Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 1

beta

From Jeremiah Finney

Finney, Jeremiah RTP

Wrentham March. 26. 1750 Mr. Pain Sr.,

You have been acquanted of Our Desier of You for Our Town School Master in Bristol. Att first Your Honored Father Was at Bristol Gave Jos Russell1 Esqr. Incoragement And since I2 have Wrote to Mr. Benjm. Church to treet With You Who tels me he on Your Brother Greenleff had Wrote to You. I Wayghted tow Day, hoping to See You but had not the Happiness to See Your Self though Expacted Eevery day. Wee Are Willing to Give good Incoragement 300£ at Least per Year and all the Best treetment wee are Masters of.3 Your Answer by the Baer Bearer Will Oblige Your Most Humbll. Servt.,

JER FINNEY

RC ; addressed: “To Mr. Pain In Boston to be Left at Mr. Green Leffs Distiller South End"; endorsed.

Joseph Russell (ca. 1702–1780) was town treasurer in 1747 and a member of the town council (Wilfred H. Munro, The History of Bristol, R.I. [Providence, 1880], 160, 161)

115 2.

Capt. Jeremiah Finney (1700–1759) was elected a member of the first town council of Bristol after its transfer from Mass. to R.I. in Feb. 1746/7 (Ibid., 160).

RTP noted in his diary for Mar. 29: "Mr. Lovell made me the offer to supply the Vacancy made by Mr. Gibson's Death: I recd. a Letter from Mr. Finney of Bristol urging me to supply that Town with a School." He accepted the former offer as usher at the South Grammer School and began on Apr. 9.

From William Tidmarsh and Andrew Oliver

Tidmarsh, William Oliver, Andrew RTP

April 1750 Ex Rostro Mercantili1 Dr. Classmate, Here are two2 of us together.

I recd. yr. agreable Letter per the Bearer & shall always esteem myself happify'd (a new Word) in having it in my power to serve you in any shape whatsoever—but more especially in that which equally distributes as much pleasure to me in the performance as it can you in the Perussal. Amen. Here comes a man I must leave of and tend upon him. Pray frapp this young Brother of mine & make a good Boy of him. Yr. most obedient,

WM. TIDMARSH Ditto ANDREW OLIVER but Learn me to have 9 Brothers to frapp

RC ; addressed: "To Mr. Robt. Treat Paine"; endorsed: "Wm. Tidmarsh Aprill 1750."

From the mercantile platform.

Andrew Oliver and William Tidmarsh were classmates of RTP. Andrew Oliver (1731–1799) was the son of Lt. Gov. Andrew Oliver and Mary (Fitch) Oliver. He married Mary Lynde of Salem in 1752, and they made their home in Boston. He was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1761 and was in 1774 named as one of the mandamus councillors, a position he resigned within ten days. With RTP he was one of the founders of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 12:455–461).

William Tidmarsh (1733–1759) settled in Boston as a merchant after graduation, but removed to Hull by 1756 and was married there to Mary Loring. He was lost in a privateer during the French and Indian War (ibid., 489).

116