William Franklin | Benjamin Franklin's Loyalist son laments his "present disagreeable Situation" in a Patriot prison

William Franklin

Autograph letter signed (“Wm: Franklin”) to Philip Skene (“Dear Sir,), one page (237 x 180 mm) on a bifolium of laid paper (watermarked fleur de lys surmounting LVG), Middletown, 19 January 1777, complaining of his imprisonment by order of the Continental Congress, integral leaf with autograph address panel (“Governor Skene | New York”) and reception docket (“19th Jany 1777 | Govr Franklin | to |Govr Skene | recd 25 Jany per Barr”; lightly browned, seal tear and repair, a few short fold separations, chiefly marginal. Half green morocco folding-case gilt, chemise.

A very rare Revolutionary War-date letter by William Franklin, last royal governor of New Jersey, Loyalist leader—and acknowledged extra-marital son of Benjamin Franklin. This letter is noteworthy not only for its date, but for its significant content, revealing the particular Patriot animus directed against Franklin, who had been denounced by the Provincial Congress of New Jersey as “an enemy to the liberties of this country.”

Franklin remained in his gubernatorial chair long after most colonial governors had fled their posts, staunchly following the directions of the crown and forwarding intelligence about revolutionary activities to London. Initially placed under house arrest, June 1776, Franklin was imprisoned for two years at various places in Connecticut, including eight months in solitary confinement in Litchfield, before being exchanged, 1 November 1778.

Franklin’s correspondent, “Governor” Philip Skene was a British army officer and recipient of a royal patent for a large tract of land at the southern end of Lake Champlain that was known as Skenesborough, which became an important trade center. Skene was given the honorific title “governor” with the idea that he would be appointed royal governor of a new colony to be made from the area of New York surrounding Skenesborough combined with the disputed New Hampshire Grants. Captured in Philadelphia in June 1775, Skene was paroled to the West Hartford home of Sarah Hooker. Skene was exchanged in September 1776 and sailed to England, but word of General John Burgoyne’s planned campaign in Canada and northern New York convinced him to return to North America in early 1777 to offer his assistance. He was in British-occupied New York City when Franklin’s letter reached him.

“I have had the Pleasure to find by your Note to Mrs. Sarah Hooker, and otherwise, that you are so kind as to remember me, and have not been inattentive to my present disagreeable Situation. I should probably ere now have made some Attempt to remove myself from it, had it not been for the repeated Assurances I have received from my Friends, that Measures are taking by Gen. Howe to effect my Releasement, and that I may be assured of my being soon enabled to return to my Family.—The Powers who govern here have given every one of my Fellow-Prisoners who were not exchanged, Liberty to return to their respective Homes on their Paroles. But they have peremptorily refused me that Liberty without an Order from the Congress, because, as Govnr. [Jonathan] Trumbull says in his Letter to me, ‘he knows my Influence in New Jersey, and my Interest and Disposition in the present unhappy Dispute too well to consent to my Return there.’ I am in hopes, however, it will not be long before I shall be out of his Power, and have an Opportunity of making my Acknowledgments in Person for your kind Attention to my Affairs.—I am, very sincerely, Dear Sir, Your affect[iona]te. Hum[ble]. Serv[an]t.”

Despite the optimism he expresses here, Franklin was not exchanged for almost another two years, 1 November 1778. Taking refuge in New York City, Franklin became a leader of Loyalist resistance to the revolution, both politically and militarily. “He left America in August 1782 … the most notorious Loyalist after Benedict Arnold,” although an “1802 article in Public Characters, a London magazine described him as a ‘martyr to his principles and an honor to the country’” (Willard Sterne Randall in American National Biography). For his part, Philip Skene became part of the Convention Army after Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga and returned to Britain in 1778. The following year he was attained by New York State and his extensive lands and other properties were confiscated.

While documents, and even a few letters, signed by William Franklin from his tenure as governor of New Jersey are relatively common, Rare Book Hub cites no autograph letters signed from the period of the Revolutionary War for more than six decades—and only four over the course of the past century: to his half-sister, Sarah Franklin Bache, 16 August 1782 (Parke-Bernet, 23 October 1962, lot 75); to his son, William Temple Franklin, 6 October 1776 (Parke-Bernet, 28 January 1946, lot 58); to Gold Selleck Silliman, general in the Connecticut militia, 9 March 1780 (American Art Association-Anderson, 3 April 1936, lot 156); and to William Strahan, 9 October 1779 (Henkels, 17 January 1924, lot 206).