April 1, 1784

This Indenture made this first day of April in the year of our Lord Seventeen hundred and Eighty four between Leonard Vassal Borland1 of Boston in the County of Suffolk Merchant on the one part and Robert Treat Paine of said Boston Esqr. on the other part Witnesseth that the said Leonard Vassal Borland for and in consideration of one hundred and Seventy Sixty Pounds to him in hand paid before the ensealing hereof by the said Robert Treat Paine the receipt whereof he doth hereby acknowledge & fully Release discharge & acquit the said Paine from the same doth Bargain Sell and Demise to the said Robert Treat Paine all that Messuage & Dwelling house scituate in Milk Street at the Westerly corner of Long Lane in said Boston, with the Yards Garden Passages Stables & Outhouses thereto belonging with their Appurtenances, being now in the possession and Occupation of the said Paine To Have & to Hold the said Demised Premisses to him the said Robert Treat Paine his Executors Administrators & Assigns for and during the Term of Three Years from the date hereof and the said Robert Treat Paine for himself his Executors & Administrators covenants with the said Leonard Vassall Borland his Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns, that at the End of the said Term he or they shall deliver to the said Leonard Vassal Borland his Heirs Executors Administrators & Assigns the peaceable Possession of the above demised Premisses and the said Leonard Vassal Borland for himself his heirs Executors Administrators & Assigns Covenants with the said Robert Treat Paine his Executors Administrators & Assigns that he and they shall peaceably enjoy the above demised Premisses free & unmolested by the lawful claims of all Persons whatsoever during the Term aforesaid and the said Robert Treat Paine further Covenants for himself his Executors & Administrators & Assigns that he & they shall pay all the Taxes that may be assessed on the same during the Term aforsaid and also be at the Expence of such Repairs as he & they may make on the same. In Testimony wherof the Parties above named interchangeably set their hands & Seals the day & year abovesaid

Rob Treat Paine 306 Signed Sealed & delivered in presence of us. Abigail Woodman } Samuel Wallis Rec’d full Satisfaction for this Lease for Mr. Leonard Vassall Borland this 16th Apl. 1785. Saml. Wallis.

MS ; endorsed: “Attorney General Robert T Paine Esqr. Lease of the Mansion house for three years ending 1st. April 1787.”

1.

Leonard Vassall Borland (1759–1801), scion of a great landed family, attended Harvard with the class of 1778 but left Boston with his widowed mother and some of his siblings during the Revolution. He returned in 1782 and began to reclaim some of the family’s estates including the Braintree (now Quincy) property, which was eventually sold to John Adams, and the Boston house on Milk Street which RTP leased and later purchased. Borland died at sea while returning from a merchant voyage to Batavia (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, vol. 20 [forthcoming]).