Book of Ages (50 page)
Authors: Jill Lepore
B Franklin
2. Jane wrote to Franklin from Boston on August 29, 1789. The original of this letter is housed at the
American Philosophical Society. Sparks published an extract from this letter in
The Works of Benjamin Franklin,
volume 10, p. 395n.
Boston August 29. 1789.
My Dear Brother
O that I could with Truth, begin with the old fashoned still I hope this will find you well, but that I dispar of Exept I could confine all to your Intellets which thank God Apear as sound as Ever, which must suply you with a Source of Entertainment beyond what comon mortals can Expearance. I have Even my self in times Past Lost the sense of Paine for some time by the Injoyment of good Company.
Yrs of Aug 3 by Cousen Jonathan was very Pleasing the knoing you had recd. mine so soon and was Pleasd with the contents gave me grat satisfaction and the sight of Him whom I Love like a child was a grat Addition. He is Truely a worthy man.
You Introduce your Reproof of my Miffy temper so Politely, won cant aVoid wishing to have conquered it as you have if you Ever had any, that disagreable Temper.
I have Drawn as you Premited Recd. the money and Paid of my Docr. Bill. I added the thirty Dolars for the wood which you give me orders constantly to Draw thinking it would be Less Troble to you and fearing Cousen Jonathan may not have the succes he wishes and Endevours about the Books and shall Take in the wood next week.
I have also Recved the Leter you sent by our Neibour Jemmy Leach.
I was a Llit
t
le suspicious w
he
i
ther
Excellency
was a
c
cording to
Ruel
rule
in
A
ad
dress
ing
to
my
B
b
rother at this time
; but I did not write the address
;
I never write any my self &
and of
L
l
ate,
B
b
ecause
H
h
e
L
l
ives nearer than cous
i
en Willi
a
ms
, I
have sent
them
my letters
to Dr. Lath
or
ro
p
s,
who is very obliging to me,
&
and I thought
he
must know what
wa
i
s
R
r
ight, and
I
gave no
D
d
irections about it
,
.
b
B
ut
I
shall
do it
another time.
He de[mands?] allways to be Respectfully Remembred to you when I write.
I beleve there are a few of our Nantucket Relations who have still an Affection for us, but the war time which made such Havock every where Devided and scatered them about, those I was most Intimate with were Abisha Fougre; His Brother, and sons, Timothy won, the Jenkinss and Kezia Coffin, who was many years Like a sister to me and a grat friend to my children. She sent me two very Afectionate Leters when the Town was shut up Inviting me to come to Her and she would sustain me that was her word and had I Recd. them before I left the Town I should certainly have gone, but a Wise and Good Provedence ordered it other ways. She Took to the wrong side and Exerted Her self by Every method she could devise Right or rong to Accomplish her Designs, and Favour the Britons, went in to Large Traid with them, and for them, and by mismanagement and not suckceding in her Indevours has sunk Every Farthing they were Ever Posesed of and have been in Jail both Her Husband at nantuket and her self at Halifax. She was allway thought to be an Artfull Wooman, but there are such Extraordinary stories tould of her as is hard to be leved.
The two Jenkins’ Seth and Thomas stood in the same Relation to us and always very Friendly and Afectionat to me. They were at Pheladelphia when I was there. You spok something for them at Congres). They were men of considerable Property and had a grat quantity of Oyl in there stores when a Vesel Belonging to the Tories went Down and Robd them of all, it was Proved that Kezia Pointed it out to Them, the owners Prosecuted her and she was Brought up to Boston to stand tryal, but I think there was no final condemnation at Court. She says they could not find Evedence. They say the Evedence was so strong that had they suffered them to come in to court it would have hangd her and so they supresd it not being willing it should Proceed so far. They settled at Provedence a few years whose Famelies I used to stop at when I went backwards and forwards and the were very kind to me sent there sons to carrie me from there to my [torn] and some therteen miles [torn]er [?] and Every other obliging thing in there Power, but Afterwards they settled a Township on North River. I forgot the Name. There is a City and Thomas Jenkins is the Mayer. I have not seen Ither of them since. I dont know if they come to Boston. If they do they do not know where to find me, and tho the Foulgers some of them sail out of this Place I Beleve it is the same case with them for I have not seen a Nantuket Person since I Lived hear, I have a Next Dore Neibour who Lived there wonce and I now and then hear somthing of them by
Him. I know I have wrote and speld this worse than I do sometimes but I hope you will find it out. Remember my Love to your children and Grandchildren. Tell my Niece Betsey that I sent her Pocket Book to Mrs. Coffins Daughter and I dont doubt seh had it but she was at Halifax. I am yr Affectionat and Gratfull Sister
Jane Mecom
Addressed:
To/Doctr Benjamin Franklin Esqr/In/Philadelphia
Endorsed:
Sister
Jane’s
Library
As a child, Jane Franklin would have been able to read any book in her father’s library, whose scantiness Benjamin Franklin mentioned in his autobiography, and whose contents are listed in an inventory of Josiah Franklin’s estate taken in 1744. She would also have read her uncle Benjamin’s writing, and she appears to have inherited his
books. Reading whatever of her brother Benjamin’s writing was published was, I suspect, a practice she began in their childhood.
