Beschreibung:

5FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN, Signer (Pennsylvania) . Autograph document signed three times ("B Franklin"), to Reverend Thomas Clap[p], Rector of Yale College, n.p., n.d. [1744?]. 1 page, oblong 4to, 160 x 198 mm. (6 1/4 x 7 7/8 in.), scribbled contemporary note (of the recipient?) in lower margin. Fine. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN JOB PRINTER FOR THE RECTOR OF YALE COLLEGE An unusual document reflecting one of Franklin's busiest and most profitable occupations, that of job printer of tracts and other relatively minor books and pamphlets. The document is boldly headed "The Revd. Mr. Clapp to B Franklin," and is a bill for #100, constituting Franklin's bill "for Printing and Binding 500 [copies] of Dr. Mather's Soul-saving Gospel Truths (per Agreemt.) Rh. Island Money B Franklin." Beneath, Franklin specifies: "Sir, Please to pay the above to my Brother Peter Franklin, and his Receipt shall discharge you from Your obliged hmble. Servt. B Franklin." Increase Mather's three sermons were first published under the collective title Soul-Saving Gospel Truths in Boston in 1703; apparently the Calvinistic Reverend Thomas Clap (1703-1767), President of Yale since 1739, found the sermons edifying enough to contract with Franklin for a page for page reprint. On Franklin's edition see C. William Miller Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia Printing , 1974, no. 328 (quoting the present document, then in the Clap family papers).