Alan Houston

Sources and Interpretations

Benjamin Franklin and the "Wagon Affair" of 1755

IN January 1755 General Edward Braddock set sail for North America with two regiments of British infantry and a train of artillery. His objective: to capture Fort Duquesne, a French fortification in western Pennsylvania. The previous summer had been tumultuous. In May George Washington and a troop of Virginians had ambushed and massacred a party of French soldiers at Jumonville's Glen. Six weeks later, in turn, Washington and his soldiers were soundly defeated at Fort Necessity. Washington surrendered the fort, agreed to the French terms of capitulation, and returned to Virginia. General Braddock was sent to take military command of North America and reassert British authority over the frontier.¹

Braddock's forces landed at Alexandria, Virginia. Fort Duquesne (at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in present-day Pittsburgh) was more than two hundred fifty miles away (Figure I). The governors of Virginia and Maryland had assured that sufficient wagons, pack horses, and forage would be available for the overland march. But these promises proved hollow: instead of two hundred fifty wagons, Braddock received twenty; instead of twenty-five hundred horses, he was furnished with two hundred. Braddock condemned the colonists as dishonest and dishonorable and threatened to seize what he had not been given. At this precarious juncture, Benjamin Franklin arrived at Braddock's headquarters, ostensibly on post office business (Figure II). The Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly had, in fact, directed Franklin to allay the "violent Prejudices" Braddock was said to harbor against the colony. On learning of Braddock's difficulties, Franklin opined that "it was a pity they had not been landed rather in Pennsylvania, as in that Country almost every Farmer had his Waggon." Braddock eagerly authorized Franklin to contract for one hundred fifty wagons and fifteen hundred pack horses, supplying eight hundred pounds for advance payments (Figure III, see 256).²

FIGURE I

Map of Edward Braddock's route. Drawn by Rebecca Wrenn.

FIGURE II

Robert Feke, Benjamin Franklin, ca. 1746, oil on canvas, 127 × 102 centimeters. Courtesy, Harvard University Art Museums, Bequest of Dr. John Collins Warren, 1856, H47. Photo: Katya Kallsen © President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Franklin was successful. Within weeks Pennsylvania farmers, with their wagons and horses, were on the march (Figure IV, see 267). Braddock did not fare as well. Along with scores of officers and hundreds of soldiers, he lost his life in a shocking defeat just a few miles from Fort Duquesne. Surprised by a small contingent of French soldiers and Indian warriors, Braddock's seasoned regulars fell into confusion and suffered catastrophic casualties. In a firefight that lasted several hours, nearly one thousand of Braddock's men were killed or wounded, many by friendly fire. (French and Indian casualties, by contrast, numbered fewer than two score.) Late in the day the survivors fled, leaving to the French everything from blankets and cannons to Braddock's official papers. Virtually all the wagons and horses supplied by Pennsylvania farmers were destroyed.³

Braddock's defeat and the ignominious retreat of his remaining forces mortified imperial authorities and stunned British Americans. In London the government was temporarily paralyzed, unable to resolve the political crisis created by affairs in North America. In the colonies terror gripped frontier settlers. After the battle on the Monongahela, the rump of Braddock's army retreated to winter quarters in Philadelphia, leaving the western territories unprotected. Relations between white inhabitants and Indians in the Pennsylvania backcountry, historically peaceful, entered a new phase characterized by suspicion, uncertainty, and violence. By the fall of 1755, a heightened sense of vulnerability throughout the colony enabled Franklin and his supporters in the assembly to pass a militia act, the first in Pennsylvania history. The long era of Quaker political domination came to an end. Support for war, in turn, became one more weapon in the assembly's conflict with Pennsylvania's proprietors for control of the colony.

Franklin did not hesitate to remind others of the political and military importance of his contributions to Braddock's campaign. In official documents he invoked Braddock's praise to defend the assembly's reputation. And in his Autobiography, Franklin rehearsed in detail his actions in the spring and summer of 1755, referring at one point to a "Quire Book of Letters written during this Transaction."⁴ No record of this collection has been found until now.

In spring 2007 I was in London, completing archival research for my most recent book, Benjamin Franklin and the Politics of Improvement. As a historian of political thought, I sought to trace Benjamin Franklin's contributions to eighteenth-century Atlantic debates over the rise of the modern commercial republic. The Seven Years' War was crucial to these debates, and in an attempt to extend the documentary basis for my arguments I combed archives in Great Britain and North America. The last document I examined on the last day of my last scheduled trip to England was in the British Library, "Copies of Letters relating to the March of General Braddock." In previous forays I had uncovered a handful of new Franklin items, including two letters to Richard Partridge.⁵ But the "Copies of Letters" was a find of a different order: partial and complete copies of more than forty letters by, to, and about Franklin, all dating from the spring and summer of 1755. Almost instantly, it occurred to me that these materials must have been copied from Franklin's quire book. Though I departed for home the next day, I immediately began planning my return.

"Copies of Letters" is in the hand of Thomas Birch (1705–66), an industrious—some might say obsessive—transcriber and compiler of historical documents (Figure V). Nearly four hundred volumes of his handiwork fill the shelves of the British Library. Contemporaries mocked Birch's incessant writing. Horace Walpole compared him to "a young setting dog in quest of anything, new or old, and with no parts, taste or judgment," and Samuel Johnson quipped that he was "brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand, than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties." But Birch was no mere copyist. A member of the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Society, he made major contributions to the ten-volume General Dictionary, Historical and Critical of 1734 (an expanded version of Pierre Bayle's 1697 Dictionnaire historique et critique), edited John Thurloe's State Papers (published in 1742), wrote biographies of Robert Boyle in 1744 and Archbishop John Tillotson in 1752, and compiled a four-volume history of the Royal Society (published 1756–57). Even Johnson, in his own historical writings, relied on the fruits of Birch's "diligence."⁶

FIGURE V

John Faber Jr., Thomas Birch, after James Wills, 1741, mezzotint, 27 × 20 centimeters. Courtesy, National Portrait Gallery, London.

Birch may have first learned of Franklin in 1750, when Peter Collinson began sharing the Pennsylvanian's letters on electricity. As secretary of the Royal Society, Birch surely participated in Franklin's selection for the Copley Medal in 1753. The following year he heard read "a long letter" from Franklin to Collinson "on the Electricity of Clouds." It made perfect sense, when recording Braddock's frustration with "the backwardness of our colonies" in early 1755, for Birch to refer to the "assistance" offered by "Mr. Franklin the philosopher." He knew of Franklin as an experimenter with electricity, a natural philosopher, and not as a printer or politician. In 1756 Franklin's experiments and observations led Birch to cosponsor his nomination to the Royal Society.⁷

Franklin and Birch finally met in the summer of 1757, when Franklin was sent to London to represent the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly in its struggle with the proprietors. Franklin arrived on July 27 and within a fortnight dined with Birch and three other members of the Royal Society Club at the Mitre Tavern in Fleet Street. Afterward Franklin invited Birch to his home on Craven Street for tea. During the next ten months, Birch dined with Franklin on at least nine occasions, either at the Mitre or at the home of esteemed physician William Heberden. Their companions were typically members of the "Hardwicke Circle," a cluster of moderate Whigs in the Royal Society led by Philip Yorke, 2d Earl of Hardwicke: Birch and Heberden as well as men such as astronomer George Parker, 2d Earl of Macclesfield; scientist William Watson; and antiquary Daniel Wray. After the middle of 1758, however, it appears that Franklin and Birch broke bread less often. Birch's diary, a detailed record of his social life, indicates an average of just one dinner per year with Franklin. There are no signs of a falling out; indeed, surviving evidence testifies to a collegial and cordial relationship. But when Franklin dined at the Mitre, he did so most often as the guest of Scottish physician John Pringle, who quickly became one of his closest friends. When Franklin chose to join a club of his own, it was not the Royal Society Club but the politically and religiously more radical Club of Honest Whigs, which included men such as James Burgh, John Canton, Richard Price, Pringle, and Joseph Priestley.⁸

Why did Franklin compile a quire book in 1755? Why did he take it with him to London? What led him to show it to Birch? And why would Birch have copied it? Neither man recorded answers to these questions, and consequently we can only speculate.

Braddock's shocking loss alternately fascinated and horrified Britons and Americans. Franklin was free from the taint of defeat, yet his role in the "wagon affair" demonstrated his skill as a colonial leader. Where others had failed, he succeeded. In this sense his triumph was personal, and his quire book was a record of his own achievements. But Franklin's conduct was not simply personal: from the start he acted as agent of the assembly, and he integrated his trials and tribulations into a broader narrative concerning the flaws in Pennsylvania's form of government. Indeed he had been sent to London in 1757 to lobby for changes in the colony's charter. In this context the quire book was a public record and could be used to document the assembly's case against the proprietors. Finally, Franklin's quire book may have served as a colonial calling card. During his first trip to London in 1725, Franklin had gained the attention of Sir Hans Sloane, then secretary of the Royal Society, by offering to show Sloane a scientific curiosity: an asbestos purse from America. On his second trip, Franklin may have used his quire book to gain the attention of yet another secretary of the Royal Society, Birch.⁹

Birch undoubtedly found Franklin's quire book captivating, and he appears to have copied anything that remotely interested him. Other factors may have played a role as well. As the London eyes and ears for Yorke, Birch wrote weekly letters concerning metropolitan news. Braddock's campaign and subsequent defeat were widely discussed, and Birch may have anticipated that Yorke would relish the details supplied by Franklin's quire book.¹⁰ As secretary of the Royal Society, moreover, Birch may have wanted to capture a crucial moment in the life of the society's most famous American member (Figure VI, 248).

FIGURE VI

"Copies of Letters relating to the March of General Braddock," BL Add. MSS 4478b, fol. 105. Courtesy, British Library.

No evidence, either internal or external to the manuscript, establishes exactly when Birch copied the quire book. He could not have done so before July 27, 1757, when Franklin arrived in London. Nor could he have done so after January 19, 1766, when he died after falling from his horse. Given the pattern of Birch and Franklin's acquaintance, Birch's copy of the quire book probably dates to sometime between July 1757 and July 1758.

The manuscript itself is incomplete but in excellent condition. Birch wrote on sheets of paper that had been folded once to create four pages. There are three sets of folios. One, in ink and in what appears to be Birch's hand, numbers each page; the other two, written in pencil after the manuscript was bound, number only the recto of each leaf. Twelve pages are missing. These pages begin in the middle of Franklin's advertisement for wagons and end in the middle of a letter from Isaac Norris. No record of the missing pages has survived. All of Birch's manuscripts were given to the British Library in February 1766. The first attempt to catalog them was a bibliographic disaster. As archivist Samuel Ayscough complained in 1781, the collection was "in the greatest confusion, being chiefly written on loose papers, and only tied up in bundles, without any regard to subject or connection." Ayscough rearranged the entire collection and compiled a new catalog. Volume 4478b contains 150 pages of "miscellaneous papers"; Franklin's correspondence from 1755, the tenth item in the volume, is sandwiched between copies of a 1750 letter from Dr. Plumpetre to Dr. Heberden and a 1673 letter from Isaac Newton to John Collins.¹¹

No calendar of the contents of Franklin's quire book has survived. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin contains additional letters concerning the wagon affair. Were they part of the quire book? If not, why not? What was Franklin's principle of selection? If Franklin included additional wagon affair letters, why did Birch ignore them? And how can we explain the presence of a handful of third-party letters, that is, letters to which Franklin was neither sender nor recipient (Table I)?¹²

Table I Distribution of letters copied by Thomas Birch

	Complete	Partial	Paraphrased	Ghost

From Benjamin Franklin	5	9	2	2
To Benjamin Franklin	11	8	2	1
Third-party correspondence	2	2	2	0

Third Series, Volume LXVI April 2009
Sources and Interpretations:
Benjamin Franklin and the "Wagon Affair" of 1755. By Alan Houston

The interpretive challenges do not end there. Birch worked from Franklin's quire book, but the manuscript that survives is not identical to the original. Approximately two-fifths of the time, Birch copied a complete letter, including salutation and complimentary closing (for an example, see letter 1). Another two-fifths of the time, Birch copied only part of a letter. When these fragments were combined with a paraphrase of his own composition—as in letter 18—Birch indicated the original with quotation marks. Sometimes he left quotation marks open; at other times, he closed them. In some cases, letter 16, for instance, he paraphrased an entire document. And on three occasions (letters 11, 22, and 23) he recorded a "ghost," indicating that a document existed but not copying its contents (Figure VII, 265). No obvious rule governed Birch's decision to copy part or all of a letter, and a single page of the manuscript may exhibit several different writing protocols. Despite these uncertainties we do have reason to believe that Birch was an accurate copyist. The portion of the wagon advertisement that has survived (see letter 5) is an almost exact copy of the original printed version. And letter 26, from William Shirley Jr. to Robert Hunter Morris, is virtually identical to portions of the original manuscript in the Pennsylvania State Archives.¹³

As a contribution to the corpus of writings by and to Benjamin Franklin, these letters are intrinsically important. They introduce three new Franklin correspondents—the Reverend John Hamilton, Colonel John Innes, and Captain Robert Orme—and dramatically add to existing correspondence with men such as Edward Braddock and William Shirley Jr. They contain the only known letters written by William Franklin during these momentous events.

These letters also offer a wealth of new details that affect modern understanding of Benjamin Franklin, the wagon affair, and Pennsylvania politics. Previous accounts have suggested, for example, that Franklin's campaign to contract for wagons and horses was relatively painless: after posting his advertisements, Pennsylvania farmers volunteered with alacrity.¹⁴ But letters from Franklin's son William, who represented him in Lancaster and other communities, demonstrate that local transactions were far from simple. Some farmers were reluctant to part with their wagons and horses and had to be threatened or cajoled. Others were intoxicated and abusive and had to be treated cautiously. Most Pennsylvanians disputed the valuation assigned their teams, which was crucial, should wagons be damaged or lost or horses injured or killed. Many refused to sign a contract in Pennsylvania, calculating that they could command a higher price by making Braddock even more desperate for their help. The gap between imperial ambitions and local realities was wide.

When Franklin learned of the impoverished condition of Braddock's junior officers, he "commisserated their Case, and resolved to" procure "them some Relief." At his instigation the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly presented each officer with a fresh horse and a packet of supplies ranging from sugar and cheese to rum and raisins.¹⁵ It is now clear, however, that Franklin's actions were motivated by more than empathy. As they traversed the countryside, Braddock's officers behaved badly, commandeering horses and then refusing to care for them. Farmers watched in horror as their animals died from abuse and their crops rotted in the fields. Easing the lives of the officers was a clever strategy for bringing relief to beleaguered farmers.

