Young Benjamin Franklin

by Nick Bunker

  28. BFP 2, pp. 419–46.

  29. Problems with the fireplace: see Edgerton (1976) cited in note 22.

  30. Franklin’s heat experiments, and his reading in the 1730s: I. Bernard Cohen, Franklin and Newton: An Inquiry into Speculative Newtonian Science and Franklin’s Work in Electricity as an Example Thereof (Philadelphia, 1956), Part 3, Chapter 7, especially pp. 216–22.

  31. On “Fire:” W. J. ’s Gravesande, Mathematical Elements of Natural Philosophy, trans. J.-T. Desaguliers (sixth edition, London 1747), Vol. 2, pp. 63–64; and Robert F. Schofield, Mechanism and Materialism: British Philosophy in an Age of Reason (Princeton, 1970), pp. 80–87.

  32. Newton’s “electric spirit”: Richard S. Westfall, Never At Rest: A Biography of Sir Isaac Newton (Cambridge, England, 1983), pp. 745–48 and 790–93.

  33. Franklin, Logan, and Logan’s treatise on ethics: Franklin to Logan (1737?), BFP 2, pp. 184–85; Logan to Thomas Story, May 12, 1736, and November 15, 1737, in Norman Penney, ed., The Correspondence of James Logan and Thomas Story, 1724–1741 (Bulletin of the Friends’ Historical Society, Philadelphia, 1916), pp. 57–60 and 64–65; and James Logan, Of the Duties of Man as may be Deduced from Nature, ed. Philip Valenti (Philadelphia, 2013), pp. 151–52.

  34. Jean-François Gauvin, Le cabinet de physique du château de Cirey, in Judith P. Zinnser and Julie Candler Hayes, Émilie du Châtelet: Rewriting Enlightenment Philosophy and Science (Oxford, 2006); and Mme du Châtelet, Dissertation sur la nature et la propagation du feu (second edition, Paris, 1744), pp. 91–92, 95, and 118. The marquise was a close friend of the principal French researcher into electricity, Charles Du Fay, keeper of the Jardin du Roi in Paris. She also studied Newton’s General Scholium of 1713, in which he referred to his “electric spirit.” Mme du Châtelet died far too young, in childbirth in 1749 while in her early forties. One of the might-have-beens of Franklin’s career is this: if the marquise had lived to read his electrical essays, would the two have met, and what would have been the consequences?

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: A CHANGE OF LIFE

  1. Zinzendorf: C. William Miller, Benjamin Franklin’s Philadelphia Printing, 1728–1766 (Philadelphia, 1974), pp. 150–60; Donald F. Durnbaugh, “Pennsylvania’s Crazy Quilt of German Religious Groups,” in Pennsylvania History 68, no. 1 (Winter 2001); and Fogleman, Hopeful Journeys, pp. 107–22.

  2. Properties: Deeds dated July–August 1741, in BFP 2, pp. 310–11.

  3. The ballad: BFP 2, pp. 352–54; and Lemay 2, pp. 271–75.

  4. Lawrence Henry Gipson, Lewis Evans (Philadelphia, 1939), pp. 1–7 and 14.

  5. Election riot: PG, October 7, 1742; and John Reynell to Daniel Flexney, November 20, 1742, in Reynell’s letter book, Vol. 5, HSP.

  6. Clymer’s fire: PG, January 13, 1743.

  7. The fire engine came from Richard Newsham’s workshop in Cloth Fair, London, just around the corner from the printing shop at St. Bartholomew the Great, where Newsham started to manufacture his “new invented perpetual water engine to quench fire” in 1721: Applebee’s Weekly Journal, November 4 1721.

  8. Indian affairs in 1743, including McKee’s testimony and a full account of its consequences: Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, Vol. 4, 1736–1745 (Harrisburg, PA, 1851), pp. 630–69.

  9. European situation: Blanning, Frederick the Great, pp. 81–90 on “the European state system in 1740.”

  10. Franklin’s early coverage of Sibbald’s exploits: PG, April 8, May 20, December 21, 1742; and March 17, April 21, and October 6, 1743. Poor Richard: BFP 2, p. 367.

