I have not before written to you because I wished to intrude upon you as little as possible, and the bulk of the inclosed papers made it expedient to wait for a private opportunity. Aunt mecom wrote to you the other day and of course answered all your enquiries relative to her, she appears to me in better health than from her discription in her letter to me I expected; she is troubled with a complaint of the Astmatic kind, but it does not seem to be in a degree to indicate the presence of disease, further than as a common attendant to her age. She is in good Spirits, which is the best remedy that any Physician could prescribe.

I called on Mrs. Partridge as you desired and I found she had received your Letter of November last, which I suppose she has since answered.

I called also upon Governor Boudoin, who was much pleased by your kind remembrance of him, and expressed the warmest and most respectfull attachment to you.

Poor Colll Ingersol I saw upon his death bed and in two or three days afterwards he departed.

I found my own parents in good health of body my Father still pursuing the great philosophical desideratum by the mystical No.7. which you know wonderfully harmonizes with the 7 days of the week, 7 Colours, 7 Planets and 7 metals; unfortunately the discovery of the Herschel [planet?] a little deranged this harmony, but my Father cannot believe this, for every thing that belongs to experimental ? School philosophy is upon the principle of Beheminism necessarily false, and every thing mystical necessarily true. You may remember a curious manuscript which was given to you by an Abbé who wanted your permission to dedicate it to you, it was a system of electricity and religion worked together into a fine piece of net work, and proved by a number of imaginary experiments, which were never made, but which by mystical reasoning a priori were decided to be infallible. Such is the Philosophy which took possession of my Fathers mind in the year 1772, and which is now as strong as ever although 17 years labour has not advanced him one step.

You may readily conceive how the ordinary affairs of business must have been conducted, and now at an advanced period of life, without suffering a single Loss from any unavoidable casualty, I see my parents reduced to poverty, and see that their support will be one object to which my future industry must be directed. My mother with a strength of mind, that shows the source from whence she sprung, is determined to take some Boarders, and her respectability will, I imagine, insure her those of the best kind; this determination I very much approve and encourage, ’till some future acquisition of mine, by Oeconomy and industry, shall enable me to smooth the decline of life and repay my parents in their old age for the care they took of my [youth?].

My Brother Jack who is the bearer of this goes [to] Philadelphia to answer a suit against him personaly, f[or] a demand against my Uncles estate for which he is only executor. The Question is a clear one, and I suppose he will be releived by the Law, the only apprehension is loss of time and expence by delay, when he ought to be in pursuit of something to enable him to join me in [the] future support of our parents. I have desired [him] to lay the papers before you if you are disposed to see them, but as I should be sorry to add one single thought to your mind which is not perfectly agreea[ble] I have also desired him to withold them unless y[ou] choose to see them.

Please to remember me to M[rs.] Hewson and her Children, I wrote her a short Letter wh[en] in the river and gave her an Account of a poor patient I had on board. I shall be a happy Doctor indeed if I am always as successfull, for this poor fellow whom I supposed to be just stooping over the precipice [of] Death, came on shore free from every complaint, and in a state [of] convalesence.

I have attended to the affairs about the Books sent for the use of aunt mecom, and found in the first place that one of the Bundles containing the whole of the 3d Volume had been stolen, the Thief finding only good books instead of bank notes left them in the Cellar of an old uninhabited House, there they were found and published by a constable in order to discover the owner, before they were missed by our family. The number was reduced by being scattered and damaged, what remained were given to a Bookbinder at 1/3 for binding, so that at my return I found the 1. 2. and 4th volume in sheets as at first, and about 60 of the 3d Volume bound in marble. I have ordered all the remainder to be bound in the same manner and on the same conditions, which I am told are the customary ones; I then propose to agree with a Bookseller at a certain price, as high as I can, in this way; He to give a note of hand payable at a given time for the Amount, but conditioned that if any of the Books remain unsold when the note becomes due, they shall be received again at prime cost. I think it will be well to try this experiment before they are sent back, especialy as I believe that when the Books are better known they will be in such demand as to make our Booksellers apply to Benjamin for some more. This is a Business which I do not very well understand but I will do the best I can, I find it va[in?] to attempt an absolute sale, and by making the conditions of ? return I may perhaps get them off at a higher price: The few that have been sold went for 4/ this Curry. per dozen.

I beg you to remember me kindly to all the family and to beleive me to be as ever Your dutifull and affectionate Kinsman