Social acquaintance of Franklin.

Scottish. Resided in Philadelphia. Married the poet Elizabeth Graeme (1772), whom William Franklin had courted in the 1750s; they had no children. Traveled to Britain on family business in September 1775. May have acted as a messenger between Silas Deane and Edward Bancroft (Paris, September 1776). Visited Paris (December 1776-March 1777). Appointed commissary of prisoners in British army (November 1777). Estranged from wife; never returned to America.