Some themes and topics raised by these letters are not directly related to the wagon affair. Many scholars, for example, have chastised Franklin for his seemingly instrumental and insensitive treatment of his wife, Deborah. One of the earliest letters in this collection (letter 7) points in a different direction. Writing from Lancaster, Franklin offered a detailed narrative of his travels, concluding with the words, "Write to me by every Opportunity. I long to be with you, being, as ever, Your loving Husband."¹⁶ A single letter does not a relationship make, but this correspondence suggests greater affection than is sometimes allowed.

Finally, the sheer existence of these letters, sitting quietly on the shelves of the British Library for nearly two hundred fifty years, poses a tantalizing question. Franklin spent eighteen years—more than 20 percent of his life—in the United Kingdom. How many other treasures await to be found?

1. TO JOHN RIDOUT ¹⁷

[fol. 105r] Dear Sir,¹⁸

Philadelphia Apr. 4. 1755.

I have been but a few Weeks returned from a Journey of six months.¹⁹ About ten Days since I sent you Douglas's Summary in two Volumes unbound, which I brought you from Boston.²⁰ I hope they got safe to hand, for I did not know the person I sent them by. He was a short well-set Man, and I took him to be an Express from Annapolis, particularly as he presented your Compliments, and desired to know if I had any Commands for that place. I had not time to write by him, being just going to the Assembly.

Our House sent up a Bill last Week to the Governor granting £25,000 to the King's use, to be struck in bills of Credit, and sunk by the Excise in ten Years.²¹£5,000 of it was subjected to the Orders or Draughts of General Braddock; £5,000 to repay the money borrowed to purchase provisions for the Virginia Troops; £10,000 to New England, and £5,000 for clearing Roads, paying posts, Express &c. [fol. 105v] and with the General's Dispatches and other Expenses for the King's service. The Governor refusing to pass it, they have given £10,000 out of their Loan-Office Money to victual the New England Troops, about to make a diversion in favour of General Braddock, by attacking the French nearer home, and so obliging them to withdraw their troops from the Ohio, or at least prevent sending any reinforcements to them. This, they hope, that great Officer will take kindly of them, as it is all they have at present in their power; This £10,000 and the £5,000 borrowed before to buy the Wheat, and transport it to his army, exhausting their Treasury to the last farthing. They think he was rather too hasty in condemning them unheard in their dispute with their Governor; and think they could justify themselves to his satisfaction, if it were worth his while to attend to their State of the Case. But they suppose his time is employed in more important Affairs; and that he will by degrees receive more favourable sentiments of their Conduct.²²

You are to have a grand Congress at Annapolis.²³ I pray God to bless your Counsels. When you have an opportunity be so good as to send the inclosed paper of Seeds to [fol. 106r] Major Barnes²⁴ with my best respects. They are what he much wanted when here; and the fruit will, he thinks, be of great use to Mary Land, if propagated there.

My respectfull Compliments to Governor Sharpe;²⁵ and believe me to be with the greatest respect and esteem,

	Dear Sir,
	Your most humble Servant
	B.F.


2. FROM EDWARD BRADDOCK
		[Frederick, Apr. 22, 1755]
[fol. 108v] By his Excellency Edward Braddock Esq, General and Commander in Chief of all his Majesty's Forces in North America.
To Benjamin Franklin Esq.

By virtue of the power and Authority to me given and granted [fol. 109r] by his Majesty, I do hereby empower you to contract and agree for one hundred and fifty Waggons with a team of four horses to each waggon, and for fifteen hundred horses, for the service of his Majesty's forces under my Command, or to appoint such persons under you for Transacting the said business, as shall be necessary, hereby empowering you to appoint two Waggon Masters to take care of the said Waggons and horses, and to conduct them to Fort Cumberland at Wills's Creek, there to receive my further Orders. And I promise to ratify and confirm such engagements, as you or such persons, as you shall appoint, shall enter into in consequence of the power hereby given you, and conformable to the instructions you shall herewith receive from me. Given at the Camp at Frederick this twenty second day of April 1755.

E. Braddock

By his Excellency's Command
W. Shirley
Benjamin Franklin Esq.

3. FROM EDWARD BRADDOCK

[Frederick, Apr. 22, 1755]

[fol. 109r] Instructions to Benjamin Franklin Esq.

1.	You will with all convenient speed contract for one [fol. 109v] hundred and fifty waggons and 1500 horses to join the forces at Wills's Creek, and to proceed with the Army according to the orders they shall receive from me.
2.	You will settle the price of each Waggon at as low a rate as shall be practicable, not exceeding ten shillings sterling per day; as also the price of the horses, not allowing above two shillings sterling per day for each of them.
3.	You will likewise provide saddles and furniture for each of the horses, or as many as can be met with.
4.	You will fix upon two proper persons for wagon-masters, to take care of the said Waggons and horses, who shall receive from me such pay, as you shall promise them for their trouble, not exceeding five shillings sterling per day.
5.	You will take care, that the Waggons and Teams, as also the horses, that shall be contracted for, be valued by two persons to be chosen by your self, or such persons, as shall be appointed by you and two more by the owners of the said Waggons and Horses; and are to inform the said Owners, that in case of the [loss of any of the] said Waggons and Horses [fol. 110r] or Teams, they shall be allowed the price of them, according to the said Valuation.
6.	The pay of the Waggons and Horses you shall contract for is to commence from the time of their joining the Forces at Wills's Creek: and you are to make them such allowance for the time, that may be required for their going thither, as shall be reasonable.
7.	You will take care, that every Waggon, which shall be hired for this service, is loaded with forage, and every horse with corn, for their own subsistence: and whatever they bring more than they use for that purpose, will be taken for the use of the Army, and a reasonable price paid for it.
8.	You are in my name to assure the several persons hired for the service of the Waggons and Horses, that they shall on no account whatever be called up to do the Duty of Soldiers, or be otherwise employed than is necessary for conducting and taking care of their Carriages and Horses.
[fol. 110v]
9.	You will give orders to the persons, you shall appoint to transact the business intrusted to you, that they act conformable to these Instructions, who shall receive such allowance for their troubles, as you shall think reasonable.

E. Braddock.

Mem. The Terms to be proposed by the above Instructions were dictated by B.F.'s advice, as most likely to obtain what was wanted.

4. PENNSYLVANIA ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ²⁶
[FOL. 111V] MINUTES OF THE COMMITTEE

April 24. 1755

Present Isaac Norris, Evan Morgan, Joseph Stretch, Joseph Fox, James Pemberton, William Callendar, and Joseph Trotter²⁷

The Secretary laid before us a Letter from Geo. Croghan and other Commissioners for laying out roads thro' this Province towards the Ohio,²⁸ which was read, as also a Letter from the Governor to this Committee in the following Words, viz.

[Here insert it]²⁹

[fol. 112r] Evan Morgan likewise produced a Letter from John Smith of Carlisle, with a Copy of a Letter inclosed from one of the Commissioners for laying out the aforesaid Roads.

The Committee taking the several matters into their consideration were of Opinion, that some small present should be made to the Indians now here at the Expence of the Province; and that it may be necessary to dispatch them as soon as possible, to lessen the charge.

As the executive part of the Government neither does nor ought to be vested in the Assemblies of this province, we can only declare our Concern the Governor had not been pleased to pass our Bill, in which the clearing of roads and all the purposes recommended to us by the Crown had been provided for, according to our abilities.

Nevertheless, as we are willing to do every thing in our power for the King's service and welfare of this province, resolved, that the following Minute be signed by all the Members present, and sent to the Governor, viz.

"We are unanimously of Opinion, that the Assembly will very chearfully defray the reasonable Expenses arising [fol. 112v] upon the opening of such Roads, as may be judged necessary for the march of the King's Troops thro' the Province towards the Ohio.

"We are also of opinion, that some small present should be made to the Indians now here at the Expence of the Province; and that it may be necessary to dispatch them as soon as possible, to lessen the charge.

	Isaac Norris
	Evan Morgan
To Robert Hunter Morris Esq	Joseph Fox
Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania³⁰	Joseph Stretch
	Joseph Trotter
	James Pemberton
	William Callender

5. WAGON ADVERTISEMENT ³¹

[fol. 110v] Advertisement of the Time as printed in one sheet with the following address:

To the Inhabitants of the Counties of Lancaster York and Cumberland.

Lancaster Apr. 26 1755.

Friends and Countrymen,

Being occasionally at the Camp at Frederic a few days since, I found the General and officers of the Army extremely exasperated on account of their not being supplied with Horses and Carriages, which had been expected from this province as most able to furnish them; but, thro' the dissensions between our Governor and Assembly, Money hath not been provided nor any taken for that purpose.³²

It was proposed to send an armed Force immediately into these Counties, to seize as many of the best Carriages and Horses as should be wanted, and compel as many Persons into the Service as would be necessary to Drive and take care of them.

I apprehended that the Progress of a Body of Soldiers thro' these Counties on such an Occasion, especially considering the Temper they are in, and their Resentment against us, would be attended with many and great Inconveniencies to the Inhabitants; and therefore more willingly undertook the Trouble of trying first what might be done by fair and equitable Means.

The People of these back Counties have lately complained to the Assembly that a sufficient Currency was wanting; you have now an Opportunity of receiving and dividing among you a very considerable Sum; for if the Service of this Expedition should continue (as it's more than probable it will) for 120 Days, the Hire of these Waggons and Horses will amount to upwards of Thirty thousand Pounds, which will be paid you in Silver and Gold of the King's Money.

The Service will be light and easy, for the Army will scarce march above 12 Miles per Day, and the Waggons and Baggage Horses, as they carry those Things that are absolutely necessary to the Welfare of the Army, must march with the Army and no faster, and are, for the Army's sake, always placed where they can be most secure, whether on a March or in Camp.

If you are really, as I believe you are, good and loyal Subjects to His Majesty, you may now do a most acceptable Service, and make it easy to yourselves; for three or four of such as cannot separately spare from the Business of their Plantations a Waggon and four Horses and a Driver, may do it together, one furnishing the Waggon, another one or two Horses, and another the Driver, and divide the Pay proportionably between you. But if you do not this Service to your King and Country voluntarily, when such good Pay and reasonable Terms are offered you, your Loyalty will be strongly suspected; the King's Business must be done; so many brave Troops, come so far for your Defence, must not stand idle, thro' your backwardness to do what may be reasonably expected from you; Waggons and Horses must be had; violent Measures will probably be used; and you will be to seek for a Recompence where you can find it, and your Case perhaps be little pitied or regarded.

FIGURE III

The wagon broadside, printed by William Dunlap at Lancaster. Courtesy, American Philosophical Society.

I have no particular Interest in this Affair; as (except the Satisfaction of endeavouring to do Good and prevent Mischief) I shall have only my Labour for my Pains. If this Method of obtaining the Waggons and Horses is not like to succeed, I am oblig'd to send Word to the General in fourteen Days; and I suppose Sir John St. Clair the Hussar, with a Body of Soldiers, will immediately enter the Province, for the Purpose aforesaid, of which I shall be sorry to hear, because I am,

very sincerely and truly
your Friend and Well-wisher,	B. Franklin


6. FROM JOHN SMITH ³³
[fol. 106r] Sir,	Carlisle 26 Apr. 1755.

According to promise I spoke to Wm. Buchanan about acting as Post-Master in Carlisle: and he tells me he is willing, if you will be so good as to give him directions how to act, which I suppose you will do.³⁴

There is likewise a young Man here, that proposes to ride, if he knew the Encouragement, either from here to Philadelphia or to Winchester. But it is to be considered, that if one man rides either from here to Philadelphia or to Winchester once a week, that he must keep too [two] good horses [fol. 106v] at least, which will be attended with great Expence, and his Wages must be sufficient to defray it.

Our Country is siezed with a very great panic lest Sir John St. Clair should be as good as his Word in coming down and forcing them to clear and open the road towards the Ohio. I beg, if possible, that something may be done by this Government immediately towards opening the road; for if Sir John should come and do, as he said, it would intirely ruin this Country.

I am,

Sir Your most obedient humble Servant
John Smith.


7. TO DEBORAH FRANKLIN
[fol. 106v] My dear Child,	Lancaster Apr. 26 1755.

I wrote you last Saturday from Annapolis, from whence I set out soon after I took Leave of the Governor. Col. Tasker accompanied us 18 miles of the way to his Country seat Belair,³⁵ where we dined and lodged that night. The next morning we took Leave of the kind Colonel, and proceeded for Frederick in Maryland, where we understood [fol. 107r] the General would be in a day or two. About three in the afternoon we came to a Bed inn, where we found him just mounted after a Gate, intending, as we heard, 14 miles further to a house we had designed to lodge at. I did not then speak to him, but let him proceed, and concluded to stay at that inn, since the General and his attendants would certainly take up all the Lodgings at the other. However a good-natured Gentleman of a sweet Temper, tho' he had a sour name, Capt. Crab,³⁶ inviting us to his house about two miles further, we glad[ly] decamped, supped, and lodged with him very well. The next day about noon we reached Frederick, and after Dinner waited on the Secretary, Governor Shirley's son, and delivered some Letters for him, and some for the General. He not knowing us hardly treated us with common civility; so we left him, and, having got a lodging in the last Inn for our selves, (tho' we were obliged to send our horses two miles out of town, the stalls and pastures of the town being all full) we supped that night with Col. Dunbar and a great number of the Officers, who treated us with the greatest politeness, and had an opportunity of removing some violent prejudices they had entertained [fol. 107v] against Pennsylvania.³⁷ The next morning Mr Secretary came to our Lodging, made his apologies very gentilly and delivered the General's Compliments, inviting us to dinner; and we dined and breakfasted with him every day afterwards that we stayed in town.

Having settled the rest of the post to his satisfaction, we were about to take our Leave, when accounts came in from all parts of Virginia and Maryland, that the people, who had promised to collect horses and waggons for the Army, had failed in the performance; and it was impossible they could march without them.³⁸ Sir John St. Clair, who is a most violent Creature, said the damned people of Pennsylvania could furnish them, if they would; but they were Traiterous Frenchmen in their hearts, and would do nothing; for of all the flour they had promised, but two Waggons-load were yet arrived &c. &c.³⁹ and desired the General only to furnish him with a body of Troops, and he would scour the Country from one End to the other; and if they would not furnish Waggons and horses he would take them by force, and chastise the Resistors with Fire and Sword. I undertook the defence of our people; and [fol. 108r] the General seeming satisfied at length desired I would do the good office to my Country and the Army, to use my Endeavours to obtain Waggons &c. by fair means.

Thus you see, I am never to have leisure, but engage myself more and more in business, that does not properly belong to me.⁴⁰

There is a great Court on tuesday, and another Court on thursday at York, which will soon give me an opportunity of knowing, whether I can succeed or not in this Affair.⁴¹ I promised nothing but to do my endeavours, and to let the General know in a short time what might be depended on. And I hope to be at home in about ten or twelve days.

