Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
I find my self exceedingly hurt, by your1 Treatment to me respecting the bounds of the Absentees Estates in the Co. of Plymo.2 You last of all engaged to furnish me with a Copy of them so that I might prepare the Libels for the July Court &c but I have heard nothing of them. You said if would send the blanks you would fill them You deprive me of using my own Judgt. in the matter but to prevent further delay I now Send eleven blanks for you to fill up if there be Decision for so many. I also send a libel vs. C:W. Apthorp, finished & pray you to file it, it will serve as a model, mutatis mutandis, for the others, I have also began one vs. Peter Oliver, & filled all the blanks as near as I can witht. the bounds of his Land. I rely upon it you will prepare them & file them in Court & move the Court that the Clerk be directed to notify according to Law the News papers furnish forms of notification, the description in the Notification should be as short as may be: Mr. Paddelford has told me that he will assist you in filling them up. and had particular knowledge of the said Absentees their Estates I can give no particular directions only that I would by no means have Scotts Estate omitted or Blowers libeled
Joshua Thomas (1751–1821) graduated from Harvard (A.B., 1772) and by 1779 was practicing law in his native Plymouth County. Also in 1779, the legislature appointed him to report on absentee estates in that county. Thomas later became a justice of the peace and judge of probate (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 18:170–177).
The Plymouth County absentee estates were brought before the Court of Common Pleas in July 1782, continued until Dec., and then continued again to Apr. 1783. The individuals cited were Josiah Sturtevant, land in Halifax; Pelham Winslow, land in Marshfield; Peter Oliver, land in Middleborough; Daniel Dunbar, land in Halifax; Charles Curtis, land in Scituate; Charles Ward Apthorp, land in Abington; Sampson Salter Blowers, land in Plymouth; and Joseph Scott, land in Plympton (Massachusetts Spy, Mar. 27, 1783).