Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 1
Notwithstanding the distance of Place & Time & the difference of Employments in the which We have been conversant, since I left Philadelphia, yet I have not forgotton the Generosity Civility & Kindness nor yet the Person of a Gentleman who while I was there laid himself out so much to serve me & show me Respect. Surely Acts of Noble Generosity are not easily erased from a Mind that has the least turn for Gratitude. Believe this Gentleman to be no other than yr. Self, An Acquaintance wth. Whom I am always proud to aknowledge wn. Speaking of Phila. I have once & again Enquir'd yr. Welfare & I heartily congratulate you in yr. happy access to the Connubial State, may the Bands be Silken & the Joys Supercede even Imagination. The Bearer Mr. Addington Davenport2 is a Gentleman of my peculiar Acquaintance & Freindship, & as he is design'd on a Travel for his Improvement, I was not sensible how I could serve him more than by reccommending him to yr. Acquaintance; (forgive the Impertinence for I readily Acknowledge that no Gentleman of his Distinction can come into Philadelphia without receiving many Tokens of Respect from you). His Caracter needs no Eulogium for he carries his meritt wth. him.
Pray Remember My Service & Respects to all that I had Any Acquaintance with while in Philada. and to yr. honored Father & family, to Mr. Frankllin to yr. Family & in a perticular Manner to yr. Spouse. May the choicest of heavens blessings rest on you both & be assured that this is the hearty Wish of yr. Freind & very much oblig'd humbl. sevt.,
Thomas Smith, a Philadelphia merchant. He was perhaps the same Smith who had contact with RTP later in Philadelphia. John Adams in his diary for Aug. 30, 1774, notes the superfluidity of Smiths at that time: "Mr. Smith, an old Gentleman, was introduced to us, by his Son. Another Mr. Smith came in with our Mr. Paine" (Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, 4 vols., L. H. Butterfield, ed. [Cambridge, Mass., 1961], 2:116).
Addington Davenport (1732–1761), a merchant of Portsmouth, N. H., and son of Addington Davenport, first rector of Trinity Church, Boston (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 6:308).