: Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin; Written by Himself. [Vol. 1 of 2] With His Most Interesting Essays Letters and Miscellaneous Writings; Familiar Moral Political Economical and Philosophical Selected with Care from All His Published Productions and Comprising

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THE FIRST VOLUME.

Letter from Mr. Abel James 91 Letter from Mr. Benjamin Vaughan 92 Continuation of Life, begun at Passy, near Paris, 1784 98 Memorandum 115

Life of Franklin, continued by Dr. Stuber 191 Extracts from Franklin's Will 227

WRITINGS OF FRANKLIN.

The Examination of Dr. Franklin before the British House of Commons, relative to the Repeal of the American Stamp-act 237

Narrative of the Massacre of Friendly Indians in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 1764 264

Introduction to Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania 282

Dr. Franklin's Motion for Prayers in the Convention at Philadelphia, 1787, to revise the then existing Articles of Confederation 286

MEMOIRS OF FRANKLIN.

Twyford, at the Bishop of St. Asaph's, 1771.

Some notes, one of my uncles once put into my hands, furnished me with several particulars relative to our ancestors. From these notes I learned that they lived in the same village, Ecton, in Northamptonshire, on a freehold of about thirty acres, for at least three hundred years, and how much longer could not be ascertained.

Thomas, my eldest uncle, was bred a smith under his father; but, being ingenious, and encouraged in learning by an Esquire Palmer, then the principal inhabitant of that parish, he qualified himself for the bar, and became a considerable man in the county; was chief mover of all public-spirited enterprises for the county or town of Northampton, as well as of his own village, of which many instances were related of him: and he was much taken notice of, and patronised by Lord Halifax. He died in 1702, the 6th of January; four years to a day before I was born. The recital which some elderly persons made to us of his character, I remember, struck you as something extraordinary, from its similarity with what you knew of me. "Had he died," said you, "four years later, on the same day, one might have supposed a transmigration." John, my next uncle, was bred a dyer, I believe of wool. Benjamin was bred a silk dyer, serving an apprenticeship in London. He was an ingenious man. I remember, when I was a boy, he came to my father's in Boston, and resided in the house with us for several years. There was always a particular affection between my father and him, and I was his godson. He lived to a great age. He left behind him two quarto volumes of manuscript, of his own poetry, consisting of fugitive pieces addressed to his friends. He had invented a shorthand of his own, which he taught me, but, not having practised it, I have now forgotten it. He was very pious, and an assiduous attendant at the sermons of the best preachers, which he reduced to writing according to his method, and had thus collected several volumes of them. He was also a good deal of a politician; too much so, perhaps, for his station. There fell lately into my hands in London, a collection he made of all the principal political pamphlets relating to public affairs, from the year 1641 to 1717; many of the volumes are wanting, as appears by their numbering, but there still remain eight volumes in folio, and twenty in quarto and in octavo. A dealer in old books had met with them, and knowing me by name, having bought books of him, he brought them to me. It would appear that my uncle must have left them here when he went to America, which was about fifty years ago. I found several of his notes in the margins. His grandson, Samuel Franklin, is still living in Boston.

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