The Benjamin Franklin Connection

Continuing on the maternal side of our family tree . . . researching Maria Baucke (born Mueller  Muller). Forster was Maria's great-grandfather (from my reckoning).

There is quite a lot of easily found information about Johann Rhienhold Forster, but this is particularly interesting. The following is a transcript of a letter from John /Johann  to Benjamin Franklin - one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.  It is not known if Franklin received or responded to this letter. 

This letter was written to Franklin during the time he was the ambassador to France from 1776 to 1785. 

5.Observations Made during a Voyage Round the World, on Physical Geography, Natural History and Ethnic Philosophy … (London, 1778). 

6. Johann Georg Adam Forster (1754–94) was Forster's oldest son,  who had accompanied him on Cook’s second voyage. Forster senior had expected to write the account of this voyage but  Cook was determined to do it himself, and Forster was forbidden from doing so by the Admiralty. So Forster  encouraged his son to write it instead. A short time before Cook’s narrative appeared, Georg Forster’s account was published under the title A Voyage Round the World, in His Britannic Majesty’s Sloop, Resolution … (London, 1777). The resulting furor led to Johann Reinhold’s imprisonment for debt and his son’s departure from England. 

7. Forster had four daughters. This one was most likely the second, Antonia Elisabeth Susanna (1758–1823). Apparently,  she left home at the beginning of September, 1776, having inherited her father’s roving spirit. She worked as a governess, first in Vienna, later in Copenhagen, Hanover, Courland, and Berlin. According to one report  “she was respected as a highly intelligent, informed companion and educator, although few failed to notice her fiery pride, and refusal to bow to the social conventions of the times.”

8. William Lee, who was in Vienna from the end of May until July, was an American diplomat.