Minutes of Votes and Proceedings of General Assembly, for

1848.

From Hon. Dudley S. Gregory.-Message of the President of the United States, with correspondence therewith communicated between the Secretary of War and other officers of the Government on the subject of the Mexican War.

The Congressional Globe and various public documents.
From Benjamin F. Thompson, Esq., of Hempstead, L. I.—
Catalogue of New York State Library.

Carlyle's Letters and Speeches of Cromwell.
Browning's History of the Huguenots.
De Tocqueville's Democracy in America.
Smith's History of New York.

Moulton's History of New York.

The Puritan's and their Principles, by E. Hall,
Coffin's History of Newbury.

Sabine's American Loyalists.

Lester's Artists of America.

Taylor's History of University of Dublin.

From Major J. D. Graham, U. S. Topographical Engineers.Three Newspapers containing communications in answer to certain charges of Col. Thos. H. Benton,

From W. A. Whitehead.-Journal of the Senate of Florida at its second session, 1840.

Journal of the Legislative Assembly of Florida at its eight. eenth session, 1840.

Journal of the Convention for Framing a Constitution for the People of Florida, held at St. Joseph's, Dec. 1838.

American Almanac, 1845.

From W. A. Whitehead, on deposit and subject to his order.The New York Mercury, from Sept. 1830 to Dec. 1843, in eight bound volumes.

The Congressional Globe and Appendix, from Dec. 1834 to
Feb. 1841, in eight bound volumes.

From Hon. John M. White, of Woodbury, N. J.-A Silver
Medal struck in honor of Washington, 1787.

From Hon. J. F. Randolph.-Executive and Congressional Doc.
uments and other State Papers-about 100 bound volumes.
From Hon. Jacob W. Miller-Various Public Documents.

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

WILLIAM FRANKLIN

GOVERNOR FROM 1763 TO 1776,

BY

WILLIAM A. WHITEHEAD.

READ BEFORE THE NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY,

September 27th, 1848.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

GENTLEMEN-Although I have consented to occupy a part of your time at this meeting, yet I feel that I should ask your indulgence for the imperfections which may be observed in what I am about to read. For being only a portion of a manuscript of miscellaneous gleanings in the forgotten past,* prepared with no view of being laid before the Society, it is in some respects of a different character from what it would have been had it been designed for a distinct paper. It may however afford some infor mation not generally known respecting the individual of whom it treats, and serve to refresh the memory of those already to some extent acquainted with his life and character.

Dr. Franklin, identified with so much that is interesting in the history of America had one son. That son, WILLIAM FRANKLIN, was Governor of New Jersey at the period when, through the blessing of Providence upon earnest self devoting efforts, our country was happily enabled to throw off the oppressive burdens which the short sighted policy of England's rulers would have fastened upon her, and assumed among the nations of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitled her.'

William Franklin was born in the Province of Pennsylvania in 1731-but of his youth little is known. He carly showed at marked predilection for books, which his father of course encouraged; but with advancing years the quiet walks of an academic life appear to have lost their charms in some measure, and a disposition was manifested by him to seek employment in the stirring pursuits of a military career. Disappointed in an attempt to connect himself clandestinely with a privateer fitting out at Philadelphia, he was subsequently gratified by the receipt of a commission in the Pennsylvania forces, and served in one or more campaigns on the northern frontier before he was of age, rising from a subordinate station to the rank of Captain. This expedition is alluded to by his father as being, in one respect, of no service to him. "Will "-says the Doctor, writing in 1750

"Contributions to the Local History of Perth Amboy and surrounding country."

"is now nineteen years of age, a tall, proper youth, and much of a beau. He acquired a habit of idleness in the expedition, but begins of late to apply himself to business, and I hope will be. come an industrious man. He imagined his father had got enough for him, but I have assured him that I intend to spend what little I have myself, if it please God that I may live long enough; and as he by no means wants acuteness, he can see by my going on, that I mean to be as good as my word."

On his return to Philadelphia young Franklin seems to have become in a great degree the companion and assistant of his father in his various scientific and professional pursuits, and subsequently entered himself into official life. From 1754 to 1756 he acted as Comptroller of the General Post Office, then under the management of Dr. Frankiin, and in January 1755-then holding in addition the Clerkship of the Provincial Assemblyhe accompanied the troops that were sent under the command of the Doctor to build forts on the frontiers of Pennsylvania; and in June 1757, his father having been appointed Colonial Agent at London, he sailed with him for Europe.

William Strahan, his father's friend, a man of talent and discrimination, thus alludes to him in a letter written shortly after his arrival in England

"Your son "he is writing to Mrs. Franklin-"I really think one of the prettiest young gentlemen I ever knew from America. He seems to me to have a solidity of judgment, not very often to be met with in one of his years. This, with the daily oppor. tunity he has of improving himself in the company of his father, who is at the same time his friend, his brother, his intimate and easy companion, affords an agreeable prospect, that your hus. band's virtues and usefulness to his country may be prolonged beyond the date of his own life.”

Young Franklin entered upon the study of the law in the middle Temple and was called to the bar in 1758. He travelled with his father through England, Scotland, Flanders and Hol. land, and appears to have profited, as regards both mental and personal attainments, by the advantages which a visit to those countries under such favorable circumstances naturally afforded. Courted as was the society of his father by men of the highest literary and scientific acquirements, he could not but imbibe in such a circle a taste for similar pursuits, and we consequently find that when the University of Oxford in 1762 conferred upon the father, for his great proficiency in the natural sciences, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, the son was thought worthy