Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 2
I purpose this by Capt. Jones, who has lately inform'd me of yr. success in childmaking.1 I heartily give you Joy & as you have begun a good work hold out to the end. Congratulate yr. Spouse in my Name; I am very sorry Coll. Hill's note will be yr. Loss for I fear it will never be got. He was shut up close before I had any suspicion & is now got to Goal. I Suppose the Person you took it of is not able to pay you. Write me in yr. next If I must send it to you or do what. As for Knox's note it will do no good at present to send it here. When he comes to Port he may pay you if you press him close & make him believe it is yr. property & you wont lose it. I conclude it is endors'd only with Father's name Blank. I hear since, his Effects are attach'd in this Town & therefore pray you to secure the Money. If I mistake not there are in the Chamber among the Papers a Bundle of Duglass His: Summary:2 I have got the 1st Vol. of Jacob Hurd3 & if those loose Numbers be those that make the Second Vol: pray send them. The I Vol. ends with Page 568.
I should be glad you would recollect what you know passed between my Father & my self when I was at Halifax relating to my taking sufficient out of his Estate to pay my self & Sisters. You know I delivered you two Chests as my Property by his Directions. Do you remember his bidding me pay ourselves out of his Estate & his delivering those two Chests in part & giving me full power to take the rest. You may think of this & write me how the matter lays in yr. mind.
I conclude you intend to sell the leather there. I wrote you once the price but I have now forgot it. You may possibly now sell those musquets & Pistols, them Brass Cocks you may sell for 1/2 a dollar apeice. If you can Truck some of the things for Superfine blue broad Cloath 2/12 yds. & 4 yds. of white Tammy do so as to send it by Capt. Jones, such Cloath here is abt. 4 dollars per yd.
As for Leigh's Note, I send enclos'd a power of attorney to act upon it33& pray you not to let it be lost at any Rate you may get the power acknowledged there. Capt. Jones has answered yr. Order tho' he could badly spare the money.
Sister Greenleaf has had a Daughter abt. 2 months ago & does bravely with Named Mary4 (I think). Your freind &c.
James Paine Freeman (1757–ca. 1832) later went to live with his father's family in Barnstable, Mass. (see Edmund Hawes to RTP, Feb. 23, 1773, Apr. 12, 1773). He married first Bethiah Cobb, and in 1793 Deborah Ide of Rehoboth. He lived at Barnstable, served in the army, and received a military pension (Charles C. Paine, manuscript genealogy, RTP Papers).
William Douglass (ca. 1691–1752), physician of Boston, issued the first volume of A Summary, Historical and Political, of the First Planting, Progressive Improvements and Present State of the British Settlements in North America in Boston in 1749; the second volume, in parts, appeared in 1751 (DAB).
Jacob Hurd (1725–1797), trader, formerly of Boston, who went to Halifax before 1752. He was the son of silver- and goldsmith Jacob Hurd (1703–1758) (NEHGR 132[1978]: 90).
Mary Greenleaf (1757–1804) was the fifth child of Joseph and Abigail (Paine) Greenleaf. In 1791 she married Nathaniel Thwing, a Boston merchant (Greenleaf, Greenleaf Genealogy, 196).