After her marriage in 1727, she remained at the Blue Ball. Franklin sent
Poor Richard’s Almanack
to his mother while Jane was living there, and he probably sent home more of his output as a writer and printer.
1
Because Jane also distributed books sent by Franklin to Boston to friends in the city, she would have had the opportunity to borrow books from a significant number of people, including
John Perkins, Jonathan Williams Sr., and
Thomas Cushing. It seems likely that she paid attention to what her son Benjamin printed, especially from 1758 to 1762, when he ran a print shop and bookstore
in Boston.
Beginning in 1767, she made a dedicated effort to read all of her brother’s published writing. “I think I desiered you to send me all the Pamphlets & Papers that have been Printed of yr writing,” she wrote to him that year. “Do Gratifie me & I will contineu to be as Ever yr affectionat & most obliged Sister.” In his reply, Franklin pledged, “I will send you what I write hereafter.” This he does seem to have tried to do. “You desired I would send you what I published from time to time, and I am willing to oblige you,” he wrote to her in 1773, “but often they are things out of your way so much that I omit sending them, and sometimes I forget it, and sometimes I cannot get a Copy to send.”
2
When Jane lived with her brother in Philadelphia in 1775 and 1776, she would have been able to read any book in his library. For the remainder of the war, and especially while living in Rhode Island, she found it difficult to get hold of books. Returning to Boston in 1784, she appears to have spent a great deal of her time reading. She might well have borrowed books from her minister,
John Lathrop. In 1785, she requested a catalog of the
library of books Franklin sent to the Massachusetts town named in his honor, with the idea of reading as many of them as she could get her hands on.
3
She did receive the catalog, and she certainly read some of these books, which number 116 volumes, including works by Locke, Sydney,
Montesquieu,
Blackstone, Newton, and Priestley. I have not listed those
books here. (A full catalog was printed in 1812.)
4
In the inventory of her estate taken after her death in 1794, Jane is recorded as having had in her house “5 Volumes of Books,” valued at six shillings. No titles were listed. I have been able to locate five volumes inscribed with her name: her own
Book of Ages; volume 3 of
The Ladies Library;
Benjamin Franklin’s
Experiments and Observations on Electricity;
a volume of her uncle Benjamin’s poetry; and
Granville Sharp’s
Declaration of the People’s Natural Right to Share in the Legislature.
I have no reason to suppose these five volumes are the same five volumes found in her house after her death. Her letters reveal her to have either owned or read a wealth of books, magazines, and newspapers; she was certainly familiar with many more books than she ever owned.
This reconstruction of her library is by no means meant as an exhaustive bibliography of what Jane read over the length of her lifetime; that list I am unable to compile—it would, of course, be much longer. This is, instead, a list of works I am almost certain she actually did read.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia.
Mrs. Barbaul’s Lessons for Children, from Two to Four Years Old; Mrs. Barbauld’s Lessons for Children of Four Years Old; Mrs. Barbaul’s Lessons for Children, from Four to Five Years Old; Mrs. Barbaul’s Lessons for Children of Five Years Old.
Philadelphia: B. Bache, 1788.
Franklin sent his sister this set of children’s books, printed by his grandson, in 1788. She didn’t like them one bit.
5
Berkeley, George, comp.
The Ladies Library
. 3 vols. London, 1732.
