Letter to "Rev'd Sir," Lonehead, January 6, 1777, concerning the religious aspects of following the King's command for a fast day: does this constitute prayers against the American troops?

Intelligence of Parliamentary affairs in the wake of the Stamp Act, tea taxation, etc.

These papers include letters and documents concerning the American Revolution, from British and American perspectives, as well as issues involving trade, fishing, and trapping in America.

This collection consists almost entirely of letters, mostly written by Jefferson, to various people. The largest portion of the letters are from Jefferson to Louis Hue Girardin concerning the latter's work in completing The history of Virginia: from its first settlement to the present day, Volume 4 . Of particular interest is Jefferson's notes on his colleges' role in that history, including the plot to establish a dictator of Virginia. The letters to Girardin also include discussions of plants, the building of the University of Virginia, and books.

There are letters, petitions, and reports concerning the Loyalists and the losses they sustained in the Revolutionary War. Includes the Committee of American Merchants, Observations on trade (1783), Banished American merchants petition (1789), and Classes of American loyalists and their claims.

This is miscellaneous material relating to postal affairs, including Hazard's appointments in the service, and certificates of membership in various institutions. There are letters from Richard Bache, George Clinton, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Samuel Huntington, Thomas Jefferson, Timothy Matlack, Samuel Miller, George Washington, and others. One manuscript is endorsed, "My Covenant with the most high God," which is Hazard's reaffirmation of the vows made for him by his parents at the time of his baptism.

A politician and arch revolutionary, Richard Henry Lee was an impassioned supporter of American independence from the mid-1760s. Born into one of the most prominent families in the colony on January 20, 1732, Lee was bred to a political life, serving in the Virginia House of Burgesses during the Stamp Act and Non-importation crises, helping convey his state into the revolutionary camp. As a delegate to the Continental Congress, Lee was the first to officially move that a declaration of independence be drafted, and he ended his public career as a principled opponent of ratification of the Constitution and as Virginia's first U.S. Senator. He died at home in Virginia in June 1794. A small, but highly valuable collection, the papers of Richard Henry Lee document the political life and activities of one of the most ardent revolutionaries in Virginia. The 0.5 linear feet of letters (193 items), most addressed to Lee, are an important resource for study of pre-Revolutionary political agitation in Virginia, the increasing connections forged between the colonies, and the political course of the war. To a lesser degree the collection documents Lee's late-life anti-federalism. Among the major correspondents are Lee's brothers Arthur and William, and such leaders in the revolutionary cause as George Washington, Samuel Adams, Charles Lee, John Adams, and Thomas Paine.

This collection of letters, while tiny, is actually quite rich in content. Cadwalader wrote to Samuel Meredith, a politician and fellow Revolutionary War soldier, concerning the war, his real estate holdings in Philadelphia, and the local political climate. The seven items are dated from October 5, 1779 to March 9, 1798, during which Cadwalader served in the military, reentered politics, got married, and then retired from public service.

Sarah Franklin Bache (1743-1808), a Revolutionary War patriot and daughter of Benjamin Franklin, led an active public life according to the standards of womanhood in the late eighteenth century. As the daughter of Benjamin Franklin she had an unusual access, for a woman, to the political life in revolutionary Philadelphia. Although her primary role was of caretaker of her family and home, Bache played an active role in the Revolution through her relief work and as her father's political hostess. The Sarah Franklin Bache papers consist of incoming and outgoing correspondence ranging from 1768 to 1807 mostly of a personal nature to and from friends and relatives. The correspondence of her relatives includes her nephew William Temple Franklin, her brother William Franklin and her children.

These papers relate principally to Smyth's career in New Jersey before the American Revolution, and includes addresses to grand juries and their reports, and a copy of a petition to the Earl of Carlisle and its response (1778).

George Weedon (1734-1793) was Captain in the French and Indian War and a General in the American Revolutionary War. Between the two conflicts he was a prominent citizen of Fredericksburg, Virginia, operating a tavern in that city which served as a meeting place for George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, John Marshall and others to discuss politics and the future course of the American colonies.

This volume contains approximately 175 letters written by Thomas Penn and Richard Penn on public business. A few are copies of letters by James Hamilton, a member of the Provincial Council and lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, and by or to Abraham Taylor.

