Lunenburg Novr. 12 1749 Honored Sir,

Be pleas'd to accept of a few lines as a token of the respect & duty which your much oblidged Son bears towards you....1 It is indeed Sr. with great reluctancy that I realize yr. intended Voyage and altho' it is nott for me to regret yr. intended proceedings yet humane nature has many foibles & the weekness of tender Years needs much indulgence. Indeered Sr. if yr. Health could be served by any other means with vast pleasure should I hear it, but if that & that Method only will avail with profound submission I acquiesce.

I may Nott have an Oppertunity of writing to you or of hearing from 74 you again, therefore as far as words will go I would express my most sincere desire for yr. wellfare hoping that that same good Providence wch. has hither too kept us both will still keep us & preserve us & bring us Again to a happy meeting in this World if it be his sovereign Pleasure.... I hope Sr. I shall never be Unmindfull of the relation I stand in to you either as a Child or as One that Proffesses Christianity.

And Sr. I desire yr. remembrance of me that however Providence orders in this World yet that still we may be happy hereafter... It is the desire of Honored Sir yr. Loving & dutifull Son,

ROBERT-TREAT PAINE

RC ; addressed: "For Mr. Thomas Paine Merct. att Boston QDC"; endorsed. Annotated in another hand: "A note from this when I speak of his father."

1.

The ellipses in this letter appear in the original.