Inclosed you have my advertisement. I am furnished with a large quantity of Cash by the General to make good the terms proposed.⁴²

The night after I left Frederic, I lodged miserably: but the next night got to Johnny Wright's⁴³ by a long and hard day's journey, where I was well accommodated, and yesterday I got here. I lodge at Debby's very comfortably, which is lucky for me, being indisposed with [fol. 108v] a Cold, and somewhat feverish.⁴⁴

I received here your two agreable Letters, and Sally's.⁴⁵ My Love to her. I cannot now write to Brother John or Mr. Hunter.⁴⁶ Let them know how I am situated.

The Generall was on all occasions very obliging to me, and offered to make this service worth my while; but I refused to accept of a farthing.

I am glad you have seen my friend Governor Shirley.⁴⁷ My respects to Mr. Pownall, if you chance to see him.⁴⁸ Write to me by every Opportunity. I long to be with you, being, as ever,

Your loving Husband

B.F.

Billy is gone to Carlisle to settle a post-office there, and contract for Waggons &c. I am glad you sent my London Letters. Take especial Care to forward the inclosed Letters, particularly those to Ireland.

8. PENNSYLVANIA ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ⁴⁹

[fol. 112v] At a meeting of the Committee the 29th of April 1755

Present Isaac Norris, Evan Morgan, Joseph Fox, James Pemberton.

The Secretary having laid before us a Letter from General Braddock to the Governor, urging the necessity of laying out the road towards the Ohio for the Convenience of marching his forces:⁵⁰

It was unanimously agreed, that as the Governor hath ordered the said road to be immediately cleared, the sum of two hundred pounds shall be now paid to the Secretary [fol. 113r] towards defraying the Charge thereof.

It was also now moved, that a present of some Refreshments should be sent to Col. Dunbar's officers to be distributed amongst them; and that twenty horses should be sent to them from Lancaster County. It was now agreed, that the said twenty horses should be purchased for their use by James and John Wright to be conveyed thence to the Camp, nearly agreable to a List now sent down from Lancaster by Benj. Franklin.⁵¹

9. FROM ISAAC NORRIS ⁵²

[Apr. 29, 1755?]⁵³

[fol. 111r] before the Committee thy Letter dated from Lancaster the 26th instant, and we have not only entered in to the Engagement for clearing the Roads, as by the minute of the Committee inclosed, but have actually paid⁵⁴ two hundred pounds towards it. We have also unanimously agreed to supply the subaltern officers of Col. Dunbar's Regiment with the List and some additions of Rice, Raisins &c. which we have ordered to be purchased here, and shall find them with all Expedition made up in parcels to be divided without trouble. Pray tell my Friend Wright, that I have received his Letter of the 24th. but I presume you have altered your measures since and that he intends to send the Wheat he has got bolted to the Camp.⁵⁵

I am extremely out of humour with the meanness of Cumberland County to purchase at high prices beyond their own agreement, and then put the Wheat into Mills, which cannot comply with their agreements, and to keep their Carriage till Necessity may engage the Commissioners to give extravagant Wages. But we may consider this more at leisure.

[fol. 111v] The Bills we have are in so much demand, that the three thousand pounds is gone, mostly sold for money. I have therefore prevailed with my Brother to let James Johnson⁵⁶ go up with two Books to be signed: as it will be blank for the other Names the danger of miscarriage is not great, as we have taken the Numbers.

Please to make my respects acceptable at Hempfield to all there, and ask J. Wright what method he has taken up to purchase Wheat and Flour without money.

Thy assured Friend
Isaac Norris


10. FROM WILLIAM FRANKLIN
[fol. 113r] Honored Father,	Carlisle Apr: 29. 1755.

After your leaving Mr. Wright's, he and I went to all the Traders on the River-side, and amongst them they promised to furnish 250 horses, and that they would go down to Lancaster, and engage with you; which I hope they have done.

I can make no guess of what success I shall have in this Country, as almost all the Traders have either sold or engaged their horses to the Camp at Wills's Creek; and there are very few Waggons to be had, excepting those [fol. 113v] about Conegogee, who cannot possibly hear of our proposals time enough to be here, and contract with me. I would have sent an Express there with some advertisements, but not one horse could be hired in this town fit for the purpose. I have got Justice Smith and Mr. Alricks⁵⁷ to order the Constables of the neighbouring Townships to summon the people to meet together and consider the proposals on this day. I have likewise dispersed the advertisements to as many different parts of the County, as I possibly could: and I have the promise of several persons, that they will bring down their horses and waggons to me to morrow, and enter into Contracts for sending them to the Camp. Severall, who have horses nearer the Camp than to this place, have promised, that they will go there, and engage, as they cannot possibly bring them here, and then take them to the Camp in time. So that I have good reason to believe, that tho' I may not on account of the shortness of my stay contract with any great number, yet I shall be the means of sending many to the Camp as soon as they can possibly collect the horses together. No objection is [fol. 114r] made to the terms by any, that I have met with. The principall difficulty I meet with is contracting with some, who have horses; and yet should they fail of complying with these contracts, have not money to repay the advance-money or forfeiture; and their horses being turned loose in the Woods would be hard to come at. And there are some, that I must contract with, whose horses cannot be got here in time to be valued before I go away. Therefore the Valuation must be left a blank till they come to Wills's Creek.

Mr. Wright being just going prevents my adding farther than that I am,

Your very dutiful Son
W. Franklin.

P.S. By what I can find, the Camp will not be in any great Want of either Wagons or Horses by the 20th of May, as a great many are determined to go, and order them forthwith to Wills's Creek.

11. FROM WILLIAM DUNLAP ⁵⁸

[fol. 114r] W. Dunlap, Printer at Lancaster, to Mr. B.F.
May 1.


12. FROM EVAN MORGAN
	[fol. 114v] May 1. Philadelphia

I think we were to blame in not writing to the General; for I have heard, that both himself and his officers never till very lately understood, that the £5000 worth of provisions was a Gift of Pennsilvania, but thought, that the King was to pay for it.

This Waggoner brings up part of the present destined for Col. Dunbar's officers.

[fol. 115r] We hear from Boston, that their forces are ready to go to the far Expedition, but are detained for want of arms, which are daily expected from England.⁵⁹

13. TO THE COMMANDING OFFICER AT FREDERIC ⁶⁰
[fol. 114r] Sir.	York May 2. 1755.

It is reported here, that the Regiment is marched [fol. 114v] from Frederic, and that some officers only are left to receive the stores from Rock Creek, and get them forwarded to Wills's Creek; and that Waggons are expected from hence to assist in that service. I have engaged a number of Waggons here for the Army, but they will not pass thro' Frederic, unless directed so to do, having a shorter road by 30 miles. Therefore I write this, that if you have occasion for Waggons for the purpose abovementioned, you may dispatch an Express to me at Lancaster where I shall be till the End of next Week, signifying the number you want; and I will direct so many to take their route thro' Frederic.

I am, Sir Your humble Servant
B. Franklin.

FIGURE VII

BL Add. MSS 4478b, fol. 114r showing a ghost of letter 11. Courtesy, British Library. An interactive Web supplement is available on http://oieahc.wm.edu/wmq/Apr09/houston.html .

14. FROM JOHN HARRIS JR. ⁶¹

[fol. 115r] May 2. Paxton

That an appointed meeting that Day the Inhabitants had agreed to furnish the English Camp with 5 Waggons, 4 Horses each team, and Drivers, to be at Wills's Creek on or before the 20th of May.


15. TO WILLIAM SHIRLEY JR.
[fol. 115r] Sir.	Lancaster May 5. 1755

I wrote to you on the 27th past, and inclosed you copies of my advertisements.

As soon as I got into this province from Frederic, I hastened the dispatch of the flour to Conegocheeg, and hope it will be all there, or near all, before the end of this Week.

At the Court of Oyer and Terminer here I got the Chief Justice⁶² to recommend the affair of Waggons and Horses to the County from the Bench, and to send home the Constables of every township to convene the people, that they might have an opportunity of making up a number of Waggons and Horses in each [fol. 115v] town ship; and to morrow is appointed for the Contractors to appear here, and agree with me. In the mean time I attended the Court at York, and my son went to Cumberland. Between us we have engaged 79 Waggons, the owners of which have entered into Contracts under hand and seal and to morrow I expect to compleat the 150. I inclose you the form of the Contracts.⁶³

I was obliged to give the Waggons time till the 20th of May: otherwise I found there could be no Expectation of getting near the Number.

I have received your favour of the 26th past. You may depend on having authentic Vouchers for every penny of the money put into my hands: but I find I shall want more; I suppose £200 for which I desire you will send me bills either on London or Virginia, by first opportunity, so I shall be obliged in the mean time to advance it.⁶⁴

I have as yet engaged but 200 horses; for one Simons, a Jew, having informed the people, by direction of Mr. Walker,⁶⁵ as he says, that 2d per diem &c. will be given at Wills's Creek, the Indian Traders and [fol. 116r] others are, as I am told, making up gangs of horses, to send thither: so that you will however be supplied, tho' at a dearer rate. Yet I expect a number more from such, as cannot send them conveniently to Wills's Creek.

The Quakers by their influence on the Dutch have been very serviceable to me in procuring the Waggons, particularly the Wrights, two brothers of York and Lancaster Counties.

The people of York County, who have been very hearty in supplying all the Waggons in their power, complain grievously of the inlisting of their Servants, as an unequal Tax on them, and a very great Oppression.⁶⁶ If those Servants could possibly be spared, I should take it as a high favour, that they might be restored to their masters at my request, and think it a sufficient recompense for my trouble. But this I submit to the General's Goodness and Discretion. My respectfull Compliments to his Excellency, to Capt. Orme, Capt. Morris, &c.⁶⁷

FIGURE IV

Frontispiece from [Benjamin Franklin], Plain Truth: Or, Serious Considerations On the Present State of the City of Philadelphia, and Province of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1747). Conestoga wagons, like the one in this drawing, were widely used by Pennsylvania farmers.

I am with great Esteem, Sir Your most humble Servant,

B.F.

[fol. 116v] P.S. The Waggons begin their march on Friday and Saturday next in two Divisions. Each Waggon will have 40 or 50 bushels of Oats, when they [go] from hence.

16. TO THOMAS DUNBAR

[fol. 116v] May 5.

Acquainting him with the present of the Committee of the Assembly to the subaltern Officers of the Army.

Dick Vernon's⁶⁸ pompous recruiting speech for Waggons was not used.

17. TO WILLIAM SHIRLEY JR.

[fol. 116v] Lancaster, May 7.

That he had this day completed the number of 150 Waggon; and could, he supposed, have engaged as many more, if wanted; but of horses he had only 259; but heard, that many were gone or going to be offered at Wills's Creek.

18. TO WILLIAM SHIRLEY JR. ⁶⁹

[fol. 116v] May 8. Lancaster

That his son would deliver with this the Contracts for 150 Waggons and 262 Horses.

"Tho' I have fallen short of the Number of Horses, I am in hopes you will have sufficient, as I hear many [fol. 117r] are to the Camp; the Owners from some reports expecting better Wages there, tho' all allow, that what I offered was fully sufficient; and had the time permitted, my applying to the other Counties, I am persuaded I could have got the whole."

Complains that a recruiting officer, Lieut. Culiny of Pepperel's⁷⁰ Regiment, begins to take away the people's bought servants. "Your Brother acted with honour and uprightness among us in that particular, as well as in every thing, and thereby gained so much esteem and respect that all sorts of people concurred to forward his Levies, and he got in a short time near 400 Men among us for your Father's regiment."⁷¹


19. TO EDWARD BRADDOCK
Sir.	[fol. 117r] Lancaster May 8 1755

I have now executed, as far as I was able in so short a time, your Excellency's Commission in procuring 150 Waggons and a number of Horses for the service of the Troops under your Command. And I must do this people the justice to say, that they have come into the furnishing of these Necessaries with great readiness and alacrity, many [fol. 117v] of them more from a sense of Duty, and a desire of rendering some service to so good a King, than for the sake of the offered Wages.

The leading Men of all Sects and parties assisted me. The Chief Justice of the Province and other Magistrates recommended the affair strongly in their Courts; and the Quakers were very particularly hearty and serviceable, choosing by actions rather than Compliments, to demonstrate their Zeal for his Majesty's service.

Please to accept my thanks for your Civilities to me and my Son at Frederic, and most sincere wishes for your success and Welfare. The Expedition you are now engaged in may in some respects seem but a small one; but in its Consequences it will be of the greatest importance to the British Nation.

I have the honour to be with all possible respect

Your Excellency's most obedient and most humble Servant

B.F.

20. TO THOMAS DUNBAR

[fol. 117v] May 8 Lancaster

"When it is considered, that not being so happy, as to obtain the Bill sent up to the Governor for giving £25,000 [fol. 118r] to this Expedition, we have nevertheless done all in our power by sending your army £5000 worth of flour, sending £10,000 in provisions to New England, to enable those people to make a Diversion in your favour; voting a large sum for cutting roads to facilitate the Carriage of Supplies to you, when you shall have entered the Ohio Country; and withall ordering a constant free post for your accommodation, which Grants have now exhausted our stock till the Governor shall be pleased to pass our bills, it is to be hoped, that a more favourable opinion of us may in time obtain among you. For my part, I am persuaded, that the more you know us, the better you will like us; and that during your stay in America, you will not any where find a more friendly and affectionate people than the Inhabitants of Pennsilvania.

21. FROM WILLIAM FRANKLIN ⁷²

[May 8–9, 1755?]

[fol. 118r] We had 40 Waggons appraised here on yesterday; but none of the Contracts were filled up till I came; and it took us up till Midnight before we could complete them. Never was such a Scene of Confusion, as we had during the whole [fol. 118v] time. There is not one, who is satisfied with the appraisement of his Waggons and Horses. Nothing but cursing and swearing at the appraisers, nay even threatening their lives. I had much ado to pacify them, they being almost all drunk. However, they have gone off this morning without giving me much disturbance.


22. TO JOHN READ ⁷³
	[fol. 116v] May 9
His appointment of J.R. Waggon-master.

23. INSTRUCTIONS TO WAGON MASTERS ⁷⁴
	[fol. 116v] [May 9–10?, 1755]
Mr. B. Franklin's Instructions to the Waggon Masters.

24. FROM WILLIAM SHIRLEY JR.
	[fol. 118v] Fort Cumberland Wills's Creek
Sir,	10 May 1755.

We arrived here an hour ago. Before I left Winchester I received your Letter of May 5th but have not yet got that, which you sent by Capt. Rutherford's Men, and Mr. Leslie setting out immediately, have not time to inquire for it.⁷⁵

You have done us great service in the Execution of the business you have kindly undertaken; and indeed without it, I do not see how the service could have been carried on, as the Expectations from Mary Land have come to nothing.

