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Subject Area: History

CCLXIII: TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN - Benjamin Franklin, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. IV Letters and Misc. Writings 1763-1768 [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. IV (Letters and Misc. Writings 1763-1768).

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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


CCLXIII

TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN

London, 4 June, 1765.

My Dear Child:—

I have now before me your favors; not so many letters as dates, some of them having two or three. As to the cause concerning the lot, I have never been in the least uneasy about it, desiring only, that justice might be done, which I do not doubt. I hope Robinson was not long missing after your letter, as I really have a great esteem for him. I could have wished to be present at the finishing of the kitchen, as it is a mere machine; and, being new to you, I think you will scarce know how to work it; the several contrivances to carry off steam, smell, and smoke not being fully explained to you. The oven I suppose was put up by the written directions in my former letter. You mention nothing of the furnace. If that iron one is not set, let it alone till my return, when I shall bring a more convenient copper one.

You wonder how I did to travel seventy-two miles in a short winter day, on my landing in England, and think I must have practised flying. But the roads here are so good, with post-chaises and fresh horses every ten or twelve miles, that it is no difficult matter. A lady, that I know, has come from Edinburgh to London, being four hundred miles, in three days and a half. You mention the payment of the £500 but do not say that you have got the deeds executed. I suppose, however, that it was done. I received the two post-office letters you sent me. It was not letters of that sort alone that I wanted, but all such as were sent to me from any one whomsoever.

I cannot but complain in my mind of Mr. Smith, that the house is so long unfit for you to get into, the fences not put up, nor the other necessary articles ready. The well I expected would have been dug in the winter, or early in the spring, but I hear nothing of it. You should have gardened long before the date of your last, but it seems the rubbish was not removed. I am much obliged to my good old friends, that did me the honor to remember me in the unfinished kitchen. I hope soon to drink with them in the parlour.

I am very thankful to the good ladies you mention for their friendly wishes. Present my best respects to Mrs. Grace, and dear, precious Mrs. Shewell, Mrs. Masters, Mrs. and Miss Galloway, Mrs. Redman, Mrs. Graeme, Mrs. Thomson, Mrs. Story, Mrs. Bartram, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Hilborne, and all the others you have named to me. My love also to our brothers and sisters, and cousins, as if particularly mentioned. I have delivered yours to Mrs. and Miss Stevenson, Mr. and Mrs. Strahan and their family, Mrs. Empson, Mrs. West, and our country cousins. Miss Graham has not come to town, as I have heard.

It rejoices me to learn, that you are more free than you used to be from the headache, and that pain in your side. I am likewise in perfect health. God is very good to us both in many respects. Let us enjoy his favors with a thankful and cheerful heart; and, as we can make no direct return to him, show our sense of his goodness to us by continuing to do good to our fellow creatures, without regarding the returns they make us, whether good or bad. For they are all his children, though they may sometimes be our enemies. The friendships of this world are changeable, uncertain, transitory things; but his favor, if we can secure it, is an inheritance for ever. I am, my dear Debby, your ever loving husband,

B. Franklin.