Boston Jan:18:1749 1748/9 Dear Brother,

I Received yours a Monday by Mr. Oliver.1 I am Glad to find that you havnt quit forgot us, you see the pains I take to Send to you. I hope so good an Example will Excite you to be more Careful in improveing Every opertunity of Sending to inform me of your wellfare.

We talk of vissiting every day and I hope so much Contrivance will produce some Convenient way for our Conveyance in a short time. Cousin Freeman went to Bridgwater yesterday morning to return tomorrow. Father has heard from Capt. Beaufort.2 He was blown off of this Coast to Statia3 about a month ago and waits to Come home well.

I have no Linnin to Send you at present but desire to have your dirty and shall Send you Clean before the Sabbath if the weather dont hinder.

I hope thesse will find you in good health as they Leave us. We unite in Wishing health and prosperity to you. In haste I Subcribe my Self you Effectionate Sisster,

ABIGAIL PAINE

Pray Excuse the writing for I cant Leave the fire and so use my Lap insted of a table.

RC ; addressed: “To Mr. Robert Treat Paine att Cambridge"; endorsed.

1.

Probably Andrew Oliver (1706–1774), father of RTP's classmate of the same name. See Abigail Paine to RTP, Mar. 4, 1749.

2.

Not otherwise identified. Presumably the captain of a merchant vessel belonging to Thomas Paine.

3.

Saint Eustatius, a West Indian island.

Boston Saturday Morng. after 7 aClok Jan. 22, 1748/9 Dear Brother,

Your repeated favours this week has Laid me under a nesesity of rising Sooner than my usual time to make some returns to you. If you knew how much Satisfactions the hearing from you so often has given me you wou'd Continue, in some degree the Corispondence you have begun. The pleasure which you have given me is heithen'd by my fears for you. I hear'd that your Society is visited with a very bad 43distemper which prevails much (I mean the itch1) my fears Least you shou'd be a sharer in it has been very great but I Since hear that it is none but Gridley who has it. Pray be Careful to shun all dangerous Company at present for your having Such a distemper now wou'd effect your Constitution very much.2

I Like your proposal of refering the begining of our year to the time that affords us a return of our birth day for to me it Seems the most proper, between friends, for Certainly a Consideration of the favours we have reciv'd Since we first began our Mortal race much affords Some agreable Contemplations, with pleasure I shall Remember to gratifie in hopes of a return of the same kind.

With thesse Lines I design to Send you Some Linnin to Supply you for the present but beg it may not hinder your coming down assoon as your business will permit for hearing from you is but a half injoyment of a friend and Serves to Encrease our desire for a more perfect one. Sisster has begun to write you. We are all well Mr. Cranch3 wonders you dont let him hear from you, he often Enquires after your welfare, in haste I Remain your Oblidg'd Sisster & hmble Servt.,

ABIGAIL PAINE

PS I intended to have Sent Asa with your things, but Father Cant Spare him & therefore I only Send a Small Quantity by Cousin Willard.4

RC ; addressed: "To Mr. Robert Treat Paine att Cambridge"; endorsed: "Abigail Paine Janr. 22. 1749."

1.

Scabies.

2.

On Jan. 10, 1749, RTP notes in his diary, in shorthand: "A cry in college about the Itch, many scholars being taken with it." Benjamin Gridley (1731/2–before 1800) must have been an unhappy victim. He graduated in 1751, became a lawyer in Boston, and was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1775. An active loyalist, he served in Timothy Ruggles's Loyalist Corps and later became a refugee (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 13:90–94).

3.

Richard Cranch (1726–1811), a longtime friend of RTP, arrived in Boston from England in 1746. At this time he was engaged in the business of wool-card making. He later started a glass manufactory with his brother-in-law Joseph Palmer in Germantown, now part of Quincy. Another brother-in-law was Pres. John Adams. Cranch was active in many pursuits, was made a justice of the court of common pleas in 1779, sat in the Massachusetts senate, was an original member of the Massachusetts Charitable Society, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was given an honoracy M.A. by Harvard in 1780 (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 11:370–376).

4.

Probably John Willard.