Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 2
Mr. Brattle1 presents His Complements to Robt. Treat Pain Esqr. informing Him that upon His motion the Committee have altered the time of going to Dighton from the fourtenth of May next to Tuesday the seventh of the same may. Mr. Brattles health & weather permitting, will be at Taunton half after one of the same day.2
William Brattle (1706–1776) practiced law, served as a justice of the peace, and often represented his native Cambridge in the House of Representatives. Active in military affairs, he was appointed major general of the provincial troops in 1773, but upon the evacuation of Boston he left with the British troops and settled in Halifax (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 7:10–23).
RTP appeared before the General Court at Cambridge on Apr. 16 as agent for the town of Dighton in answer to a petition by Sylvester Richmond et al. On May 7, he noted in his diary: "PM went to Dighton as their agent before Maj. Genral Brattle Capt. Dix & Capt. Heath a Cmttee. of Genral Court on the Petn. of Col. Richmond & al."
The dispute concerned the erection of a second parish within Dighton and the collection of ministerial rates. The legislature resolved to exempt the petitioners, who were supporting the new490parish, from future Dighton taxes but continued their obligation to pay debts on the new town meetinghouse and for the support of Rev. Nathaniel Fisher, "their aged and venerable Pastor" (Journals of the House of Representatives, 48:81).