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Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 2

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From Joseph Cushing

28 April 1759

To Eunice Paine

6 May 1759
To James Otis, Sr.
RTP Otis, James Jr.
Boston May 3d 1759 Sr.,1

Some perticular affairs require my going to Halifax. I should have gone much sooner but have been hindred by Out Winds &c. so that it is uncertain whether I shall return by Taunton June Court.2 If I should not, I pray you to favour me so much as to permit the three Actions against the Widow Eldridge be continued.3

As my absense is not wilful but necessary and I have no time to in the Case I trust I need use ments nor intreatys, but relying on your Accustomed Curtisy I take liberty to subscribe my self with great respect Yr. Most hble. Servt.

R T PAINE

RC (Old Colony Historical Society, Taunton, Mass.); addressed: "To James Otis Esqr. to be delivered him at Taunton"; endorsed. The ellipses indicate missing text due to a hole in the paper.

1.

James Otis (1702–1778), a lawyer from Barnstable, was first elected to the House of Representa-136tives in 1745 and held the seat almost continuously until 1769. In 1760, while speaker of the House, Otis anticipated appointment as chief justice upon the death of Stephen Sewall but was thwarted by the appointment of Thomas Hutchinson to that post. This slight has often been interpreted as the origin of the opposition of his son James (1725–1783) to the standing government (See John W. Waters, The Otis Family in Provincial and Revolutionary Massachusetts [Chapel Hill, 1968]).

2.

RTP left Boston on May 17 but because of the weather did not reach Halifax until the 23d. His diary records only a few incidental occurences and does not discuss the business of Thomas Paine's estate, which was the purpose of the trip. He left Halifax on June 14 and returned to Boston on the 19th.

3.

On these various cases against Deliverance Eldredge, see RTP to Deliverance Eldredge, Taunton, March 21, 1763.