  11. Bartram, Collinson, Grace, and Franklin: E. and D. S. Berkeley, The Correspondence of John Bartram, 1734–1777 (Gainesville, FL, 1992), pp. 43, 49, 63–64, 79, 99, 106, 188–89, and 214.

  12. BFP 2, pp. 378–83. The standard account of the society’s early days is still Carl Van Doren, “The Beginnings of the American Philosophical Society,” in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 87 (1944): 437–62, but Van Doren did not see the connections between the society and the crisis in Indian affairs in 1743. In general, and despite the brilliance of his writing, Van Doren had a tendency to neglect the wider political and economic circumstances of Franklin’s work in Philadelphia. On the new sophistication of material culture in Pennsylvania in the early 1740s: Mark Reinberger and Elizabeth McLean, The Philadelphia Country House: Architecture and Landscape in Colonial America (Baltimore, 2015), pp. 70–78.

  13. Franklin and maps: Joyce Chaplin, The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius (New York, 2006), pp. 117–21.

  14. The Onondaga mission: John Bartram, Observations made by John Bartram…in his travels from Pennsylvania to Onondaga (London, 1751; reprinted, Rochester, NY, 1895).

  15. Bartram’s earlier maps: Bartram to Peter Bayard?, ca. March 1742, CJB, p. 188; and Bartram to Peter Collinson, July 6, 1742, CJB, p. 200.

  16. Franklin to Jane Mecom, July 28, 1743: BFP 2, pp. 384–85.

  17. Cambuslang: L. Tyerman, The Life of the Revd. George Whitefield (London, 1890), Vol. 2, Chapter 1.

  18. Franklin to Jane Mecom, July 28, 1743, BFP 2, p. 384–85.

  19. Spencer’s description: London Evening Post, April 14–16, 1743. Genealogical records from Scotland contain a reference to an Archibald Spence born at Jedburgh on July 10, 1700, the son of a tobacco spinner, and this is probably our man.

  20. London career of Spencer, and lectures by Desaguliers: London Evening Post, March 16–18, 1736, December 1–4, 1739, February 26–28, 1741, and November 19–21, 1741; and Daily Advertiser, November 29, 1742. His career and reputation in America: J. A. L. Lemay, “Franklin’s ‘Dr Spence’: The Reverend Archibald Spencer (1698?–1760), MD,” in Maryland Historical Magazine 59, no. 2 (June 1964): 199–216. Spencer obtained his medical degree from St. Andrews University in October 1739 by providing testimonials from two physicians who belonged to the Royal Society: William Stukeley, often regarded as the founder of British archaeology, and Robert Taylor, who was one of the king’s doctors: St. Andrews University Library, Special Collections, UY 350/28.

  21. Details of Spencer’s American lectures: I. Bernard Cohen, “The Mysterious ‘Dr Spence,’ ” in his Benjamin Franklin’s Science (Cambridge, MA, 1990). His brick church—All Hallows—is still standing at South River, Maryland, not far from Annapolis. With the help of the Sunday congregation I tried in vain to find his grave in the churchyard; and so it may be that Archibald Spencer lies buried beneath the floor of the building.

  22. Electrical experiments in the 1730s, and the life and work of Du Fay: Fontenelle, “Éloge de Du Fay,” in Histoire de l’Académie Royale des Sciences, 1739 (Paris, 1741); Henri Becquerel, Notice sur Charles-François de Cisternay Du Fay (Paris, 1893); and the superb modern account by J. L. Heilbron, Electricity in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: A Study of Early Modern Physics (Berkeley, CA, 1979), Vol. 1, Chapters 8 and 9.

