DATE OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE SOCIETY. 177 



of its change of name to the &quot;American Society.&quot; 

 Philip Syng, writing to Franklin on March 1, 1766, says 

 (p. 183) : &quot;The Junto fainted last summer in the hot 

 weather, and has not yet revived; your presence might 

 reanimate it, without which I apprehend it will never 

 recover.&quot; But it did recover without Franklin s pres 

 ence, and the recorded minutes begin again on April 

 25, 1766, after a lapse from October 22, 1762 ; the para 

 graph quoted can refer to no other than Franklin s 

 Junto. This is confirmed by Hugh Roberts s letter to 

 Benjamin Franklin of October 12, 1765 (see p. 138), 

 found among the data collected in 1910: &quot;The remain 

 ing members of the vood old Junto adjourned during 

 the warm and short evenings and are now endeavoring 

 to find a House for their ami tin/ reception where we 

 may sit with more satisfaction than of late&quot;; and he 

 writes this, too, notwithstanding that Franklin was not 

 formally elected to membership until 1768. 



The identity of the Junto and the so-called &quot;Society 

 Junto&quot; is confirmed by Dr. Franklin in his Autobiog 

 raphy in which, writing of the Junto and speaking of 

 William Coleman as one of its members, he says of 

 him, &quot;our friendship continued without interruption 

 to his death, upwards of forty years ; and the club con 

 tinued almost as long, and was the best school of phi 

 losophy, morality, and politics that then existed in the 

 province.&quot; The records show that William Coleman 

 died in January, 1769, making the duration of his mem 

 bership in the Junto agree with the statement of Dr. 



