Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
Mr. Tudor1 is kind enough to send me word that he intends to set out for Philadelphia tomorrow morning. I thought it wrong to omit writing ’though there is not much, if any thing, of a public nature but what you will receive from other pens. I must first inform you of my rect. of yr. letter per Goodhue & that by Mr. Greenough, after perusal I sealed them & sent them to Taunton. Sister Paine & Sister Eunice and yr. children are well my daughter Nabby better than when you left home. My family are in usual health, but we have met with a loss. My father, last friday morning bid adieu to this transitory world in The 82d. year of his age.2
People in general are very anxious to hear the result of your councils, but do not seem quite satisfied that the non-exportation should not commence before Sept. next which we hear is determined upon. We apprehend that nothing but a total suspension of Trade to G. Britain, Ireland & a partial one to the west Indias, or a tryal of Strength with our persecutors will save us from slavery. Certainly the first is to be prefered, at lest till we have formed a plan.
Gage steadily pursues his plan of fortifying in spite of remonstrances from county & provincial conventions. If he continues to irritate the country, they will, in spite of any thing we can do, come to blows with him. Twenty three fine pieces of cannon nine pounders have been carried out of town by the country people in the last week & the country is fill’d with deserters from the camp here, who are dayley teaching our hands to war & our fingers to fight, but I can not but yet hope that providence will rid us of our enemies by means not sanguinary.
The doings of the provincial congress3 you will have I suppose from Dr. Warren. They are transacting important business. I hope there will be no militating between them and you.
There is one piece of inteligence I must not omit communicating, One Saml. Dyre of this town has Just return’d from London Via Newport, and informs that he was kidnap’d by two soldiers & put in Irons & on board Admiral Montague & by him Carried to England to be examined relative to the destruction of the tea in this town; He accuses Lt. Collo. Madison, & Gage promises Dyre that there shall be an examination of the affair tomorrow so that I cannot write you the result by this conveyance.4
12Your congress must substitute something for us in the place of our viciated courts of Justice. We can do tolerably well in matters of a civil nature but in case of thefts & capital crimes we shall be at a loss, tho’ hitherto we have had but little need of courts, for we seem to have but one concern & we never hear threats of suing. I wish courts & lawyers may always hereafter be as little needed. Taunton Court passed over according to the new custom & tis probable the Judges of the Superiour Court will do in yr. County as in Suffolk Vizt. adjourn by proclamation.5 Mr. Revere is not arived. I long to hear from you & to have you come to some determinations. We expect great things from so respectable & learned a body; we wish rather to have you adjourn than dissolve when you have done what you apprehend your present duty. I must not keep you from more important business therefore shall close by adding—that I am Sr. yr:friend & brother,
William Tudor (1750–1819), Massachusetts attorney and former law clerk of John Adams, whom he was going to visit in Philadelphia. Recommended for the position of Washington’s private secretary, Tudor later was appointed advocate general.
William Greenleaf (1693–1774) was a feltmaker and hatter in Boston. Joseph was one of eight children by his first wife, Mary Shattuck. He had one other child by his second wife, Ruth Ruggles (Thwing Index).
RTP and David Cobb were the Taunton delegates to the First Provincial Congress, which met at Salem on Oct. 7; at Concord from Oct. 11 to 14; and at Cambridge from Oct. 17 to 29 and again from Nov. 23 to Dec. 10 (The Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in 1774 and 1775 [Boston, 1838], 1, 12).
Governor Gage wrote to Lord Dartmouth about this case detailing Dyer’s unsuccessful retributive stalking of Lt. Col. George Maddison of the Fourth Regiment in Boston and his equally unsuccessful attack on Col. Samuel Cleaveland of the Artillery and Capt. John Montresor, Engineer. Dyer was arrested, and Gage declared him “a vagabond and enthousiastically Mad” (The Correspondence of General Thomas Gage with the Secretaries of State, 1763–1775, ed., Clarence Edwin Carter [New Haven, 1931], 1:380).
The Superiour Court of Judicature was scheduled to hold its annual term at Taunton in October 1774, and a number of continuances and cases were entered (including four in which RTP was listed as the attorney). However, “the superior Court did not sit in the county of Bristol in the years 1774 & 75 by reason of the difficulty of the times” (Superiour Court of Judicature. minute book [microfilm copy at MHS]).