Now that we have established the period of Peter's death, it may be well, to establish the period of his birth; and this we can do, with certainty, even to an hour, from authentic documents. In addition to other means, for ascertaining dates, and various particulars, respecting Peter Faneuil, and the members of his family--through the kindness of the Genealogical Society, I have, before me, a folio volume of his commercial correspondence: mutilated, indeed it is, by some thoughtless hand, but furnishes some curious and interesting matter. Many of his letters are written in French; and those, which are in English, are well composed. I have found but a single instance, in which he writes our language, like a Frenchman. Upon that occasion, he was in a passion with a certain judge of the admiralty, complained of his ill usage, and charged him with "_capporice_." No. CXXIV. I am indebted to Mr. Charles Faneuil Jones, a grandson of Mary Ann Jones, Peter Faneuil's sister, for the use of some ancient papers, and family relics; and to George Bethune, Esquire, of Boston, the grandson of _Benjamin Faneuil_, Peter's brother, for the loan of a venerable document--time worn, torn, and sallow--the record of the birth of Peter Faneuil, and of his brothers and sisters. This document, from its manifest antiquity, the masculine character of the hand writing, and the constant use of the parental expressions--_notre fils_--_notre fille_--I, at first, supposed to be the original autograph of _Benjamin_, the father of Peter. This conjecture was, of course, demolished, by the last entry, on the record, which is of old _Benjamin's_ decease, but in the same peculiar hand. The document is in French; and, after a careful comparison--_literatim_--with the volume of Peter's commercial correspondence, now in my possession--I have very little doubt, that this record was copied, by Peter, from the paternal original, with the additional entry, by himself, of the date of his father's death. At the bottom, and beneath a line of separation, and by another hand, with a fresher ink, is the following entry--"_Le 6 D'Aout 1725, M. Gillam Phillips de Boston a epousee ma Fille Marie Faneuil agée de dix sept et quatre mois_." The 6th of August, 1725, Mr. Gillam Phillips, of Boston, married my daughter, Marie, aged seventeen and four months. The expression _ma file_, shows this entry to have been made by Peter's mother, then the widow of _Benjamin_, who appears, by this record, to have died, at New York, March 31, 1718-9, aged 50 years and 8 months.