From the Sugar Act of 1764 through the Tea Act of 1773, the British Parliament imposed a variety of taxes upon their American colonies in an effort to raise revenue to offset the enormous debts incurred during the Seven Years' (French and Indian) War. Far more efficiently than raising revenue, these duties raised the indignation of the colonits, contributing more than their share to the alienation that fueled the independence movement The two volumes that comprise the Pennsylvania Stamp Act and Non-Importation Resolutions Collection contain 34 manuscript and printed items relating to the political crisis over taxation on goods imported into the American colonies between 1765 and 1773, with a focus on Philadelphia. The first volume is concerned exclusively with agitation over the Stamp Act of 1765 and its repeal, while the second volume relates more specifically to the Non-Importation agreements of the 1760s, the Townshend Duties, and the Tea Act of 1773. Among these are letters of Governor John Penn, correspondence between the Sons of Liberty at Philadelphia and those of New York, 1766, an address of the committee of Boston merchants to a committee of Philadelphia merchants, 11 August 1768. Among the more dramatic letters are those from John Hughes, the would-be Stamp Officer for Pennsylvania who resigned bis commission in the face of public protest, and a seies of threatening letters addressed to James and Drinker, consignees for the sale of tea in Pennsylvania in 1773.

The only son of Benjamin Franklin, William Franklin served as Royal Governor of New Jersey during the critical years between 1762 and 1776. An ardent Loyalist, William split with his father over their political differences in the early days of the Revolution, and after enduring two years of imprisonment, became a leader in the Loyalist cause. He settled in London in 1782, where he worked as an agent for Loyalist claims. The William Franklin Papers are a miscellaneous assemblage of letters and documents, dealing largely with Franklin's years as Royal Governor of New Jersey. The majority of the letters are perfunctory, however they provide some information on Franklin's land holdings in New Jersey and the Ohio country. The collection includes two letters relating to Franklin's imprisonment in Connecticut during the Revolution, two affectionate letters to his sister Sarah, and one to his son William Temple Franklin.

The son of William Franklin, Royal Governor of New Jersey, William Temple Franklin worked as aide to his grandfather, Benjamin Franklin, when the latter served as minister to France during the American Revolution. A bonvivant, Temple received his highest public appointment as Secretary to the American delegation at the Treaty of Versailles in 1782-1783, largely through the influence of his famous grandfather, but never again attained a significant post. As Franklin's literary heir, he edited and published a three volume set of his grandfather's writings in 1817. He married his long time mistress a few months before his death in Paris in 1823. The William Temple Franklin Papers provides a richly detailed portrait of the life of the grandson of Benjamin Franklin, and consists largely of letters received during the years that Temple served as his grandfather's aide in France, 1776-1785. Although much of the correspondence is routine, during this period, Temple received regular reports from friends and diplomatic colleagues relaying information on the American Revolution, the course of diplomatic and peace negotiations, and French public opinion on Benjamin Franklin and the new United States. The collection is also a rich resource for information on the personal lives of the Franklins, including interesting correspondence from Temple's relatives William Franklin, Elizabeth Franklin, Sarah Franklin Bache, and Jonathan Williams, and his mistress Blanchette Caillot.

The Welsh non-conformist minister Richard Price (1723-1791) was a moral philosopher and political and economic theorist whose ideas leant support to the American cause during the Revolution. Of broad and liberal mind, he was an integral member of the intellectual coterie surrounding William Petty, the Earl of Shelburne, and was a founding member of the Unitarian Church. Befitting a latitudinarian thinker, the range of Richard Price's correspondence is extremely broad, touching upon his rationalistic philosophy and dissenting theology, his political views on British politics, America and the American Revolution, the Constitutional settlement, the future of the United States, social reform, demography, prisons, and slavery. The ninety letters in the collection are arranged chronologically, with correspondents including Charles Chauncy (8 letters, 1772-1779), Benjamin Franklin (7 letters, 1775-1789), John Howard (11 letters and a biographical manuscript, 1770-1789), Thomas Jefferson (3 letters, 1785-1789), Benjamin Rush (8 letters, 1786-1790), and Edward Wigglesworth (3 letters, 1775-1786), as well as lesser known figures such as the reformer John Howard.

The Thomas Jefferson papers contain a large number of correspondence both to and from Jefferson, as well as various other material related to American Revolutionary War and Early Republic. Includes correspondence with Patrick Henry, Charles Willson Peale, Richard Henry Lee, Horatio Gates, David Rittenhouse, Robert Patterson

The Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin prepared by Isaac Minis Hays for the bicentennial of Franklin's birth in 1906 provides access to the largest portion of the Franklin Papers at the APS. The items were originally bound into volumes in roughly chronological order, with letters to Franklin preceding those from Franklin and at the end of the collection, Franklin's letters owned by the University of Pennsylvania. Each manuscript is still identified by Hays' reference numbers, which include a roman numeral refering to the original volume followed by an arabic number to identify the folio. The electronic version of the finding aid replicates Hays' calendar, including the introductory material and item-level descriptions. It has been updated to reflect corrections in the metadata, corrections of personal names, dates, and description.

These letters and papers include ten small volumes of letterbooks (1752-1781), and ca. 100 pieces of correspondence with Joseph Shippen (1750-1778). Topics discussed are business in Philadelphia and Lancaster, provincial politics, army supply in the French and Indian War, land purchases and speculation, housebuilding, and family affairs.