We have seen an advertisement very judiciously drawn up for the End proposed by it: but the last paragraph of it has greatly pleased and entertained your [fol. 119r] Friends here, as being a very proper ridicule and resentment of the ill Manners shown by the person described in it.⁷⁶

100

25. FROM WILLIAM SHIRLEY JR.

[fol. 119r] May 14 Fort Cumberland.

I have laid all your Letters before the General; who orders me to acquaint you, that he is greatly obliged to you for the great Care and ability, with which you have executed the business you undertook to him.

101

At your request he will with great pleasure discharge the Servants belonging to any persons, who have been serviceable to you, that may have inlisted in the Forces under his Command, or any others, for whom you may desire a discharge; and desires, that you would for that purpose send him their Names.

102

Since writing the above, the General having found upon inquiry, that all the great promises of the Provincial Contraction in these parts amount to no more than a supply of about 10 or 15 Waggons and 250 horses, has ordered me to beg the favour of you to assist him once more, if possible, by procuring 60 more Waggons with teams, and by completing the number of Horses you have already procured to 1500. [fol. 119v] For this purpose I inclose you another set of bills upon Col. Hunter⁷⁷ for £600 sterling.

103

26. WILLIAM SHIRLEY JR. TO ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS ⁷⁸

[Wills's Creek, May 14, 1755]

[fol. 119v] Dear Morris,

This goes by an Express to Franklin of your province; who has been of the greatest service in procuring Horses and Waggons for the forces. He has already done much, but we are obliged to have recourse to him for further assistance, and doubt not you will help him, if he has any occasion for you.

104

I cannot but honour Franklin for the last clause of his advertisement.

105

27. FROM WILLIAM FRANKLIN ⁷⁹

[fol. 119v] William's Ferry at the Mouth of
Conegocheeg May 15. 1755.

Account of a great Confusion among the Waggoners occasioned by a Dutch Quarter-master.

106

"'Tis scarcely to be believed what havock and oppression has been committed by the army in their march. Hardly a farmer [fol. 120r] in Frederic County has either Horse, Waggon or Servant to do the business of his plantation. Many are intirely ruined, being not able to plant their Corn, or do any thing for their subsistence. But what seems most extraordinary, is, that after they had pressed a considerable number of Waggons and Horses, they kept them standing at the Camp of this place for 7 or 8 days together under a Guard of soldiers, who would not suffer the Drivers to take the Horses out, or to go and get forage for them; so that many have died with hunger, after gnawing the tongues of the Waggon, to which they were fastened. The abuse they gave the people, at whose houses they stopped is scarce to be paralleled. They have not paid any of the Tavern-keepers much above one half of their bills, altho' no article in them is charged above the rate established by Law. And when they are shewn an authentic Copy of those rates, they grow immediately inraged, swearing that they are the Law during their stay in this Country; and that their Will and pleasure shall be the rule, by which the people shall square their Conduct.⁸⁰ Several of the Farmers, who made opposition to some of these outrageous doings [fol. 120v] have been sent for by a file of Musketeers, and kept along time confined, and otherwise mal-treated. To give you the many particulars of the like nature, which I [hear] almost every where, would be endless. However all those, who have given me these Informations, agree, that the General and others of the superior officers have acted in quite a different manner; and that it is by the subaltern officers chiefly they have been so scandalously insulted. Methinks, if any thing can add to the reproach of British Americans for giving reason to have these petty tyrants sent amongst us, it will be tamely submitting our selves to their arbitrary and unwarrantable insults. What must Posterity think of us, when history tells them, that such an infatuation prevailed in the Counsels of America, as to render it necessary for 1000 Men to be sent over to defend 3 or 400,000 against one quarter of their number? But enough on this head: I can scarcely think of it with patience.⁸¹

107

28. FROM WILLIAM SHIRLEY JR. ⁸²

[May 14–19, 1755?]

[fol. 121v] Very few Waggons or Horses having been provided for the Expedition, except by your self, the General had sent an Express to you, desiring your assistance in getting 60 more and 1500 or more Horses. The messenger was met by Mr. Franklin; and we find from him, that tho' they might easily be procured, it would be impossible to be done in time for our march.

108

The General has this day wrote to my Father, informing him of Lieut. Culiny's behaviour; and as he disapproves the practice of inlisting indented Servants, directing him particularly in this case to grant discharges to all such, in whose favour you shall make application, their masters first refunding the bounty-money, where any has been paid to them.

109

29. FROM WILLIAM FRANKLIN ⁸³

[fol. 120v] May 19. From the camp at Wills's Creek

That he arrived there well the morning of the day before.

110

"The General received me very graciously, invited Mr. Grace⁸⁴ and my self to dinner, and told me, that he had wrote over [fol. 121r] to England, that you had done him more real Service than all the persons in America put together. Mr. Orme and the other officers were also full of thanks to us for the services we had done them. Sir John also came, and waited upon me as soon as I arrived, and took me by the hand in a most courteous manner, and said, that he should write to England of the great service you had done the army.⁸⁵ I told him, that he would always find you ready to serve the army in general, or him in particular. By what I hear from all the Officers your advertisement afforded them a great deal of Diversion. Mr. Orme told me, that the General laughed for an hour together at it. And Sir John himself looked on it as a kind of Compliment, till he heard, that the officers made themselves merry with it; and even now he seems rather to be angry with them than you.

111

You cannot conceive what a prodigious Effect the present from the Committee has had in favour of our province. All the officers say, it is an extremely gentile one, and comes very a propos. Col. Dunbar says, it shall be published in the English News papers.⁸⁶ They say, that the other Provinces have promised them a great [fol. 121v] deal; but that Pennsilvania has done the most for them. They wish it had been their Lot to have come into Pennsilvania instead of Virginia, as they might then have furnished themselves with whatever they wanted much more readily and at much easier rates.

112

30. TO WILLIAM SHIRLEY JR.

[fol. 119v] 20 May from Pensilvania.

I am glad the advertisement afforded any Entertainment at the Camp. It answered its End tolerably among the people.

113

The Germans understood mighty well the word Hussar.

114

31. WILLIAM FRANKLIN TO SIR JOHN ST. CLAIR

[fol. 121v] May 28. From the Mouth of the Conegogee

Complains, that a large quantity of flour lay there exposed to [fol. 122r] the Weather.

32. FROM WILLIAM SHIRLEY JR.

[fol. 122r] May 29. Wills's Creek

That the General had wrote to him (Mr. F.) to desire his further assistance in enabling the General to lay in a magazine of flour for that place to serve for a second Convoy.

115

33. TO WILLIAM SHIRLEY JR.

[fol. 112r] June 3. Philadelphia

Lieut. Culiny, before he went away, discharged those, he inlisted, or satisfied their Masters; and when I came to Philadelphia, I found the practice had not been so generally gone into by the other Officers, as was represented to me.

116

34. PENNSYLVANIA ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE TO JOHN LESHER ⁸⁷

[fol. 112r] June 4.

Expressing their satisfaction in hearing, that there was so good a Disposition in the Inhabitants of Oley to the King's Service, as that it was proposed to furnish eight Waggons for the present occasion out of the Township.

117

N.B. The above was written to satisfy some of the foolish Germans, who said they would not furnish Waggons on the Governor's order, but would do it, if the Assembly or Committee approved of or desired it.

118

35. FROM JOHN HAMILTON ⁸⁸

[fol. 123r] June 9. From Wills's Creek

Our Regiment with the light Horse march with the General tomorrow. All the rest are gone before. We seem to be apprehensive of a worse Death than being shot, if not supported by the Pensilvanians. In short our whole Dependence for every necessary is upon them.

119

36. THOMAS PENN TO RICHARD PETERS ⁸⁹

[fol. 123v] June 11. Extract of a Letter from Mr. Penn to Mr. Peters dated at London.

120

Your Letter of April 30th by Capt. Reeve gave the first intelligence of the Congress at Alexandria; and I immediately communicated it to my Lord Grenville and Sir Tho. Robinson, which last took it down in writing, and laid it yesterday before the Duke⁹⁰ and the Lords Justices, who were pleased to find, that we had ordered roads to be made, and that such a number of Horses and Waggons were likely to be got. This last service is looked upon as a very great one, and for which I shall send to Mr. Franklin my hearty thanks. I have not wrote to him, as I was to confer with Sir Everard Falkener⁹¹ upon the Scheme for extending the posts. Pray tell Mr. Franklin this, and that he may be sure his service in furnishing the Waggons and Horses shall be properly represented.

121

37. TO EDWARD BRADDOCK ⁹²

[fol. 122v] 12 June.

In answer to the General's Letter of 29 May, requesting Mr F. to procure a number of Waggons to carry up the flour given by the Province from Conegochee.

122

"By the time this reaches your hands, I apprehend you will your self have a better Opportunity at Wills's Creek of engaging Waggons in that service. For my Friends the Wrights of Susquehanna (who I had requested to assist Capt. Leslie) inform me, that they suppose near 60 Waggons were set out from these parts on or before the 8th instant with forage for the Camp; and we have here engaged and loaded all, that could possibly be secured in this Country, amounting to near sixty, fifty four of which are now in their way to Wills's Creek.⁹³

123

38. TO JAMES WRIGHT

[fol. 122v] June 19

The Governor harasses the House with message after message founded, as he says, on Letters and advices he has received, which however he will not lay before the House. A Bill is going up to give £15,000, ten of to General Braddock, and five for the Roads, Indian Expenses &c. I do not suppose it will pass.⁹⁴ The Governor spurs with both heels, but reins in [fol. 123r] with both hands.⁹⁵ At this rate no public service can be performed.

124

39. FROM EDWARD BRADDOCK

[fol. 123r] June 21. Bear Camp

The measures you propose taking for prevailing upon many of the Waggoners to engage in this service are extremely well judged, and I hope will have this Effect.

125


40. TO RICHARD PARTRIDGE ⁹⁶
Sir,	Philadelphia. July 2. 1755.

By the last Ship, Capt. Shirley, I sent you, per Order of the Speaker, Copies of some Letters from the Officers of the Army to me, that you might have it in your Power to show the Ministry on any proper Occasion, that notwithstanding the Publick Reproaches thrown on this Province, as unwilling to assist the King's Forces, we had really been more serviceable to them, and had more of their Good Will than any of the neighbouring Provinces. But I would not, on any Account have those Letters printed.

126

As the Proprietor, it is suppos'd, has instructed the Governor to consent to no Money Bill by which any Money raised from the People may be disposed of by the Assembly without his Approbation, all our late Bills for giving Money to the Crown have been refused; and the Governor and Assembly are not likely soon to agree on any Bill of the kind, they being of Opinion, that as the Proprietors Estate is by our Laws exempted from Taxes, and so nothing is paid by him into the Publick Treasury, therefore he can have no natural or equitable Right to interfere in the Disposition of Money no part of which was ever his own; but the whole arising from the People, their Representatives, they think, are the only proper Persons to dispose of it. And indeed, it seems to have been very fortunate of late, that the Assembly had by Law some Money in their Power; for by that means near £20,000 has been and soon will be afforded to the present Expedition, which otherwise could not have been obtained, as Things are at present circumstanc'd. And besides, in a Constitution like ours, by which no Law can be pass'd without a Governor present in the Province, and so in Case of his Death or Absence no Money can be raised, it seems absolutely necessary that some should be always in the Hands and Disposal of the Assembly, to answer Emergencies. I suppose the Speaker and Mr. Callender write fully; I have only time to add that I am, very respectfully, Sir,

127

Your most obedient
Servant

B. Franklin

41. TO EDWARD BRADDOCK

[fol. 123r] July 7. Philadelphia

The Waggons, that went from hence with forage to Wills's Creek returned well and satisfied. The Engagement I made to them in your name, that they should not be detained, having been punctually observed, we shall find less difficulty, I imagine, in procuring Waggons another time.⁹⁷

128

I congratulate you on our good news from Halifax.⁹⁸ It gives us all great pleasure: but the News of your [fol. 123v] success on the Ohio will justly give us greater.

129


42. FROM WILLIAM SHIRLEY ⁹⁹
[fol. 125v] Dear Sir	Hudson's River July 10th 1755

I was determined not to go to Niagara without paying my Compliments to you before my departure.¹⁰⁰

130

It gave me great pleasure to find in a Letter to me from General Braddock, that he was so sensible of the great service you had done for that part of the Expedition under his Command.¹⁰¹

131

No person can conceive the endless difficulties and disappointments in carrying a Provincial Expedition into Execution, when several Colonies are concerned, but those who experience it. I have gone thro' the whole Scene in that of Crown point, which hath often been a ground, and in danger of foundering; and I will not ensure it now.

132

I delivered the night before I left Boston to Dr. Clark his manuscript Essay upon the importance of the Northern Colonies &c. which he is now publishing. I wish I could have found time to correct it; but I had not a moment to do it in. Your treatise, which is to be annexed, hath been already printed off some time.¹⁰²

133

43. FROM JOHN HAMILTON [FOL. 123V]

[fol. 123v] July 16.

From the Camp at Widow Barringers.¹⁰³

Sir. I intended before this to have sent you the particulars of that unfortunate action at Monongahela, but [fol. 124r] it is very difficult to know how it was. As far as I can comprehend it, I will let you know.

134

The 9th of July the General was within about nine miles of the French fort. He had seen no Enemy except a few Indians, who ran away at his approach. He had no Indians with him, that durst venture out; and, I believe, not the least intelligence. They were led by their Guides, or rather by Frazier,¹⁰⁴ one of them, twice cross the Monongahela, when, it is now said, they ought not to have passed it all: Some say, Frazier sold them; others, that he took them that way to carry the road thro' a plantation he had there. Col. Gage¹⁰⁵ with 200 Men and two Cannon took possession of the banks at Fraziers, and continued there untill the whole Army passed. After that they thought themselves secure. After they had marched about a mile the Front received a most smart fire without seeing any Enemy, on which the Generall ordered the Troops to march up to their Assistance, which was done in great Confusion thro' Waggons, Baggage, and Cattle. The Enemies then almost surrounded them: The Officers were all picked out, as marks, as you may judge from those of our Regiment. We had twenty five in the [fol. 124v] field, twenty of whom were killed or wounded; and every one of the rest had several shot thro' their cloathes, hats &c. This threw the soldiers into confusion, and after standing till two thirds of them were cut to pieces were siezed with so strong a panic, that nothing could recover them. Take it all together, there was never known so many killed in proportion to their number. Col. Dunbar was forty five miles from the Action. When the General came up, he ordered all the Canons, military stores, and provisions to be destroyed, by which Means he had horses to carry off the wounded.

135

This account is not in the military style, and very imperfect; but hope to see you, and discourse more. Inclosed is a List of the killed and wounded in the action, tho' I have done it in so great a hurry, that I fear you will scarcely understand it.

