Exepting that as I grow older I wish for more Quiet & our Famely is more Incumbred we have had three children Born since I came & tho they give grat Pleasure in comon yet the Noise of them is some times troblesome, I have often heard you wish for liberty to Live more Retiered but it is what hither of us have much grounds to hope for, I often contemplate the Happines it would afford me to have you settled in a Country Seat in New England & I have premition to Reside with you that we might End our Days to gather Retiered from all but a few choice wons that would give & Recive Mutual Injoyment & make us forgit any litle disagreable Incidents that would Unavoidably happen while we Remane in the boddy I hope you hear oftner from your Children than I do or I know it must give you Pain for it is sildom I can hear any thing about them I had a short Leter from my Neice Last Summer which was the Last I have heard of any of them I hope Benny Equals yr wishes, & that Temple is still with you, whose Example & precept I know he has good sense enough to Profitt by.
I must not omit to Inform you our youngest child is a son & named Franklin a fine thriveing boy with an uncomon manly countanance & we hope with (as I sopose) all others that have named after you that he will Inherrit some of yr vertues, the Parents Desier there Duty to you & Joyn in wishing the continueance of yr Helth & Happines with your
affectionat Sister
JANE MECOM
[Here first printed from the manuscript in the American Philosophical Society. The Reverend Jonathan Odell, loyalist clergyman of Burlington, New Jersey, had in 1776 written Inscription for a Curious Chamber-Stove, in the Form of an Urn, so contrived as to make the Flame descend, instead of rise, from the Fire: Invented by Doctor Franklin. The lines, in which Odell praised Franklin as a scientist but condemned him as a politician, had been printed in various places but had only recently come to Jane Mecom's attention. She may have met Odell in Burlington before he left it to join the British in New York. She had
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Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: The Letters of Benjamin Franklin & Jane Mecom.
Contributors: Carl Van Doren - Editor, Benjamin Franklin - Author, Jane Mecom - Author.
Publisher: Princeton University Press.
Place of publication: Princeton, NJ.
Publication year: 1950.
Page number: 208.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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