  23. Just as there is no full-length modern scholarly biography of James Logan, the same is true in the case of Cadwallader Colden. The most recent study is John M. Dixon’s book, The Enlightenment of Cadwallader Colden: Empire, Science, and Intellectual Culture in British New York (Ithica, NY, 2016), but it is relatively brief. Colden’s correspondence was published by the New-York Historical Society a century ago, but without adequate annotation or commentary. The relevant volumes are The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden, Vol. 1 (1711–1729) (NYHS, 1917); Vol. 2 (1730–1742) (NYHS, 1919); and Vol. 3 (1743–1747) (NYHS, 1920).

  24. American science in the 1730s: Raymond S. Stearns, Science in the British Colonies of America (Urbana, IL, 1970), pp. 502–14, with also a brief account of Colden’s work on pp. 491–97.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: COLDEN, FRANKLIN, AND THE TWO FRONTIERS

  1. Colden to Peter Collinson, May 1742 and November 13, 1742, CCP 2, pp. 257–63 and 277–83.r />
  2. Colden to William Douglass, ca. 1728, CCP 1, pp. 272–73.

  3. Colden on “benevolence”: Cadwallader Colden, History of the Five Indian Nations (New York, 1727), p. v; and Colden to Collinson, November 13, 1742, as note 1 above.

  4. Bartram to Collinson, September 5, 1742, CCP 2, p. 202.

  5. BFP 2, pp. 385–88.

  6. Rutherfurd to Colden, April 19, 1743, CCP 3, pp. 17–21.

  7. John Rutherfurd: BFP 3, p. 90; Rutherfurd of Edgerston papers, National Library of Scotland, Acc. 7676, Bundles 22–23 and 36; NAK, SP 41/13./102; and biographical sketch in R. Sedgwick, ed., History of Parliament, 1715–1754 (London, 1970). His father-in-law was Sir Gilbert Elliot, Lord Minto, a close friend of the philosopher David Hume. Minto was a leading advocate of “improvement” in Scottish agriculture and also one of the originators of the Edinburgh New Town of the 1760s and 1770s. Rutherfurd’s command in New York: House of Commons Journal (1742), Vol. 24, p. 356; and S. M. Pargellis, “The Four Independent Companies of New York” in Essays in Colonial History Presented to C. M. Andrews (New Haven, 1931), pp. 100–103.

  8. Bartram to Colden, June 26, 1743, CCP 3, pp. 23–24.

  9. Because most of these letters were unpublished, they have to be recovered from the manuscript journals of the Royal Society, Vols. 17–19 at RoySoc, covering the years 1736–45.

  10. Colden’s 1738 report: K. G. Davies, ed., Calendar of State Papers (Colonial) (London, 1969), Vol. 44, pp. 130–36.

  11. Rutherfurd to Colden, January 10, 1743, CCP 3, p. 2.

  12. Franklin to Jane Mecom, June? 1748, BFP 3, p. 303.

  13. William Strahan ca. 1743: His account book, at BL, Add. Ms. 48,800, showing how he built his business; and ODNB. In Strahan’s accounts, the Whitefield-related entries begin in August 1739 and reach their peak early in 1744. His correspondence with Franklin: BFP 2, pp. 383–84, 409–13, 416–17; and BFP 3, pp. 13–14.

  14. Philadelphia on June 11: Alexander Hamilton, Hamilton’s Itinerarium of 1744 (St. Louis, 1907), pp. 28–30.

  15. Privateers: Carl E. Swanson, “American Privateering and Imperial Warfare, 1739–1748,” in WMQ 42, no. 3 (July 1985): 357–82; and A. P. Middleton, “The Chesapeake Convoy System, 1662–1763,” in WMQ 3, no. 2 (April 1946): 192–94.

  16. Examples of Franklin’s coverage of Sibbald and the Wilmington: PG, September 27, October 18, and November 8, 1744.

  17. The Mercury: London Daily Post, March 7, 1744; and PG, June 21. Strahan’s advice: Strahan to Hall, March 9 and June 22, 1745, BFP 2, p. 409n.

