Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
I recd. yr. favr. by Esqr. Beaton1 and have obtain’d leave of the Council to liberate G. Williams & delr. him to Mr. Beaton.
After I had committed Williams I found in my office the inclosed Letter which I think it my duty to send to you as it may possibly help to a further discovery of the plot.2
If you examine the person to whom the inclosed is addressed relative to the postscript it may be of service.
417I was at Taunton on Monday last. Yr. family are in very comfortable circumstances. We sent a clever girl yesterday to Sister pain who is strong, hearty & willing to work & used to Country as well as town business. I am Sr. yr. huml. Servt.
P.S. The report in town is that Washington has obtain’d a compleat victory over How after an obstinate Battle in which the enemy had 4000 Slain. It is generally believed here.3
James Betton (1728–1803), a native Scot, settled in Windham, N.H., by 1753. There, he worked as a farmer, surveyor, and auctioneer and was very active in local affairs, frequently moderator of the town meeting. He represented Windham in the Provincial Congress of 1775 and became a justice of the peace the following year. In December 1776 Betton acted as an agent of the province carrying letters to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He served regularly in the state legislature through 1793 (Leonard A. Morrison, The History of Windham in New Hampshire [Boston, 1883], 337–342).
G. Williams and the “plot” alluded to here have not been identified. There is no mention of this incident in either the journal of the Massachusetts Council, which met on Oct. 25 and then adjourned until Nov. 26, or in the journal of the New Hampshire House of Representatives.
This unfounded rumor was probably a reaction to the recent surrender of General Burgoyne’s army to General Gates at Saratoga on Oct. 17, news of which reached Boston five days later (RTP Diary). Washington and Howe had not engaged in battle since the Battle of Germantown on Oct. 4.