Franklin gave Jane this book as a gift in 1733. Her copy of the third volume is in the
American Antiquarian Society’s collection. It is inscribed: “Jane Mecom her book given her by her Brother Benjamin Franklin 1733 anno Domini.” The society acquired this book in 1978, a bequest of the estate of
Arthur Tourtellot, a biographer of Franklin’s. She at one time lent the second volume to Deborah, writing to her, on November 24, 1766, “Pray be so good as to Let me know by next opertunity, there is also a Book of mine among my Brothers the second volum of the Ladys Libriary, wrot in a blank Leaf borrowed of Sister Mecom, if you have a convenant opertunity I shuld be glad you would send it as it breaks the sett.”
The Bible.
Jane’s letters are full of references to the King James Bible. She especially loved the
Book of Job. For instance, in her Book of Ages, she wrote, “The Lord Giveth & the Lord taketh away oh may I never be so Rebelious as to Refuse Acquiesing & & saying from my hart Blessed be the Name of the Lord.” She also, of course, listened to sermons her whole life. In 1765, after the
death of her husband, she wrote to Deborah that she considered the sermon delivered by her pastor, Samuel Cooper, to be “a master Peec.” Cooper preached on 2 Corinthians 4:17, which Jane cited as: “for our Light Afflictions which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more Exceding and Eternal weight of Glory.” Then she apologized: “I am not Good at Repeeting or Remembring tho I hope I Retain so much of the Sence as
in some measure to Enable me with the asistance of Gods Spirit to Influenc my conduct Hear in this world and throw the merits of Christ Give me Hopes of a Gloryous Eternity.”
6
Boston Gazette.
Printed by
Benjamin Edes and
John Gill, beginning in 1755. And other Boston newspapers.
Jane was an avid reader of news. She never mentioned the
Boston Gazette
by title, but she wrote about reading the newspaper often, and also about the political excesses of the Boston patriot papers, something for which the
Gazette
was infamous. On December 30, 1765, for instance, she wrote to Franklin, “The confusion & distres those Opresive Actts have thrown us Poor Americans into is un Discribable by me, but you see the Newspapers full of them.” And on November 7, 1768, she told Franklin that the political and religious controversies of the time were “managed with two much Biterness as you will see by the News Papers If you give yr self the Troble to Read them, But they will not Infalably Informe you of the Truth; for Every thing that any Designing Person has a mind to Propagate Is stufed into them, & it is Dificult to know whither Either Party are in the Right.” (This suggests that Jane read not only patriot papers, like the
Gazette,
but also loyalist papers.) Her ability to get newspapers was compromised during the war. For instance, she wrote to Franklin from Warwick on June 13, 1781, “I … know but litle how the world goes Except seeing a Newspaper some times which contains Enough to give Pain but litle Satisfaction.”
Cooper, Samuel.
Sermons.
Jane frequently referred to reading Cooper’s sermons and made scattered references to reading other sermons as well. In a letter to Franklin dated June 13, 1781, for instance, she wrote, “I had no rembrance how I came by the Peece of the whig Sermon I inquiered of all I thot Like to have such a thing.” (This letter, written when Jane was living in Rhode Island during the war, supplies further evidence for Jane’s resourcefulness in getting
books. She explained, “I then sent it to Cousen Williams to serch the Printers Shops but he says it was not to be found.”) Van Doren identified this sermon as a piece of writing by three Boston ministers: Samuel Cooper,
John Lathrop, and
Samuel Stillman.
7
Defoe, Daniel.
An Essay upon Projects
. 1697.
This work was in Jane’s father’s
library. Franklin mentions it in his autobiography.
Edwards, Jonathan.
Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New-England.
Boston, 1742.
Franklin referred Jane to this book in a letter dated July 28, 1743: “Read the Pages of Mr Edward’s late Book entitled Some Thoughts concerning the present Revival of Relgion in N.E. from 367 to 375.”
“An Essay, Towards discovering the Authors and Promoters of the memorable Stamp Act,”
Pennsylvania Journal,
September 18, 1766.
Jane alluded to this essay in a letter to her brother dated November 8, 1766: “The vile Pretended Leter which no Doubt you have seen gave me some uneaseyness when I heard of it before I could git a sight of it, as considering when a grat Deal of Durt is flung some is apt to stick but when I Read it I see it was filld with such bare faced falshoods as confuted them selves. theyre treetment of you among other things makes the World Apear a miserable world to me not withstanding yr good opinyon of it.”
Franklin, Benjamin.
