his lady; at least, this is proposed; but, if a more convenient opportunity offers, perhaps I may not stay so long as the end of the next month, when that ship is to sail. I am, my dear Debby, your loving husband,

B. Franklin.1

[1 ]Franklin and Colonel Hunter were at this time jointly postmasters-general of the colonies, and the business of the post-office seems to have been the object of this journey to Virginia.

[1 ]On the 10th of June he wrote from Philadelphia to William Parsons. “It is now a long time since I had the pleasure of a line from you. I am now returned from Virginia, where I was near two months. I should be glad to learn from you the present state of the forces in your county, and of the people. If in any thing I can serve you, command freely your old friend.”