Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow DXXII: TO MRS. JANE MECOM - The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. VI Letters and Misc. Writings 1772-1775

Return to Title Page for The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. VI Letters and Misc. Writings 1772-1775

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory

DXXII: TO MRS. JANE MECOM - Benjamin Franklin, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. VI Letters and Misc. Writings 1772-1775 [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. VI (Letters and Misc. Writings 1772-1775).

About Liberty Fund:

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


DXXII

TO MRS. JANE MECOM

London, 7 July, 1773.

Dear Sister:—

I believe it is long since I have written any letters to you. I hope you will excuse it. I am oppressed with too much writing, and am apt to postpone when I presume upon some indulgence.

I received duly yours of January 19th, April 20th, May 5th, and May 15th.

Our relations, Jenkins and Paddock, came to see me. They seem to be clever, sensible men.

Is there not a little affectation in your apology for the incorrectness of your writing? Perhaps it is rather fishing for commendation. You write better, in my opinion, than most American women. Here indeed the ladies write generally with more elegance than the gentlemen.

By Capt. Hatch went a trunk containing the goods you wrote for. I hope they will come safe to hand and please. Mrs. Stevenson undertook the purchasing them with great readiness and pleasure. Teasdale, whom you mention as selling cheap, is broke and gone. Perhaps he sold too cheap. But she did her best.

I congratulate you on the marriage of your daughter. My love to them. I am obliged to good Dr. Cooper for his prayers.

Your shortness of breath might perhaps be relieved by eating honey with your bread instead of butter, at breakfast.

Young Hubbard seems a sensible boy, and fit, I should think, for a better business than the sea. I am concerned to hear of the illness of his good mother.

If Brother John had paid that bond, there was no occasion to recall it for you to pay it; for I suppose he might have had effects of our father’s to pay it with. I never heard how it was managed.

Mrs. Stevenson presents her respects, and I am ever,

Your affectionate brother,

B. Franklin.