John Jeffries a letter he dropped from the balloon during his historic flight, considered the oldest piece of airmail in existence. He fled to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1776 and later to England 1779, and was employed by the Crown during this time. In 1785, Jeffries and Jean-Pierre Blanchard crossed the English Channel in a balloon, becoming the first human beings to cross the Channel by air. Jeffries lived in England from 1779 to 1790. Despite being named in the Massachusetts Banishment Act, he returned to private practice in Boston, staying there until his death in 1819. His son John Jeffries II
Jean-Pierre Blanchard Jean-Pierre Blanchard Jean-Pierre [François] Blanchard (4 July 1753 – 7 March 1809) was a French inventor, best known as a pioneer in balloon flight. Blanchard made his first successful balloon flight in Paris on 2 March 1784, in a hydrogen gas balloon launched from the Champ de Mars. The first successful manned balloon flight had taken place on 21 November 1783, when Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes took off at Palace of Versailles in a free-flying hot air balloon constructed by the Montgolfier brothers. The first manned hydrogen balloon flight had taken place on 1 December 1783, when