136

Col. Dunbar desires me to tell you, that it gives him infinite concern he could not write to you: but I can assure you he has been so plagued, that he has not time to write to his best Friends, and scarcely to eat his Meat. He desires his Compliments to you and [your] Son, as does

Your most humble and [fol. 125r] obedient Servant
John Hamilton

List
General Braddock died of his Wounds July 13.
Capt. Orme Roger}
Roger Morris}	aid de Camps wounded.
Geo. Washington, Esq.,	aid de Camp
William Shirley Esq.,	Secretary killed
Sr John St. Clair, Deputy
Quarter Master General,	wounded
Lieut. Matthew Leslie,
Assistant Quarter Master General,	wounded
Francis Halket Esq. Major of the Brigade¹⁰⁶

137

according to the most exact returns we can as yet get, above seven hundred private Men were killed and wounded, exclusive of officers, Serjeants, Guides, Women, and other followers of the Camp.

138

44. FROM ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS ¹⁰⁷

[July 21, 1755]

[fol. 125r] Sir.

If you can spare a few minutes, I shall be glad to have a word or two with you upon some intelligence I have received from the westward, which will make it necessary to take some step immediately to prevent the back Countries from being deserted. I am Sir Yours

139

Monday 11 o' Clock

Rob. H. Morris

45. FROM JAMES READ ¹⁰⁸

[fol. 125v] 25 July. Reading

Dear Sir, The late accounts of the shamefull Defeat [fol. 126r] of our Army under General Braddock have given a shock to all this part of the Country. Our Inhabitants are apprehensive of being visited by the Indians: for we have vast barrens and hills to the north west of this town, extending to the Ends of the Province; so that we have but few Inhabitants near us on that side. I hope the Legislature will think seriously of our defenceless State, and enable us to put ourselves into a Condition to drive back our Enemies.

140

I am deeply grieved for our great Loss in the artillery. I think it irretrievable, and fear much that if his Excellency Major General Shirley should succeed in his attack on fort Niagara, yet it will be retaken by the Enemy with the artillery which we have furnished them with. They have a road lately cut from Fort Du Quesne thro' a fine level Country to Niagara.¹⁰⁹

141

I think our Army was full of Reprobates, who never had any serious thought of what they were about; and our Officers were too confident of their own strength, and despised their Enemy.¹¹⁰ Of the ill Consequences of such self-confidence and Contempt of Enemies you may read in the American Magazine for the Year 1746 p. 296 &c. I believe too we may justly say of them, that they were mighty to drink Wine [fol. 126v] Men of strength to mingle strong drink.¹¹¹

142

Something surely is wanting to rouse the inhabitants of the Province out of their Lethargy. We have an open Enemy on our borders, and a popish intestine Enemy spread thro' all the Land.

143


46. FROM WILLIAM HUNTER
[fol. 126v] Dear Sir,	Williamsburg July 27 1755

**I cannot forbear mentioning what I wish I could forget, our shamefull Defeat at Ohio, which, if reports be true, can scarcely find its parallel in History.¹¹² It happened on the 9th and we had advice of it the 13th at night, but flattered ourselves it was false, till an Express this week has confirmed it. You will see the account published in the Gazette. The Governor says, but, I believe, without reason, that there are many damned Lies in it, which occasioned the postscript, of which no one here takes any notice. He wanted to publish much such an account as he did last Year of Washington's Defeat, and is therefore so frantic about this, that he threatens to nail up the office.¹¹³ This, I believe, will occasion me some warm Work, for which I wish [fol. 127r] myself better in health.

144

The following additional Circumstances are here reported, and I am afraid, with too much foundation: that there were but four hundred of the Enemy, who being covered with wild pease breast-high, and falling down as soon as they had fired, lost scarce a man: That our artillery was fired but four rounds for want of ammunition. That at the first fire the Regulars fled, and being rallied in confusion fired directly on the Virginians, and killed more of them then the Enemy did; That the General would by no means permit a Man to take shelter and fight the Enemy in their own way, which would in all probability have prevented the sad Consequences: That they fled, or retired, as they call it, in such Confusion, that the wounded General and Colours had nearly fallen into the Enemy's hands: and That a great number of metal buttons have been extracted from our wounded, a convincing proof, that the Enemy had in a manner exhausted their ammunition: That when, in their retreat, they came in sight of Dunbar's detachment, great numbers deserted from him, and he immediately blew up the shells at least, if not the powder, expecting the Enemy to pursue them, and retiring in Confusion. There are many other reports, but the above, I believe, are nearly true.

145


47. FROM ROBERT ORME
Dear Sir	[Fort Cumberland], [fol. 127v] 27 July

I am just able to acknowledge the receipt of your Letter, which came to my hands since I have been at this place ill of my Wounds.

146

The Manuscript you was so kind, as to send me, afforded me much Entertainment; and, I flatter myself, some knowledge. I implicitly agree with the author in his sentiments.¹¹⁴

147

Our affair of the 9th I would send you a particular account of, but my extreme Weakness and confinement to my Bed disables me. Governor Morris will, I am convinced, show you his Letter and List.¹¹⁵ Our family suffered greatly: The Generall and Shirley killed, and Mr. Morris and my self very much wounded. The ball entered just above my knee, and went out near my Groin. But the surgeons tell me I shall do well. I purpose setting out for Philadelphia as soon as I am able; for I lost money and baggage, and am extremely destitute of every thing here. I will not fail waiting upon you as soon as I can limp to your Door.

148

Out of 86 Officers 63 were killed or wounded, and 714 men out of 1100 dead.

149

I beg you will present my Compliments to your son. [fol. 128r] I am sure you condole with us in great Loss. I am, Dear Sir,

150

	Your most humble and obedient Servant
	Robt. Orme

48. FROM JAMES INNES ¹¹⁶
[fol. 128r] Aug. 17. Fort Cumberland

Our Troops were no sooner off the field, and the Enemy in full possession of our artillery, then they instantly fell to work, burnt and destroyed our haubitzers and twelve pounders, not attempting to carry off any thing but our small two six pounders.

151

Depending upon our retreat was only in order to bring up Col. Dunbar, and attack them afresh, as they [sic] we had numbers sufficient, little dreaming, that they had got the Victory. And, I am afraid, all for despising and undervaluing our Enemies; what was not thought worth spending a thought about in condescending to advise with those, who could have prevented the mischief.

152

49. TO RICHARD PARTRIDGE ¹¹⁷

Philadelphia. August 28. 1755.

You will receive by this Ship the Speeches and Messages that have passed between the Governor and Assembly in the late Sitting, which ended on Friday last, Also a Copy of the Bill for granting £50,000 to the King's Use which he refused to pass. It is expected that the Proceedings of the Assembly will be much misrepresented and therefore I am directed by the House, to State Matters clearly in their due light to you that you may be able to justify the Assembly so far as they are fairly and rightly justifiable——¹¹⁸

153

At the opening of the Sessions the Governor made a Speech to the House, acquainting them with the unhappy Situation of Publick Affairs by the Defeat of General Braddock, and recommending the Grant of a Supply for the Kings Service, withall cautioning them to avoid every Thing that ought revive any former dispute between him and them: The House accordingly voted a Supply of £50,000 for the Kings Use, to be raised by an equitable Tax on all Estates Real and Personal, which was thought a great Sum for this Province, tho' perhaps it may appear otherwise in England where 'tis said we have been invidiously represented as vastly Rich and able. In observance of the Governors Caution to avoid all former Disputes about extending the Excise Act, the House Chose to raise the Money by a Tax.

154

To avoid all Disputes about suspending Clauses, in Paper Money Acts, and the Royal Instruction enjoining such Clauses, they chose to make no Paper Money——

155

To avoid all Disputes about the Disposition of the Money arising by the Tax, and yet to Secure a right Application, they proposed by the Bill to put it into the Hands of Commissioners to be disposed of by them for the Kings Service, with the Consent and approbation of the Governor or of Commander in chief of the Kings Forces in North America.

156

But to obtain a Credit for imediate use as Collecting the Tax would require some Time they empowered the said Commissioners to draw orders on the Treasurer (not exceeding the Sum granted) payable out of the Tax as it should come into his hands which Orders it was presumed would have at least a short credit as orders on our Treasury have always been paid with punctuality and honor.

157

Lest the Issuing of these Orders should be considered as a making of Money To avoid all disputes on that head the Orders were not proposed a Legal Tender.

158

And to secure their Credit and give the Creditor a Compensation for the Credit he afforded, the Orders were to bear an Interest till paid at the Rate of 5 percent per annum.

159

To avoid all disputes concerning the Propriety of extending hither an Act of Parliament expressly made for other Colonies instead of taking more than 5 years for the Sinking these Orders, the House chose to have them sunk in Two years and so it was order'd in the Bill.

160

Thus all former Disputes and every thing that might seem to interfere with Royal Instructions, Old or new, or Acts of Parliament in Force, or not in Force here, and the like were carefully avoided by the House in the formation of their Bill.—And the Governor not being able to make any Objections to the passing of it on those accounts, was driven to the necessity of Saying—That he was restrained by the Proprietors—and accordingly refused his assent.

161

A True Copy of the Extract per Rd. Partridge.

162

Notes

Alan Houston is a professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego. Research for this article was funded in part by sabbatical grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Philosophical Society. The author is grateful to Fred Anderson, Bernard Bailyn, Ellen Cohn, Jonathan Dull, and Markman Ellis for incisive comments, criticisms, and suggestions.

¹� Edward Braddock's campaign and its military and political contexts are best captured in Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766 (New York, 2000), esp. 77–107. More narrowly focused studies include Stanley Pargellis, "Braddock's Defeat," American Historical Review 41, no. 2 (January 1936): 253–69; Nicholas Thayer Nichols, "The Organization of Braddock's Army," William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 4, no. 2 (April 1947): 125–47; Charles Hamilton, ed., Braddock's Defeat: The Journal of Captain Robert Cholmley's Batman; The Journal of a British Officer; Halkett's Orderly Book (Norman, Okla., 1959); Paul E. Kopperman, Braddock at the Monongahela (Pittsburgh, Pa., 1977); René Chartrand, Monongahela, 1754–55: Washington's Defeat, Braddock's Disaster (Oxford, 2004). Major print collections of primary documents are Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the Province of Pennsylvania, met at Philadelphia, on the Fourteenth of October, Anno Domini 1754, and continued by Adjournments (Philadelphia, 1755); [Samuel Hazard], ed., Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, from the Organization to the Termination of the Proprietary Government, 10 vols. (Harrisburg, Pa., 1851–52); Hazard et al., eds., Pennsylvania Archives, Selected and Arranged from Original Documents in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth ... , 9 series (Harrisburg, Pa., 1852–1935); Winthrop Sargent, ed., The History of an Expedition against Fort Du Quesne, in 1755; Under Major-General Edward Braddock, Generalissimo of H. B. M. Forces in America (Philadelphia, 1856); Stanley Pargellis, ed., Military Affairs in North America, 1748–1765: Selected Documents from the Cumberland Papers in Windsor Castle (New York, 1936); Hamilton, Braddock's Defeat; Leonard Labaree et al., eds., The Papers of Benjamin Franklin (New Haven, Conn., 1959– ); Kopperman, Braddock at the Monongahela.

²� Alan Houston, ed., Franklin: The Autobiography and Other Writings on Politics, Economics, and Virtue (Cambridge, 2004), 112–13 (quotations). Edward Braddock was not alone; for months, Governor Robert Dinwiddie had blamed the growing power of France in North America on the "backwardness" and "lethargic Supineness" of colonists and colonial assemblies. See Dinwiddie to Sir Thomas Robinson, Mar. 17, 1755, in British Library, Additional Manuscripts 32853, fol. 321 ("backwardness"); Dinwiddie to Newcastle, Mar. 17, 1755, BL, Add. MSS 32853, fol. 325 ("lethargic"). Pennsylvania's wealth and large population, when combined with Quaker pacifism, made it especially vulnerable to this line of attack. For an example, see Braddock to Robinson, Mar. 18, 1755, BL Add. MSS 32853, fol. 347. The stakes were high. Governor Robert Hunter Morris condemned the assembly's actions in an attempt to strengthen official support for the proprietors. See Morris to Robinson, Apr. 9, 1755, Colonial Office 5/15, fol. 256, British National Archives, Kew, Eng.; Morris to Robinson, Aug. 28, 1755, CO 5/16, fol. 154, ibid. Governor William Shirley, in turn, used the failure of the colonies to fully support the war effort to justify a London-based union of the colonies. See Shirley to Robinson, Dec. 24, 1754, CO 5/15, fols. 49–54, ibid. For the broader context, see Houston, Benjamin Franklin and the Politics of Improvement (New Haven, Conn., 2008), 161–81.

³� Franklin's personal liability exceeded £20,000 sterling. See Lewis Walker Burd, ed., The Burd Papers, vol. 2, The Settlement of the Waggoners' Accounts Relating to General Braddock's Expedition Towards Fort Du Quesne by Edward Shippen, et al., Commissioners (n.p., 1899). William Shirley assumed responsibility for the loss in September 1755, with final resolution in January 1756. See Shirley to Franklin, Sept. 17, 1755, in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 190–91; "An Account of the Warrants drawn by General Shirley," Records of the Treasury, 1/360, National Archives. "Of 1,373 Anglo-American enlisted men in the Field, 430 were killed or left for dead on the battlefield, while 484 were wounded; of the 96 officers, 26 were killed and 36 wounded." The French and Indian forces included "36 officers, 72 regulars ... 146 Canadian militiamen, and 637 Indians"; twenty-three died and sixteen were "seriously wounded." See Anderson, Crucible of War, 760 n. 17, 99, 105.

⁴� "Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, [Autograph manuscript signed], 1771–1789," MSS HM 9999, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif., fol. 178 (quotation). In modern editions of the Autobiography, this passage is often silently replaced by the specific text Franklin is referring to, the printed "Wagon Advertisement." Franklin's contributions to Braddock's campaign are discussed in every recent biography. His provision of wagons is best studied in Whitfield J. Bell Jr. and Leonard W. Labaree, "Franklin and the 'Wagon Affair,' 1755," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 101, no. 6 (December 1957): 551–58. For the Pennsylvania context, the best starting point remains James H. Hutson, Pennsylvania Politics, 1746–1770: The Movement for Royal Government and Its Consequences (Princeton, N.J., 1972). A quire was twenty-four sheets of paper; a quire book was composed of a single quire of paper, folded once to create forty-eight leaves and then bound.

⁵� "Copies of Letters relating to the March of General Braddock," BL Add. MSS 4478b, fols. 105–28; Houston, Franklin and the Politics of Improvement. For the correspondence to Richard Partridge, see letters 40 and 49 (277–78, 284–86). I located Franklin's letter of July 2, 1755 (letter 40), using a modern research tool, the electronic "Archives to Archives" database of the UK archives network, http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a. I discovered letter 49 the old-fashioned way, by reading the voluminous records of the Colonial Office at the National Archives.

