Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
Every thing here is perfect quiet; and Sir Guy1 at New York, seems equally undetermined respecting the future opperations of the Campaign, what they will be is very uncertain, perhaps the flagillation our good Friends have met with in the West Indies, may prevent any thing great on our side, tho’ we wish here to have another slap at ’em.2
Our Army are now better cloathed than they have been during the War, & make a most martial appearance, but our numbers will be greatly deficient if we are called seriously to Action. Public affairs feel, very sensibly, the want of compliance in the several States, in raising money for this year. Our Contracts at this moment are supported on the future supplies of the States. I wish every exertion in our State, tho’ I know their poverty.
Inclosed you have an Order on Mr. Shattuck & Co. for 20 Dollars; more money will be sent by the first safe oppertunity.
If my Daughters have come to your house, I wish Mrs. Paine would, with your consent, supply them with all the little necessaries they may want, if Mrs. Paine cannot sell the silk at Hastings’s, she may send it to, or git it made up for Mrs. Cobb,3 whatever money you may expend for the Girls shall be immediately repaid.
Give my Love to your neighbour Russell,4 Wife & Family, & sincere affection to Mrs. Paine, & believe me ever your Friend & Servant
Do write by the next post, so that I may know whether you are all alive.
Sir Guy Carleton (1724–1808) was named commander-in-chief in North America on Mar. 2, 1782, to effect an orderly withdrawal of British forces after the surrender at Yorktown (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).
Admiral Sir George Rodney had defeated Comte De Grasse in the “Battle of the Saints” off Dominica on Apr. 12.
Eleanor (Bradish) Cobb (1748/9–1808) was the daughter of Ebenezer and Eunice (Cook) Bradish, keepers of the Blue Anchor Tavern in Cambridge. In a letter to RTP on Mar. 13, 1767 (see 2:400–402), Cobb wrote that “I am not troubled with a wife every night, for one visit a Month is, or must be, at present Satisfactory.” Ten days later their first child was born. Eventually there would be ten more children, but there was “little affection” in the marriage, “largely because of Eleanor’s prevailing mental depression.” She died in Taunton in 1808 (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 16:338).
Joseph Russell (1735–1795), auctioneer, also lived on Milk St., Boston. He served as town treasurer in the 1790s until his death (Thwing Index).