  18. Bartram to Colden, April 29, 1744, in CJB, pp. 237–38.

  19. James Alexander: Henry McCracken, Prologue to Independence: The Trials of James Alexander, American, 1715–1756 (New York, 1964), pp. 67–72 and 85–89. On Alexander’s role as the defender of landlords’ rights in New Jersey, see Brendan McConville, These Daring Disturbers of the Public Peace: The Struggle for Property and Power in Early New Jersey (Philadelphia, 2003), pp. 32–36 and Chapters 5–7. After James Alexander was named as New Jersey’s surveyor general in 1718, he delegated the work involved to a deputy, Franklin’s old Burlington friend Isaac Decow, who held the post until his death in the 1740s: see note 15 to Chapter 12.

  20. Hatred of Colden: For example, A Letter From Some of the Representatives in the Late General Assembly (New York, 1747), pp. 28–30, describing him as “this artful crafty and designing man.”

  21. BFP 2, p. 415, and BFP 3, p. 54 (PG, March 5, 1745).

  22. James Alexander to Colden, November 12, 1744, CCP 3, pp. 82–83; and Colden to Gronovius, December 1744, CCP 3, p. 91.

  23. Franklin’s diplomatic letter to Colden, October 25, 1744, BFP 2, pp. 417–18.

  24. BFP 2, pp. 446–48.

  25. The Berlin Academy: Theodor Schieder, Frederick the Great (London, 2000), pp. 42–43 and 258; and Ronald S. Calinger, “Frederick the Great and the Berlin Academy of Sciences, 1740–1766,” in Annals of Science 24, no. 3 (1968): 239–51.

  26. German experiments: Heilbron, Electricity in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Vol. 1, pp. 261–75.

  27. Quotations from “An Historical Account of the Wonderful Discoveries, Made in Germany etc, concerning Electricity,” in The Gentleman’s Magazine, April 1745. This was a translation from a German essay by Albrecht von Haller: see J. L. Heilbron, “Franklin, Haller and Franklinist History,” in Isis 68, no. 4 (December 1977): 539–49.

  28. Manteuffel and Wolff on the polyp and electricity: Katharina Middell and Hans-Peter Neumann, Briefwechsel zwischen Christian Wolff und E. C. von Manteuffel (Leipzig University, 2012), Vol. 1, letters 136 (July 27, 1743) and 147–50 (December 1743). Significance of the polyp: Jonathan I. Israel, Enlightenment Contested (Oxford, 2006), pp. 745–77.

  29. Journal Book of the Royal Society, Vol. 19 (1742–45) at RoySoc, JBO/19, pp. 64–79, 81–82, 109–12, 375–76, and 379–80. Collinson to Colden: CCP 3, pp. 109–10.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN: A CALLING FOUND

  1. Franklin to his parents, September 6, 1745, BFP 2, pp. 413–14; Franklin to Edward and Jane Mecom, 1744–45, BFP 2, p. 448.

  2. The Louisbourg expedition: Julian Gwyn, ed., The Royal Navy and North America: the Warren Papers, 1736–52 (Navy Records Society, London, 1973), pp. xix–xxvi and 83–115.

  3. Notes on Assembly Debates, BFP 3, pp. 14–17.

  4. Franklin to his brother, May ?, 1745, BFP 3, pp. 26–27.

  5. Franklin to Strahan, February 12, 1745, BFP 3, pp. 13–14.

  6. Thomson and science in The Seasons: Alan D. McKillop, The Background of Thomson’s Seasons (Minneapolis, 1942), Chapter 2 and pp. 170–71.

  7. Colden on “animal spirits”: Roy N. Lokken, “Cadwallader Colden’s Attempt to Advance Natural Philosophy Beyond the Eighteenth Century Mechanistic Paradigm,” in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 122, no. 6 (1978): 366–69; and Franklin to Colden, August 15 and November 28, 1745, BFP 3, pp. 33–38 and 46–49.