⁶� Horace Walpole to Rev. William Cole, Feb. 5, 1780, in W. S. Lewis and A. Dayle Wallace, eds., Horace Walpole's Correspondence with the Rev. William Cole (New Haven, Conn., 1937), 2: 186–88 ("young setting dog," 2: 186); James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Comprehending an Account of his Studies and Numerous Works, in Chronological Order (London, 1791), 1: 85–86 ("brisk as a bee"), 1: 86 ("diligence"). Despite Thomas Birch's importance to mid-eighteenth-century British intellectual life, he has been treated in only one biography. See A. E. Gunther, An Introduction to the Life of the Rev. Thomas Birch D.D., F.R.S., 1705–1766 (Halesworth, Eng., 1984). Markman Ellis is currently exploring Birch's engagement with scientific and literary circles in 1750s London. On Birch's manuscript collection, see The British Library Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts, 1756–1782: Additional Manuscripts 4101–5017 (London, 1977).

⁷� Thomas Birch to Philip Yorke, July 6, 1754, BL Add. MSS 35398, fol. 183 ("long letter"); Birch to Yorke, Aug. 9, 1755, BL Add. MSS 4324a, fol. 54, ibid. ("backwardness of our colonies"); "Certificate of Nomination to the Royal Society," in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 375–76. In 1756 and 1757, Peter Collinson and Birch corresponded about Franklin's papers and his arrival in London. See BL Add. MSS 4403, fols. 16–17.

⁸� For dinners with Franklin, see Thomas Birch, "Diary," BL Add. MSS 4478c, fols. 317–35. Philip Yorke was known as Lord Royston until 1764, when he succeeded as the 3d Earl of Hardwicke. On the Hardwicke Circle, see David Philip Miller, "The 'Hardwicke Circle': The Whig Supremacy and Its Demise in the 18th-Century Royal Society," Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 52, no. 1 (January 1998): 73–91. For more about the Club of Honest Whigs, see Verner W. Crane, "The Club of Honest Whigs: Friends of Science and Liberty," WMQ 23, no. 2 (April 1966): 210–33, esp. 211–12. References to Franklin litter Birch's correspondence. Birch, for example, reported conversations with Franklin about American affairs on July 28, 1759, and again on Jan. 2, 1766. See Birch to Yorke, BL Add. MSS 35399, fols. 68–69; Birch to Yorke, BL Add. MSS 35400, fols. 357–58. He recorded a similar conversation with William Franklin on Aug. 23, 1760, BL Add. MSS 35399, fols. 145–46. See also Birch, "Diary," BL Add. MSS 4478c, fols. 351, 354, 363–64, 384, 386, 400–1; Birch to Yorke, July 11, 1761, BL Add. MSS 35399, fol. 214; Birch to Yorke, Jan. 2, 1766, BL Add. MSS 35400, fol. 357. Unfortunately, no study of Benjamin Franklin's relationship to Birch exists; indeed, no mention of it, however fleeting, is made in any existing biography. This lacuna may simply reflect the paucity of the printed record. Only two brief printed letters are in the Papers of Benjamin Franklin, both from Franklin to Birch, dated Feb. 5 and Apr. 16, 1762. See Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 10: 30, 74–75. To them may be added the following previously unpublished note:

To Thomas Birch

Monday morn. [1765?]

Mr. Franklin's Compliments to Dr. Birch, and sends Mr. Winthrop's Letter which he had from Dr. Pringle.—And a Paper with two Packs of Philosophical Cards which he had from Dr. Morton—

See BL Add. MSS 4475, fol. 125. John Winthrop (1714–79) was Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard University. In February 1762 Ezra Stiles encouraged Franklin to nominate Winthrop to the Royal Society, but he did not do so until June 1765. See Stiles to Franklin, Feb. 5, 1762, in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 10: 30–31, esp. 10: 30–31 n. 5. Franklin was in Philadelphia from November 1762 to November 1764, making 1765 the most likely date for this note.

⁹� Franklin refers to only one other set of quire books in his correspondence. Before leaving for France in 1776, he entrusted Joseph Galloway with a "Trunk of Papers" that held "quire Books of rough Drafts of my Letters, containing all my Correspondence when in England, for near twenty Years." Though Galloway had once been Franklin's ally, he was a loyalist during the Revolution and fled to England in 1778. In a letter of Sept. 13, 1781, Franklin asked his son-in-law, Richard Bache, to look for the missing quire books in Pennsylvania. See Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 35: 471. Three years later Franklin plaintively wrote his son William that the quire books had not been found. "I hope you have got them. If not, they are lost." See Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, Aug. 16, 1784, in The Papers of Benjamin Franklin digital edition, http://www.franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=42&page=129. Franklin's fears were realized, and like the quire book of 1755, the London quire books have never been found. From the outset of Braddock's campaign, both the assembly and the governor understood the importance of the documentary record to their constitutional struggles. This was explicit in the assembly's message of Sept. 29, 1755: "The Governor is pleased to doubt our having such Letters as we mentioned; we are therefore, in our own Vindication, under a Necessity of quoting to him some Parts of them; and will shew him the Originals whenever he shall please to require it." See Votes and Proceedings of the House, 175. Robert Hunter Morris, for his part, pretended that efforts to obtain wagons were entirely his doing. See Morris to Edward Braddock, June 12, 1755, CO 5/16, fols. 21–22, National Archives. In early 1759 Franklin may also have used the quire book to establish Pennsylvania's claim to compensation from Great Britain for expenses incurred in the war against France. See "To the Lords Commissions of the Treasury," April 1759, in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 8: 333–38. For the asbestos purse, see Franklin to Sir Hans Sloane, June 2, 1725, ibid., 1: 54. We know Franklin shared letters from the colonies on other occasions. On July 28, 1759, for example, Thomas Birch wrote Philip Yorke that "Mr. Benj. Franklin of Pennsylvania shew'd me an Extract of Letters receiv'd on Monday last." See BL Add. MSS 35399, fol. 68.

¹⁰� Thomas Birch's letters to Philip Yorke in 1755 frequently reported news of Edward Braddock's campaign. For examples, see June 21, August 30, and September 6, BL Add. MSS 35398, fols. 246, 281–82, 285. On learning of Braddock's defeat, Yorke wrote Birch September 6, "I doubt not, but you in London are now thinking and talking of Nothing else." See BL Add. MSS 35398, fol. 283.

¹¹�Catalogue of Additions, vii (quotation). The original pagination runs from 1 to 12 and then from 37 to 71, whereas the numbers of the bound volume run continuously from 105 to 128. The surviving manuscript averages 196 words per page, so approximately forty-seven hundred words are missing. Of these missing words, just over five hundred would have been part of the missing conclusion to the wagon advertisement of April 26, leaving forty-two hundred words unaccounted for. The first catalog of the Birch manuscripts was composed by Westley Hall in 1771 and is now cataloged as BL Add. MSS 4478a. Item 4478b was not included in Samuel Ayscough's original catalog and was only later inserted by hand. See BL Add. MSS 5015.

¹²� Four of the six third-party items are easily explained. Three (items 4, 8, and 34) are minutes of an assembly committee to which Franklin belonged. Letter 31 is from his son William to a British officer. The remaining third-party letters (letters 26 and 36) contain glowing praise for Franklin's involvement in the wagon affair. Franklin was in regular contact with the recipients of both letters and must have made copies to include in his quire book. This practice would have been consistent with his use of official praise of his actions to buttress the assembly's case against the proprietors. Circulating third-party letters was not uncommon. On Dec. 22, 1755, for example, Conrad Weiser sent Robert Hunter Morris "Extract of a letter from Mr. William Peters to Mr. Penn." See CO 5/17, fol. 103, National Archives.

¹³� William Shirley Jr. (1721–55), son of the governor of Massachusetts, was Edward Braddock's secretary.

¹⁴� Franklin gives this impression in his Autobiography, and scholars have followed his lead. Thus Fred Anderson concludes that Franklin's advertisement "worked a gospel wonder" (Anderson, Crucible of War, 93). For similar judgments, see Carl van Doren, Benjamin Franklin (New York, 1938), 229–30; Bell and Labaree, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 101: 551–58; Robert Middlekauff, Benjamin Franklin and His Enemies (Berkeley, Calif., 1996), 46–47; Edmund S. Morgan, Benjamin Franklin (New Haven, Conn., 2002), 99; Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (New York, 2003), 166–69.

¹⁵� Houston, Autobiography and Other Writings, 116–17 (quotations, 116).

¹⁶� Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, Apr. 26, 1755, in "Copies of Letters relating to the March of General Braddock," fol. 108v. For example, Benjamin is faulted for his treatment of Deborah in Gordon S. Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin (New York, 2004), 83, 89–91, 98, 154.

¹⁷� In preparing these texts, I have adopted the following guidelines. Thomas Birch's manuscript presents the letters in rough chronological order. I have moved a handful of items so they appear in the order in which they were composed. I have inserted folios in brackets for those who wish to determine the original locations. I give full citations for the two letters to Richard Partridge, interleaved here with the materials copied by Birch. All editorial insertions, including words added for textual clarity, are in brackets. All other material—including salutations, quotation marks, and asterisks—is in the original manuscript. The place and date of composition are set at the top. I have retained the original spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, except that every sentence now begins with a capital letter and ends with a period or other appropriate mark. I have expanded contractions and abbreviations, except in proper names; lowered superscripts; rendered ampersands as "and," except in the form "&c."; eliminated duplicated carryover words at the top of recto pages; spelled out the tailed "p" as "per"; and altered symbols of weights, measures, and monetary values to conform to modern usage.

¹⁸� John Ridout (1732–97), English-born and Oxford-educated secretary to Governor Horatio Sharpe of Maryland.

¹⁹� Franklin traveled with fellow Deputy Postmaster for North America William Hunter (d. 1761) to Boston on postal business in September 1754; he returned to Philadelphia in late February 1755.

²⁰� William Douglass, A Summary, Historical and Political, of the first Planting, progressive Improvements, and present State of the British Settlements in North-America ... , 2 vols. (Boston, 1749–52). In 1766 Franklin recommended Douglass's Summary as "the most complete work on the British Colonies in North America." See "Gottfried Achenwall: Some Observations on North America from Oral Information by Dr. Franklin," in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 13: 346–77 (quotation, 13: 348).

²¹� The bill, approved by the assembly on March 28, was intended to support Governor William Shirley's expedition against the French at Crown Point. Because the bill did not exempt the proprietors from taxes used to fund it, the governor refused his assent. On April 2 the House adopted an alternative scheme—proposed by Franklin, and not requiring the governor's approval—that funds be drawn on the Loan Office. See Votes and Proceedings of the House, 77–83; Houston, Autobiography and Other Writings, 111–12.

²²� According to Franklin, Edward Braddock had "conceived violent Prejudices against" the assembly as "averse to the Service." See Houston, Autobiography and Other Writings, 112 (quotation). In March 1755 Braddock complained to imperial authorities that Pennsylvania, "tho' by far the richest and most populous Colony ... has, as yet, contributed nothing" to the war effort. See Braddock to Sir Thomas Robinson, Mar. 18, 1755, BL Add. MSS 32853, fol. 347.

²³� The council was moved from Annapolis, Md., to Alexandria, Va., and convened on April 14. In addition to Edward Braddock and Augustus Keppel, the naval commander of North America, it included five colonial governors: James Delancey (New York), Robert Dinwiddie (Virginia), Robert Hunter Morris (Pennsylvania), Horatio Sharpe (Maryland), and William Shirley (Massachusetts). See BL Add. MSS 33029, fols. 174–76.

²⁴� Abraham Barnes (ca. 1715–ca. 1778), Maryland assemblyman and delegate to the Albany Congress of 1754.

²⁵� Horatio Sharpe (1718–90), governor of Maryland from 1753 to 1769 and commander in chief of British forces in America prior to Edward Braddock's arrival in spring 1755.

²⁶� The committee of the assembly appointed to disburse the £15,000 appropriated for defense on April 2. These minutes were evidently enclosed with Isaac Norris's letter of April 29 (see letter 9).

²⁷� Isaac Norris (1701–66), Philadelphia merchant and Quaker politician, was speaker of the House, 1750–64. Evan Morgan (1709–63) was a Philadelphia merchant and manager of the Pennsylvania Hospital. Joseph Stretch (n.d.) was director of the Library Company. Joseph Fox (1709–79) was a Philadelphia landowner and carpenter. James Pemberton (1723–1809) was a Quaker merchant and politician. William Callender (b. 1703) and Joseph Trotter (d. 1778) were Philadelphia Quakers and politicians. Franklin was also a member of this committee.

²⁸� On February 14 Quartermaster-General Sir John St. Clair wrote Governor Robert Hunter Morris, asking that two roads be built in Pennsylvania, one through the Cumberland Valley to Wills's Creek, the other to run westward from Shippensburg to the mouth of the Youghiogheny. George Croghan—an experienced Indian agent and fur trader—and four others were appointed by Morris to survey the latter route. See St. Clair to Morris, Feb. 14, 1755, in Hazard, Minutes of Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, 6: 300–1; Morris to Croghan et al., ibid., 6: 318–19. The commission's letter of April 16, which included an account of St. Clair's storming "like a Lyon Rampant" and threatening to "oblige the Inhabitants" with "Fire and Sword," is in Geo. Croghan et al. to [Morris], Apr. 16, 1755, ibid., 6: 368–69. For this outburst St. Clair "receiv'd from ye Gen'l, what is call'd, in ye Language of ye' Camp, a Set Down." See Franklin Thayer Tucker, "The Braddock Expedition" (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1946), 199.

²⁹� Brackets and note in original. The letter was printed as:

[Philadelphia, Apr. 24, 1755]

Gentlemen—

     By a Letter I have received this morning from the Commissioners for running out the Roads over the Hills, I find the Flower ordered to be provided for the Army has not been yet delivered at the Place agreed on, and the Retardation of the March with the Consequences that may thence ensue is ascribed by Sir John St. Clair to this Delay and the not clearing proper Roads.
     I am indeed much surprised at the Flower's not having been delivered according to the Time fixed, and urge You to do all in your Power to expedite the Delivery of it. I think Orders should issue immediately by the Return of this express to have the Roads cleared with all possible Expedition at the Expence of the Province, and desire Supplies may be forthwith sent for that Purpose.
     The Sasquehannah Indians expect a Present, which need not be great as they have no particular Business, and only come down to assure Us of the Continuance of their Friendship for Us. Pray give the necessary Orders that they may go out of Town and reach the Place of their Habitations before the Message arrives from the Six Nations and Col. Johnson, as mentioned in the Minutes, which the Secretary has my Orders to show you.

