Lord Hillsborough, Secretary of State for the Colonies, might have suspected Benjamin Franklin of authoring the letters, as Franklin related to his son in a letter: "My Lord H. mentioned the Farmer's letters to me, said he had read them, that they were well written, and he believed he could guess who was the author, looking in my face at the same time as if he thought it was me. He censured the doctrines as extremely wild, &c." Franklin in turn speculated that a "Mr. Delancey", possibly a reference to Daniel Dulany, might be the author. Due to the initial anonymity of the author, the character of "the farmer" attained a lasting reputation independent of Dickinson.
Lord Hillsborough, Secretary of State for the Colonies, may have suspected Benjamin Franklin wrote the letters, as Franklin mentioned in a letter to his son: "My Lord H. spoke about the Farmer's letters to me, saying he had read them and thought they were well written; he believed he could guess who wrote them by looking at my face. He criticized the doctrines as extremely wild, &c." Franklin also speculated that "Mr. Delancey", possibly Daniel Dulany, might be the author. The initial anonymity of the writer led to the character of "the farmer" becoming well-known beyond Dickinson.