Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 1
After various misticall Vicissitudes of Fate I am at last arrived to the Crisis of sailing for N. Carolina, Phiall & Cadiz, & in great Hurry write you my valedictory Epistle. I have settled yr. acct. wth. Woodward & recd. the Ballanc & pr. Inclos'd acct., Shall carry it with me & improve on yr. acct. to the best advantage. Your order on Mr. Savels1 I have done nothing wth. because I could never find him till the other Day & then he offered to pay it, but I could find no Way to improve it. And now my Freinds (not in Name only but Reality) I must once more leave you than Whom I leave none wth. more Uneasiness. I bid you Adieu & wish you well from the innermost Recesses of my Soul, t'would be wasting Time to tell you how sincerely I love you all. I hope we shall meet again in the Fall in Health Peace & Prosperity, but whatever our Lots may be, may we be prepared for it, & behave well Whatever Character in Life we are call'd to act. I hope your Schemes of various Sorts will be crown'd with Success & reward you well for Ingenuity & Labour. Accept these Small Scetches, but Limitations of my Establish'd Freind
Probably Joseph Savel (Savell, Savil, Savill), cooper of Boston, or his son of the same name and same occupation (Thwing Index).
You being master of the sloop Hannah, My1 Orders are, that you embrace the first Wind and sail2 for Edenton in North Carolina where being arrived, deliver what Cargo you have on board to Joseph Blunt Esqr.3who will load your Vessel with Pipe staves. I expect you use all Dispatch possible in Loading, and that you'l be de-195tain'd but a few days, as I know your Cargo is all ready, after you are Loaded, you are to proceed to Fyal and there dispose of your Cargo and purchase as much Wine as you can. Let the Wines be good. When I say I would have you sell at Fyal, I suppose your Cargo may fetch at least two pipes of Wine per thousand but should you not be able to obtain one and three quarters per thousand then desire you to proceed to Cadiz and there apply to Messrs. Kemp Pickeren & Co.4and dispose of your Cargo for the most it will fetch, and after taking in as much salt as you conveniently can, I would have you take in eighty boxes of Lemmons twenty quarter Casks of best Sherry wine, one hundred small Jars of Olives, thirty Casks of Malaga Raisins, twenty quarter Casks of Malaga Mountain Wine, and whatever may be left you are to bring with you in Specie, you are to take Care that your Lemmons be such as will keep, if you could get Malaga Lemmons should choose them. After you are Loaded you are to make the best dispatch you can back to Nantasket and deliver what things you have to Mr. Knox5 or Capt. Ball6 at the Lighthouse,7 and then make your best Way up to Town.
Notwithstanding what is before mentioned, I don't confine you so strictly to Orders but that if you see any thing offer for my Interest you are to embrace it. I have only given you a plan of the Voyage and expect you exert yourself, especially in her dispatch, as that I may have encouragement for a future Voyage. Wishing you a good voyage am your friend & Employer,
Henry Leddel arrived in Boston from England at an early age. Except for his time in service as secretary to Maj. Gen. John Winslow (1703–1774) on the Crown Point expedition of 1756, he was in business as a merchant from 1745 until 1776, when he left Boston for Halifax with the British troops. He later went to New York City, where he was for a time first clerk to British Army contractors Coffin and Anderson, and then to England, where he received a government pension from 1784 to 1806 (E. Alfred Jones, The Loyalists of Massachusetts, Their Memorials, Petitions and Claims [London, 1930], 191).
RTP sailed from Boston on May 19 and was in Edenton harbor on May 28 after a smooth and uneventful voyage.
Joseph Blount (1716–1777), a merchant in Edenton, served in the 1746 general assembly at New Berne, and later as a justice of the peace and judge of the admiralty (Stuart H. Hill, "The Chowan Blounts," in "The Hill Family of Bertie, Martin, and Halifax Counties, North Carolina," 10 vols., typescript in North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 4:50).
Kemp Pickern & Co., commission merchants in Cadiz. Henry and William Pickern were kind to RTP, and his diary contains many references to them.
Adam Knox, a Boston mariner and ship pilot, died at Boston Light in 1790, aged 81 (Columbian Centinel, Dec. 11, 1790).
Robert Ball (d. [774) was lighthousekeeper at Boston Light from 1733 until 1773 (E. S. Clark, Jr., "The First Lighthouse in the United States," United States Naval Institute Proceedings 63[1937): 508).
Boston Light, America's oldest lighthouse, was established on Little Brewster Island at Nantasket in the town of Hull, Mass., in 1716. It was damaged in fires in 1720 and 1751, and in 1776 it was blown up by retreating British marines who held the light for three months after the evacuation of Boston. It was rebuilt in 1783 (Clark, "The First Lighthouse," 508).