I am, Gentlemen, Your most humble Servant,

Rob't H. Morris

See Robert Hunter Morris to the Committee of Assembly, Apr. 24, 1755, in Hazard, Minutes of Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, 6: 374.

³⁰� Robert Hunter Morris's response, in a letter of instructions from Richard Peters dated April 25, is repr. in Peters to Commissioners, Apr. 25, 1755, ibid., 6: 376–77.

³¹� This document is a copy of the famous "wagon advertisement," printed by William Dunlap in Lancaster. Thomas Birch's copy leaves out the first half of the broadside, which lays out the terms being offered, and begins with Franklin's letter of address. For the terms, see "Advertisement," Apr. 26, 1755, in Houston, Autobiography and Other Writings, 113–14.

³²� The remainder of Thomas Birch's copy of the wagon advertisement is part of the twelve missing pages. Beginning here I supply a transcription from the printed broadside (see also Figure III).

³³� John Smith (1722–94), a native of County Tyrone, Ireland, emigrated with his family to Lancaster in 1728. After moving to Carlisle in 1750, he climbed the local political ladder, from justice to assemblyman. In 1759 he resettled in Baltimore. See Charles G. Steffen, From Gentlemen to Townsmen: The Gentry of Baltimore County, Maryland, 1660–1776 (Louisville, Ky., 1993), 158–59; "Election Returns, Cumberland County—1756–1787," in Hazard et al., Pennsylvania Archives, ser. 6, 11: 151–77, esp. 11: 154–57.

³⁴� In a hectoring letter of February 28, Edward Braddock called for postal service between Philadelphia and Winchester (near Cumberland, Md.) "for the forwarding yours and receiving my Dispatches." See Braddock to Governor Morris, Feb. 28, 1755, in Hazard, Minutes of Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, 6: 307–8 (quotation, 6: 307). Franklin presented a report and proposal to the assembly on April 9 and traveled to Winchester and Carlisle in mid-April. See Votes and Proceedings of the House, 70, 74–75, 87; Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, Apr. 13, 1755, in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 12. William Buchanan, Smith's business partner, may have come to Benjamin Franklin's attention during the Treaty of Carlisle, when he presented a letter concerning Indian affairs to the commissioners. See "Treaty of Carlisle," ibid., 5: 84–107, esp. 5: 90. In 1756 Buchanan, one of the commissary agents for Cumberland Co., was charged with profiteering. See "Provincial Commissioners: Orders for Payment," ibid., 6: 392–96, esp. 6: 395, 6: 437–40, esp. 6: 438, 440, 7: 3–5, esp. 7: 4, 7: 25–28, esp. 7: 28; "Provincial Commissioners to William Denny," Jan. 25, 1757, ibid., 7: 102–5, esp. 7: 102 n. 1.

³⁵� Benjamin Tasker (1690–1768) was a naval officer and political leader in Maryland. Over the course of six decades, he was a member of the governor's council as well as the lower and upper houses of the Maryland legislature; he also served as mayor of Annapolis and governor of Maryland (1752–53). Belair, a Georgian plantation house located in present-day Bowie, Md., was built in 1745 by then-governor Samuel Ogle. Franklin's visit to Tasker's home was the occasion of his encounter with a whirlwind, charmingly recounted in a letter to Peter Collinson. See Franklin to Collinson, Aug. 25, 1755, in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 167–68.

³⁶� Edward Braddock encamped at Owen's Ordinary (present-day Rockville, Md.) on April 20. Captain Henry Wright Crabb (1723–64) was a prominent local landowner and member of Maryland's lower house. See J. Hall Pleasants, ed., Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland (Baltimore, 1933–35), 50: 28, 52: 46, 140.

³⁷� Thomas Dunbar (d. 1767), colonel of the 48th Regiment. One of Franklin's attempts to remove the officers' prejudices—by supplying provisions for the march—is referred to in letters 8, 12, and 16 (261, 264, 267).

³⁸� Edward Braddock received less than "the tenth part of what" he had been promised by the governors of Maryland and Virginia. See Braddock to Robert Napier, June 8, 1755, in Pargellis, Military Affairs in North America, 84–85 (quotation, 85), 92.

³⁹� According to Sir John St. Clair, the lack of flour was an even greater drag on Edward Braddock's march than the lack of good roads. See Morris to Committee of Assembly, Apr. 24, 1755, in Hazard, Minutes of Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, 6: 373–74.

⁴⁰� Rhetorically, Franklin's beleaguered tone inverted relationships of power and knowledge between metropolitan center and colonial periphery. As Deborah Franklin explained to Peter Collinson, "My Husband is now in the Back Counties, contracting for some Waggons and Horses for the Army, which tho' so much out of his Way, he was obliged to undertake, for preventing some Inconveniencies that might have attended so many raw Hands sent us from Europe, who are not accustomed to necessary Affairs." See D. Franklin to Collinson, Apr. 30, 1755, in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 24.

⁴¹� Chief Justice William Allen was riding circuit at this time and scheduled to hold courts of oyer and terminer in Lancaster and York. See [William Smith], A Brief View of the Conduct of Pennsylvania for the Year 1755 ... (London, 1756), 32; Franklin to Susanna Wright, Apr. 28, 1755, in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 23–24.

⁴²� On April 23 Franklin received nearly £800 for expenses. See "Memorandum of Wagon Accounts," in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 13–22, esp. 6: 13–19.

⁴³� The Wright family ran "Wright's Ferry" across the Susquehanna River at Hempfield (present-day Columbia, Pa.). John Wright (1710–59) represented York Co. in the assembly; his brother James (1714–75), Lancaster Co. Their sister, Susanna Wright (1697–1784), a woman of extraordinary talents, was a Franklin family correspondent. See Whitfield J. Bell Jr., Patriot-Improvers: Biographical Sketches of Members of the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia, 1999), 2: 114–18.

⁴⁴� Deborah Croker Dunlap (1732–75), Deborah Franklin's niece and the wife of William Dunlap, the Lancaster printer of Franklin's wagon advertisement.

⁴⁵� None of these letters has survived.

⁴⁶� John Franklin (1690–1756), Benjamin's brother, was a Boston chandler and soap maker. He was also the deputy postmaster of Boston. William Hunter (d. 1761) was a printer in Williamsburg, Va. He was joint postmaster general for the colonies with Benjamin Franklin.

⁴⁷� Franklin's relationship to William Shirley (1694–1771), governor of Massachusetts, was complex. On the one hand, they fought over the Albany Plan of Union, which Franklin wrote and Shirley vigorously opposed. See "To Governor Shirley (December 1754) with a Preface (8 February 1766)," in Houston, Autobiography and Other Writings, 256–63. On the other hand, they shared many concerns, including the growth of the British Empire in North America. At this very moment (see letter 42, 278–79), Shirley was bringing into print Franklin's demographic treatise, "Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind." See Houston, Franklin and the Politics of Improvement, 136, 170–75.

⁴⁸� Thomas Pownall (1722–1805), British colonial statesman and soldier, came to America in 1753 as private secretary to the governor of New York. At the June 1754 Albany Congress, Pownall and Franklin "created an Intimacy" that lasted until Franklin's death. See Pownall to Lord Halifax, July 23, 1754, in Beverly McAnear, ed., "Personal Accounts of the Albany Congress of 1754," Mississippi Valley Historical Review 39, no. 4 (March 1953): 727–46, esp. 740–46 (quotation, 744).

⁴⁹� These minutes were evidently enclosed with Isaac Norris's letter of April 29 (see letter 9, 262).

⁵⁰�Votes and Proceedings of the House, 90.

⁵¹� These "Refreshments," like the wagons, were intended to demonstrate the loyalty and ability of Pennsylvanians. As Franklin recalled, "While I was at the Camp [at Frederick], supping one Evening with the Officers of Col. Dunbar's Regiment, he represented to me his Concern for the Subalterns, who he said were generally not in Affluence, and could ill afford in this dear Country to lay in the Stores that might be necessary in so long a March thro' the Wilderness where nothing was to be purchas'd. I commisserated their Case, and resolved to endeavour procuring them some Relief." The list of supplies, drawn up by William Franklin, included sugar, tea, coffee, Madeira, rice, and raisins, as well as twenty horses. See Houston, Autobiography and Other Writings, 116–17 (quotation, 116).

⁵²� The opening to this letter is part of the twelve missing pages.

⁵³� Isaac Norris evidently included the committee minutes of April 24 and April 29 in this letter (see letters 4 and 8, 252–54, 261).

⁵⁴� Marginal note: "it will be paid immediately."

⁵⁵� Flour remained a bone of contention. On May 24 Edward Braddock complained to Robert Hunter Morris of the conduct of Daniel Cresap, a trader at Conegocheeg who "behaved in such a Manner in Relation to the Pennsylvania Flower that if he had been a French Commis[sioner] he could not have acted more for their Interest." James Wright delivered most of the flour by late June but was not paid until July. See [Braddock] to Morris, May 24, 1755, in Hazard, Minutes of Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, 6: 400; Franklin to Wright, June 26, 1755, in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 90–91, esp. 6: 90; Franklin to Wright, July 3, 1755, ibid., 6: 101–2, esp. 6: 102.

⁵⁶� Charles Norris (1712–66) was a Philadelphia merchant, treasurer of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and trustee of the General Loan Office; James Johnson was clerk of trustees of the General Loan Office.

⁵⁷� John Smith and Harmanus Alrichs (1710–72). The latter was one of the first settlers of Carlisle and a member of the assembly.

⁵⁸� William Dunlap (d. 1779), the Lancaster printer of Franklin's wagon advertisement. Birch copied only the heading for this letter.

⁵⁹� Preparations were under way for northern campaigns against Crown Point, Fort Niagara, and Nova Scotia. The expedition against Fort Beauséjour in Nova Scotia, planned by William Shirley, relied on two New England battalions and a detachment of regulars from Halifax. The New Englanders were to have sailed as early as possible in spring 1755 but were delayed in Boston by a lack of powder and small arms. See Lawrence Henry Gipson, The British Empire before the American Revolution, vol. 6, The Great War for the Empire: The Years of Defeat, 1754–1757 (New York, 1946), 226–28.

⁶⁰� Thomas Dunbar's regiment left Frederick on April 29, reaching Wills's Creek on May 10; the identity of the commanding officer of the remaining troops is unknown. See Hamilton, Braddock's Defeat, 85 n. 24.

⁶¹� John Harris Jr. (1716–91) was an Indian trader and ferry keeper at Paxtang (present-day Harrisburg) on the Susquehanna.

⁶²� William Allen (1704–80), Philadelphia merchant and politician, was chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from 1750 to 1774.

⁶³� Harbanus Ashebriner's contract is repr. in "From Harbanus Ashebriner: Contract for a Wagon and Horses," May 2, 1755, in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 25–27, esp. 6: 25–26.

⁶⁴� No bills arrived, and Franklin "advanc'd upwards of 200£" of his own money. See Houston, Autobiography and Other Writings, 116.

⁶⁵� Joseph Simon (1712–1804), an Indian trader, merchant, and one of the largest landholders in Pennsylvania. Simon was a leader in Lancaster's small but vibrant Jewish community. See Oscar Reiss, The Jews in Colonial America (Jefferson, N.C., 2004), 28. Richard Walker (1702–91) was a militiaman, justice of the peace, and member of the assembly from Bucks Co.

⁶⁶� Colonists were being recruited to fill out regiments intended for service in the campaigns against Crown Point, Fort Niagara, and Nova Scotia. The enlistment of indentured servants—costly to masters—was a point of controversy throughout this period. For actual enlistment, see Hamilton, Braddock's Defeat, 12 (Apr. 23, 1755). For the larger controversy, see Franklin's letters to William Shirley of May 8 and June 3 (letters 18 and 33, 268, 274); Shirley to Franklin, Sept. 17, 1755, in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 190–91, esp. 6: 190; "Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor," ibid., 6: 193–210, esp. 6: 207; "Pennsylvania Assembly: Address to the Governor," ibid., 6: 396–400; Franklin to Everard Fawkener, July 27, 1756, ibid., 6: 472–76, esp. 6: 474–75. In his Autobiography Franklin recalled that the only reward for supplying wagons that he asked from Edward Braddock was "that he would give Orders to his Officers not to enlist any more of our bought Servants, and that he would discharge such as had been already enlisted." See Houston, Autobiography and Other Writings, 120.

⁶⁷� Robert Orme (1725?–90) and Roger Morris (1717–94) were aides-de-camp to General Edward Braddock; both were wounded at the battle of the Monongahela.

⁶⁸� Possibly the "R. Vernon" to whom Franklin advanced £2.9.6 as part of the wagon effort. See "Memorandum of Wagon Accounts," in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 13–22 (quotation, 6: 18). No trace of Vernon's speech has survived.

⁶⁹� This letter illustrates the combination of paraphrase and quotation. The reference in the first sentence—"his son," not "my son"—suggests that the paraphrase was composed by Birch.

⁷⁰� William Pepperrell (1696–1759), merchant and soldier from Massachusetts who commanded the 51st Regiment. I have been unable to identify Culiny. Unlike William Shirley's 50th Regiment, which filled quickly, the 51st was "not half compleat" in early June. See Braddock to Napier, June 8, 1755, in Pargellis, Military Affairs in North America, 92 (quotation).

⁷¹� John Shirley (1725–55) was an effective recruiting officer in Pennsylvania, raising more than two hundred men in the first three months of the year, earning a reputation for "great Prudence and good Sense." See Robert Hunter Morris to Edward Braddock, Mar. 12, 1755, in Hazard, Minutes of Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, 6: 335–38 (quotation, 6: 337).

⁷²� Undated; from location in the manuscript, probably May 8–9.

⁷³� John Read, of York, was Deborah Franklin's brother. Edward Braddock's commission to Read, dated May 21, is in the Miscellaneous Benjamin Franklin Collections, B F85.x7b, American Philosophical Society. See also Read to B. Franklin, Oct. 8, 1755, in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 221–22.

⁷⁴� Undated; from location in manuscript and dated appointment of John Read, probably May 9–10.

⁷⁵� John Rutherford (d. 1758) was an officer in Sir Peter Halkett's brigade. Matthew Leslie, assistant deputy quartermaster general, was sent on May 10 to purchase "a large Quantity of Oats for the Service of the Forces." See Edward Braddock to Robert Hunter Morris, May 10, 1755, in Hazard, Minutes of Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, 6: 383.

⁷⁶� William Shirley Jr. is referring to Franklin's thinly veiled threat, at the close of his wagon advertisement, that if wagons were not offered voluntarily then Braddock would send "Sir John St. Clair the Hussar, with a Body of Soldiers," to accomplish the task by force. See letter 5 (254–57).

⁷⁷� John Hunter (d. 1786), a merchant and colonel of the militia in Hampton, Va., was colonial agent for the London firm supplying Edward Braddock's troops.

