Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
An Inventory of Francis Waldo’s1 Real Estate was lodged in the Secretary’s office some time ago, & I2 am informed by Judge Freeman that there has been an Agent & commissioners appointed on Said Waldo’s Estate who have accomplished the design of their appointment, & there appears considerable due from said Estate, who & the creditors apply to the committee for Sale for their pay, & as the creditors cannot be paid until the Estate is Sold it would be an Act of Justice to proceed in the affair as Soon as may be which I Suppose can’t be Sooner than Octr. Court & then they will be long kept out of their dues I trust that you will take Such care in your department that no injustice Shall take place by delays.
Committee for Sale of
Absentees Estate
P.S. there are several other Estates in Falmouth under the same predicament.
Francis Waldo (1728–1784) was a 1747 Harvard graduate and collector of customs in Falmouth, Maine. He left Falmouth in 1775 and settled in London, associating with fellow loyalists and becoming a member of the New England Club. He was proscribed and banished in 1778 and much of his property, including substantial holdings in Maine, was confiscated. He died in exile in England (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 12:214–218).
John Lewis (1717–1803), a lawyer, surveyor, and farmer of North Yarmouth, represented Cumberland County in the Massachusetts Provincial Congress (1774–1775). He was very active in state and local committees, including the North Yarmouth Committee of Correspondence and Safety during the Revolution. He later served as a judge (1782–1796) and as chief justice (1796–1803) in the Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas (Schutz, Legislators of the Massachusetts General Court, 274; Collections and Proceedings of the Maine Historical Society, 2d. ser., 1[1890]:70–77).