The Examination of Doctor Benjamin Franklin
. Boston, 1766.
Jane might have read this in the newspaper, or she might have read the pamphlet. She referred to it more than once. In a letter to her brother dated November 8, 1766, she wrote, “Yr Ansurs to the Parlement are thought by the best Judges to Exeed all that has been wrot on the subject & being given in the maner they were are a Proof they Proceeded from Prinsiple & suficent to stop the mouths of all gain-sayers.” She alluded to its most famous line, about wearing old clothes, in a letter to her brother dated December 1, 1767; that letter contains further evidence of her reading of newspapers: “It Proves a Litle unlucky for me that our People have taken it in there Heads to be so Exsesive Frugal at this Time as you will see by the Newspapers our Blusterers must keep themselves Imployed & If they Do no wors than Perswade us to were our old cloaths over again I cant Disaprove of that in my Hart tho I should Like to have those that do bye & can afford it should bye what Litle I have to sell & Imploy us to make it up.”
———.
Experiments and Observations on Electricity … To which are added, Letters and Papers on Philosophical Subjects.
London, 1769.
Franklin sent his sister a copy from London on February 23, 1769, writing, “There has lately been a new Edition of my philosophical Papers here. I send Six Copies to you, which I desire you would take care to have delivered as directed. There is one for your Trouble.” Jane’s copy of this edition is housed at Princeton Library. It is inscribed “Jane Mecom, Her Book.” Van Doren probably acquired this book in the 1930s; it went to Princeton with Van Doren’s papers following his death in 1950.
8
———.
The Interest of Great Britain Considered.
Boston, 1760.
Jane’s copy is at the
Thayer Memorial Library in Lancaster.
———.
Maritime Observations
. Philadelphia, 1786.
———. Miscellaneous.
Franklin also sent Jane various miscellaneous and unidentified writings. “This is just to let you know I am well, and to cover a Newspaper containing one of my Scribblings, which please to give to my Sister with my Love: I have not now time to write to her,” Franklin wrote Jonathan Williams Sr. in 1773.
9
———. “On Smuggling,”
London Chronicle,
November 24, 1767.
Franklin enclosed a copy of this essay in a letter to his sister dated December 24, 1767.
10
———. “Petition of the Letter Z.” 1778.
Franklin sent this essay to his sister on January 24, 1786.
———.
Philosophical and Miscellaneous Papers
. London, 1787.
———.
Plain Truth
. Philadelphia, 1747.
“I beg’d your Plain Truth of Mrs.
Mecom
a few Weeks since which I had never seen before,” John Perkins, Jane’s doctor, wrote to Franklin from Boston on February 17, 1752.
———.
Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces
. Ed. Benjamin Vaughan. London, 1779.
Jane’s attempts to acquire this work began in 1781 when she wrote to her brother, “I am this Day going to Boston in Pursuit of a coletcion of all your works which I hear is lately come from Europe. some of which I have been in posesion of & have lost, you will say then I dont Deserve to have them again, but may be not if you knew all the circumstances, however there is many things I never had and I can hardly help Envieng any won that Pleasure without my Pertakeing.”
11
She was unable to find it.
12
Complying with a request from his sister, Franklin sent her this edition of his works in 1786.
13
Of all of the books Jane owned, she treasured these two volumes the most, writing to her brother on August 25, 1786: “I keep your books of Philosophy, and Politics, by me (tho I have Read them throw several times) and when I am dull I take won up & Read, and it seems as tho I were conversing with you, or hearing you to some who can understand and I find a Pleasure in that.”
———.
Poor Richard’s Almanack
. Philadelphia, 1732–58.
———. “Rules for Reducing a Great Empire to a Small One,”
Public Advertiser,
September 11, 1773.
Franklin enclosed a copy in a letter to Jane dated October 9, 1773.
Franklin, Benjamin, the Elder.
Commonplace book.
Jane’s copy of the second volume is in the
American Antiquarian Society’s collection. It is inscribed “Jane Mecom Her Book.”
Lee, Arthur.
An Appeal to the Justice and Interest of the People of Great Britain
. London, 1774.
Franklin sent his sister a series of pamphlets along with a letter dated July 28, 1774, writing, “The Inclos’d Pamphlets were encourag’d by me, being written by Friends of mine, and printed at my Expense.” Van Doren supposed Lee’s
Appeal
to have been among them.
14