⁷⁸� The manuscript presents only those parts of this letter that relate to Franklin. The full text is in William Shirley [Jr.] to Robert Hunter Morris, 1755, in Hazard et al., Pennsylvania Archives, ser. 1, 2: 310–11.

⁷⁹� The quotation mark at the start of the second paragraph of this letter is in the manuscript, indicating that the first summary sentence is by Birch, with the remainder copied from the original. There is no closing quotation mark in the manuscript.

⁸⁰� Acts of Assembly provided that justices of the peace, in their quarter sessions, should set "reasonable prices" for taverns. For example, on Jan. 28, 1752, the justices of York Co. established the rate for one pint of Madeira at 1s. 6d, whereas one man's breakfast was 6d. See Hazard, Minutes of Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, 3: 43; Peter Thompson, Rum Punch and Revolution: Taverngoing and Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1999), 53–56; W. Walter Van Baman, The Story of Yorktown: As Told by Conrad Shultz (n.p., 2006), 179.

⁸¹� As Franklin later recalled, "In their first March too, from their Landing till they got beyond the Settlements, they had plundered and stript the Inhabitants, totally ruining some poor Families, besides insulting, abusing and confining the People if they remonstrated.—This was enough to put us out of Conceit of such Defenders if we had really wanted any." See Houston, Autobiography and Other Writings, 119.

⁸²� Franklin was in Philadelphia from May 12 until the middle of the summer. This letter must have been written after William Shirley Jr.'s letters of May 14 (see letters 25 and 26, 270–71) and was probably written before May 19, when Franklin and the assembly committee turned their attention to supplying forage for Edward Braddock's troops. See Robert Hunter Morris to the Assembly Committee, May 19, 1755, in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 50–51. Franklin presented it to the Committee of the Assembly on May 29. See "Pennsylvania Hospital Cornerstone Inscription," May 29, 1755, ibid., 6: 61–65, esp. 6: 64.

⁸³� The quotation mark at the start of the second paragraph is in the manuscript, indicating that the first summary sentence is by Birch, with the remainder copied from the original.

⁸⁴� Robert Grace (1709–66), an original member of the Junto and proprietor of the Warwick Iron Works. In Lancaster on May 8, Franklin lent Grace £6 as part of the wagon affair. See "Memorandum of Wagon Accounts," in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 13–22, esp. 6: 19.

⁸⁵� Though he did not mention Benjamin Franklin by name, on June 13 Sir John St. Clair wrote Robert Napier that "we never cou'd have subsisted our little Army at Wills's Creek, far less carried on our Expedition had not General Braddock contracted with the People in Pennsylvania for a Number of Waggons, which they have fulfilled." See St. Clair to Napier, June 13, 1755, in Pargellis, Military Affairs in North America, 93–95 (quotation, 93–94).

⁸⁶� This promise appears to have remained unfulfilled.

⁸⁷� John Lesher (1711–94), German-born ironmaster in Oley Township, Berks Co., Pa.

⁸⁸� The identity of Rev. John Hamilton remains obscure because there were two chaplains in Braddock's army. See Hamilton, Braddock's Defeat, 34. A modern authority identifies Hamilton as chaplain of the 48th Regiment and suggests that he was wounded at the Monongahela. See Archer Butler Hulbert, Historic Highways of America, vol. 4, Braddock's Road and Three Relative Papers (Cleveland, Ohio, 1903), 94 n. 33. Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate any contemporary references to substantiate this claim. (Rev. Hamilton is not to be confused with Lieut. John Hamilton, a Virginia officer who was killed on June 9 [Sargent, History of an Expedition, 363].)

⁸⁹� Thomas Penn (1702–75) was the son of William Penn and proprietor of Pennsylvania; Richard Peters (1704?–76) was an English-born clergyman and provincial secretary. An extract of a letter from Peters to Penn, dated May 14, 1755, was enclosed in a letter from Penn to Thomas Robinson, dated June 29, 1755. The extract described Franklin's success in supplying wagons and horses. See CO 5/15, fol. 282, National Archives.

⁹⁰� Peter Reeve (d. 1780), ship captain and merchant, often carried letters to and from England; George Grenville (1712–70), the future prime minister, was treasurer of the British navy in 1755; Thomas Robinson (1695–1770) was secretary of state; "the Duke" was Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and prime minister.

⁹¹� Everard Fawkener (1694–1758), British merchant, secretary to the Duke of Cumberland, and postmaster general.

⁹²� This letter illustrates the combination of paraphrase and copy, with an open quotation mark signaling the transition. The reference in the first sentence—"Mr F."—suggests that the paraphrase was composed by Birch, not Franklin.

⁹³� On May 10 Edward Braddock sent Matthew Leslie to Pennsylvania to purchase oats and other forage. On May 22 Franklin advertised for wagons; eight days later, sixty wagonloads were ready for delivery, though delays prevented their dispatch until June 8. See Braddock to Morris, May 10, 1755, in Hazard, Minutes of Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, 6: 383; Morris to Braddock, June 3, 1755, ibid., 6: 406–8; Morris to Braddock, June 4, 1755, ibid., 6: 408–10; Morris to Braddock, June 12, 1755, ibid., 6: 415–16; "Advertisement for Wagons," in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 59; Morris to R. Peters, 1755, in Hazard et al., Pennsylvania Archives, ser. 1, 2: 335; [Philadelphia] Pennsylvania Gazette, June 12, 1755, 2.

⁹⁴� The bill was passed by the assembly on June 21 but, as predicted, it was denied by Robert Hunter Morris. See Votes and Proceedings of the House, 106–7, 111–12.

⁹⁵� Franklin clearly liked this phrase; he used it in a letter to Peter Collinson written on June 26 and in a message from the assembly to Robert Hunter Morris on August 19. See Franklin to Collinson, June 26, 1755, in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 83–90, esp. 6: 86; "Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor," Aug., 19, 1755, ibid., 6: 140–63, esp. 6: 161.

⁹⁶� How White Papers, box 92, "Miscellaneous Letters," Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service, HW/92/13. Richard Partridge (1681–1759) was a New Hampshire–born merchant who lived in London as agent for colonial governments. He represented the assembly from 1740 to 1759.

⁹⁷� "Protections and Passes will be given the Waggoners by Authority of the General, to prevent their being impressed, or detained after Delivery of their Loads." See the Pennsylvania Gazette, May 22, 1755, [4].

⁹⁸� On June 16, in the first phase of the campaign against French forts in North America, British forces took control of Fort Beauséjour in Nova Scotia.

⁹⁹� Governor of Massachusetts. Unbeknownst to Shirley, his son William Shirley Jr. had been killed in the battle on the Monongahela the previous day.

¹⁰⁰� Shirley personally assumed command of the (ultimately unsuccessful) expedition against Fort Niagara in the summer and fall of 1755.

¹⁰¹� Edward Braddock sang Franklin's praises repeatedly. In a letter to Robert Napier, for example, he wrote that "Mr. Franklin undertook and perform'd his Engagements with the greatest readiness and punctuality." See Braddock to Napier, June 8, 1755, in Pargellis, Military Affairs in North America, 85 (quotation).

¹⁰²� William Clarke (1709–60), Boston physician and apparently dilatory political writer. In March 1754, at William Shirley's instigation, Clarke struck up a correspondence with Franklin over the need for colonial union. See Clarke to Franklin, Mar. 18, 1754, in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 5: 250–52. In May Clarke asked Franklin to comment on the outlines of a pamphlet, which he thought nearly ready to print in February 1755. See Clarke to Franklin, May 6, 1754, ibid., 5: 269–71. When finally issued in July, the pamphlet included Franklin's demographic treatise "Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, &c" as an appendix. See [Clarke], Observations On the late and present Conduct of the French with Regard to their Encroachments upon the British Colonies in North America ... (Boston, 1755).

¹⁰³� John Hamilton was not with the main body of Thomas Dunbar's retreating troops, suggesting that this report is secondhand. Widow Barringer's is near present-day Winchester, Md. On this same day, Dunbar's forces were ninety miles away at Little Meadows, near present-day Grantsville, Md. See Hamilton, Braddock's Defeat, 33; George Washington to James Innes, July 17, 1755, in W. W. Abbot et al., eds., The Papers of George Washington: Colonial Series (Charlottesville, Va., 1983), 1: 334.

¹⁰⁴� John Frazer was a blacksmith and gunsmith of uncertain nationality who operated a trading post at the mouth of Turtle Creek on the Monongahela, about ten miles from Fort Duquesne. Though the French had burned Frazer's cabin in 1753, he refused to leave. In early 1754 Frazer was made a lieutenant in the small company of Virginians sent to build a fort on the forks of the Ohio. When the French descended on the fort on April 14, Frazer refused to leave his store to defend the fort, leading Governor Robert Dinwiddie to call for his court-martial. Frazer was never tried, but doubts about his loyalty remained. See Kopperman, Braddock at the Monongahela, 31; Dinwiddie to George Washington, May 4, 1754, in Abbot et al., Papers of George Washington, 1: 91–93; Dinwiddie to Washington, June 27, 1754, ibid., 1: 150–51.

¹⁰⁵� Thomas Gage (1720/1–87), English army officer and future commander in chief for North America. As lieutenant colonel of the 44th Regiment, Gage commanded Edward Braddock's advance guard in the march.

¹⁰⁶� William Shirley, the governor of Massachusetts, lost two children in 1755: his eldest son, William, died on the Monongahela, and his second son, John, died of fever during the Niagara campaign. Francis Halket was the son of Sir Peter Halket, commander of the rear guard (artillery and baggage) on July 9. Peter and Francis's brother James were both killed in the battle; their deaths are memorialized in a sketch by Benjamin West, "Discovering the bones of Sir Peter Halket."

¹⁰⁷� Robert Hunter Morris received the first reports of Edward Braddock's defeat sometime between July 16, when he still spoke of offering "assistance," and July 20, when he wrote Governor Horatio Sharpe of "the first accounts of the defeat and death of the General, which I collected from frighted Waggoners who had left the army." See Morris to Sir Thos. Robinson, 1755, in Hazard et al., Pennsylvania Archives, ser. 1, 2: 379; Morris to Sharpe, 1755, ibid., 2: 382–83, esp. 2: 382. Franklin first reported the defeat in the Pennsylvania Gazette, July 24, 1755, [2].

¹⁰⁸� James Read (1718–93), a relative of Deborah Franklin, was a merchant, lawyer, and public official in Pennsylvania. By the fall of 1755, Read was serving as major of two "associated" (voluntary) companies in Reading, where conditions were unstable. As William Parsons reported in October, "our Roads are continually full of Travellers" as settlers from the frontier removed to Reading and residents of Reading moved closer to Philadelphia. See Read to Robert Hunter Morris, Oct. 27, 1755, in Hazard, Minutes of Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, 6: 651 ("associated"); Parsons to R. Peters, Oct. 31, 1755, in Hazard et al., Pennsylvania Archives, ser. 1, 2: 443–45 ("our Roads," 2: 444). See also Horatio Sharpe to John Sharpe, Aug. 11, 1755, BL Add. MSS 32858, fols. 110–11.

¹⁰⁹� In retreat Thomas Dunbar had ordered the destruction of the cannons, but two six-pounders were captured by the French. As feared these cannons were subsequently used by the French, when Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon led his successful attack on the British at Fort Oswego in August 1756. See Sargent, History of an Expedition, 257 n. 1.

¹¹⁰� Colonists frequently complained of British disdain for Indian warriors. See for example the report of Adam Stephens, a Virginia officer shot twice on the Monongahela (Stephens to John Hunter, July 18, 1755, BL Add. MSS 32857, fols. 216–17). Franklin had attempted to warn Edward Braddock of the unique dangers of colonial warfare in April, but as Braddock condescendingly replied, "These Savages may indeed be a formidable Enemy to your raw American Militia; but, upon the King's regular and disciplin'd Troops, Sir, it is impossible they should make any Impression." See Houston, Autobiography and Other Writings, 118.

¹¹¹� For the conclusion to an article trumpeting the value of the fishery lost by France when Fort Louisbourg was captured by New England troops in June 1745, see Jeremy Gridly, ed., "A Computation of the Advantage of the French Fishery on the Banks of Newfoundland, Acadia, Cape Breton, &c.—as it was carried on by the French, before the taking of Louisburg; by General Pepperrell," American Magazine and Historical Chronicle 3 (July 1746): 293–96, esp. 296. The passage in italics is from Isaiah 5:22.

¹¹²� Asterisks in original, suggesting that Thomas Birch did not copy the first part of this letter.

¹¹³� The original report of George Washington's defeat at Fort Necessity was in the [Williamsburg] Virginia Gazette, July 19, 1754, [2–3].

¹¹⁴� Franklin's letter has not been found. The entertaining manuscript may have been either "A Parable against Persecution" or "A Parable on Brotherly Love," both of which are dated July 1755 by the editors of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin. See Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 114–28.

¹¹⁵� Captain Robert Orme was recuperating at Fort Cumberland; his letter and list were sent to Robert Hunter Morris on July 18. See Orme to Morris, July 18, 1755, in Hazard, Minutes of Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, 6: 487–89; "A List of the Officers who were present and of those killed and wounded in the Action on the Banks of the Monongahela the 9th Day of July, 1755," ibid., 6: 489–92.

¹¹⁶� James Innes, a Virginia colonel, led the construction of Fort Cumberland in the winter of 1754 and acted as campmaster general at Wills's Creek until his appointment as governor of Fort Cumberland on June 2, 1755. See George Washington to William Fairfax, Aug. 11, 1754, in Abbot et al., Papers of George Washington, 1: 183–88; Washington to Fairfax, June 7, 1755, ibid., 1: 298–302.

¹¹⁷� CO 5/1274, fols. 82–83, National Archives. Franklin alludes to this letter in a missive to Peter Collinson, where the letter to Partridge is listed as "not found." See Franklin to Collinson, Aug. 27, 1755, in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 169–72 (quotation, 6: 169 n. 5).

¹¹⁸� Edward Braddock's defeat heightened conflicts between the assembly and the governor over the proprietor's role in funding the colony's war efforts. On August 2 the assembly sent up a bill providing £50,000 for colonial defense; crucially, it proposed "that all Estates real and personal were to be taxed, those of the Proprietaries not excepted." Robert Hunter Morris proposed an amendment, substituting the word "only" for "not." As Franklin noted, it was "a small but very material Alteration!" See Houston, Autobiography and Other Writings, 121. Compounding the assembly's public relations problem was William Smith's book, which blamed the assembly for the colony's failure to stem the encroachments of the French on the Ohio. See [Smith], A Brief State of the Province of Pennsylvania ... , 2d ed. (London, 1755). The proceedings of the session, running July 23–August 22, are in Votes and Proceedings of the House, 113–57. The most important messages by the assembly are repr. in "Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor," in Labaree et al., Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 6: 129–38, 140–66.

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