A website from the Massachusetts Historical Society; founded 1791.

Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4

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From Thomas Child

28 August 1781

From Paul Mumford

8 September 1781
158
From Ebenezer Warren
Warren, Ebenezer RTP
Roxbury Sep. the 6 1781

Hond. Sir, I1 often call on you for advice in the Petersham matter, but I know you will Not take my importunity amiss when you consider I am Soliciting in behalf of the offspring of one who was so Dear a Lover of his fellow men.2 I Left the Papers with Mrs. Paine but since Think it Necessary for me to be Present at Their being opend, as I may Possibly be able to answer you to Questions you may Have occasion to ask, and if you will Leave a Line with Mrs. Paine when I shall wait on you for that Purpose, I will attend.

Dear Sir your known Regard to justice And your frendship for the Poor Children of a Man whose Name you told me you Lovd gives me all Reason to Expect They will yet Retrieve what cruell men would fraudulently take from them with the greatest Respect I am your Very humble Servant,

E. Warren

RC ; addressed: “The Honl. Mr. Paine Boston”; endorsed.

1.

Ebenezer Warren (1748–1824) was the brother of Gen. Joseph Warren. He moved from his native Roxbury to Foxborough about 1779 and was active there as selectman, delegate to the state convention to adopt the federal constitution (1788), and one of the first justices for the Court of Common Pleas for Norfolk County (1793) (William T. Davis, Bench and Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts [Boston, 1895], 2:485). He “was a staunch patriot and true man, and always a leading citizen, but of obstinate and unyielding temper” (Foxborough’s Official Centennial Record [Foxborough, Mass., 1879], 56).

2.

This refers to the state and congressional proposal to bring up and educate the three Warren children at public expense (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 14:526).