  8. John Wygate’s career: London Gazette, December 3, 1737, listing him as a fugitive debtor; Christopher Middleton, A Vindication of the Conduct of Captain Christopher Middleton (London, 1743), many references, especially pp. 138–41; and Wygate’s short obituary in the Penny London Post, March 21–24, 1746. Wygate and HMS Hind: muster book of the Hind, NAK, ADM 36/1501 and 1502; and the captain’s log, 1744–46, ADM 51/4219, recording his death in January 1746.

  9. Lease: BFP 3, pp. 50–52.

  10. PG, June 12, 1746; and Lemay 2, p. 354.

  11. BFP 3, pp. 74–79.

  12. Whitefield’s Culloden sermon: Britain’s Mercies and Britain’s Duty, Represented in a Sermon preached…on Sunday August 24th 1746 (Philadelphia, 1746).

  13. Military and political situation in New York: Rutherfurd to Colden, June 26, 1746, CCP 3, pp. 218–19; Patricia U. Bonomi, A Factious People: Politics and Society in Colonial New York (New York, 1971), pp. 140–58; and Michael Kammen, ed., William Smith Jr.’s History of the Province of New York (Cambridge, MA, 1972), Vol. 2, pp. 74–77. Franklin covered these events in detail: for example, PG, June 5 and 19, July 10 and 31, September 11, and October 30, 1746.

  14. Colden to Gronovius, May 30, 1746, CCP 3, pp. 209–11.

  15. Discovery of the Leiden jar, and its dissemination in 1745–46: Joseph Priestley, The History and Present State of Electricity, with Original Experiments (London, 1775), Vol. 1, pp. 102–9; and Heilbron, Electricity in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Vol. 2, pp. 309–23.

  16. London General Advertiser, April 18, 1746.

  17. Abbé Nollet, Essai sur l’électricité des corps (Paris, 1746), pp. 194–96 and 202n.

  18. Cadwallader Colden, An Explication of The First Causes of Action in Matter and of the Cause of Gravitation (New York, 1745–46), pp. 24–28; and BFP 3, pp. 84–93.

  19. Archibald
Home: BFP 2, pp. 407–9. Baxter’s book: An Enquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul, Wherein the Immateriality of the Soul is Evinced from the Principles of Reason and Philosophy (London, 1737); and for a discussion: John W. Yolton, Thinking Matter: Materialism in Eighteenth Century Britain (Minneapolis, 1983), pp. 94–100.

  20. Collinson’s trunk of books and letter to Breintnall, May 1746: James N. Green, “Peter Collinson, Benjamin Franklin and the Library Company,” in Library Company of Philadelphia Annual Report, 2012, pp. 18–20. The Carolina and the Friendship: Collinson to Bartram, April 23, 1746, CJB, pp. 274–75; London General Advertiser, May 20 and June 5; Franklin to Strahan, September 25, BFP 3, pp. 82–83; and PG, October 16, all from 1746.

  21. Timing of Franklin’s visit to Boston: Lemay 2, pp. 316–17. Publication date of the American Magazine & Historical Chronicle: Boston Evening Post, November 10, 1746, referring to the article titled “Electrical Phenomena Produc’d at Paris and the Apparatus Described.” Of the nineteen items in the October issue, every one was lifted verbatim from the British monthlies.

  22. Le Monnier’s full-length account of his experiments appeared as Recherches sur la communication de l’électricité in the 1746 edition of the Histoire et mémoires de l’Académie Royale des Sciences. The condensed version by Father Needham was dated July 4, 1746, and addressed to Martin Folkes, president of the Royal Society. After appearing in the July Gentleman’s Magazine (Vol. 16, pp. 371–74), it was separately published in London at the end of September, before its formal reading at the Royal Society on October 23: see London Evening Post, September 27–30, 1746, and John Turberville Needham, “A Letter…Concerning some New Electrical Experiments Lately Made at Paris,” in the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions 44 (1746–47), pp. 247–63. See also Heilbron, Electricity in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Vol. 2, pp. 316–21; and Lemay 3, pp. 65–67. Their account of the beginning of Franklin’s experiments differs from mine by leaving out the decisively important influence of Le Monnier.