Groton Octr: 6. 1749 Dear Sr.,

I yesterday Received yours of the 2d. instant1 by which you let me know that you have not received any Lines from me which I admire at for I sent a letter to you about a fort-night agone I thought very Directly. I am also inform'd by your's that you are very ill, And indeed Sir I will tell you that I was rarely ever more sensible of a sympathetick spirit than when I read your melancholy account of yourself, when I recolected your adversity afflictions and Distress I in a Sense made them my own. A chill seizd my trembling Nerves and a Series of of melancholly Ideas diffused themselves thro' my pensive soul such are the strange Effects of true friendship! But when I consider that these afflictions spring not from the Dust; But have a wise and mercifull God for their author and that his watchfull providence will accomplish that we shall most Conduce to his Glory, which sould be our highest aim, and to the good of such as Love him, methinks both you and I my Dear Friend have the the greatest Reason possible to calm all perturbations and acquiesse in every Dispensation of divine Providence. Indeed on the one hand you68 ought not to Despise the chastnings of the Lord i.e. by a thoughtless behavour or stubborn contumacy, Nor on the other hand may you faint when thou art rebuked, by Diffidence Dispondence and unbeleif. Upon the whole let your present affliction cause in you great searching of heart humility and prostration at the foot-stool of Divine mercy. Take a Occasion from hence to trust in the sovereign mercy of God; turn to him that smites thee; rowl they burden on the Lord and know assuredly that he will sustain thee.

I would make you a visit but there are some Difficulties which at present are insuperable. I have no remarkable News. Please to write speedily to me, for I shall be impatient to hear of your welfare. Let me know where you Live and how. As also if you have taken Notice of sd. star. This from your sympathiseing friend

SAMLL. HAVEN

RC ; addressed: To Mr; Robert-Treat Paine School-master in Lunenburge These with Care &c"; endorsed.

1.

Not located.

Boston, October the 9th. 1749. Dear Sir,

Some time since I had the happyness of receiving a Letter from you,1 accquainting me of your Safe arrivall at Lunenburg. I don't wonder at the confusion of Tho'ts you find on entring on a state, and conversation, so different from what you have hitherto known; but I hope Use (that sovereign accommodator of circumstances) will soon bring your tho'ts to their usual calmness and serenity.

I can't express to you, how much I find wanting your Company. Invain I now draw scemes and Calculations since the Person who was the best judge of them is remov'd from me! I congratulate you on your commencing the Lunenburg Oracle may all your decisions be the Dictates of Apollo.

Mr: Brown2 has got an old publick Clock to repair which has lain 20 or 30 Years useless, in a corner of Dr: Cuttler's Church.3 It is a ballance Clock, but is now to be alter'd into a long Pend[ulu]m. Knowing your genious for Clock-work, I have herewith sent you the old Numbers of this Clock, and also my new calculation, according to which I suppose it will be now alter'd.

We had a rumour here in Town last week that you was ill of the Throat-69Distemper which gave us very great uneasyness, but since that (some auspitious plannet reigning) we heard that you only had a Cold. May the Father of Mercy still be your kind protecter, is the prayer of your sincere Friend,

R: CRANCH

The numbers of the old Clock are as follows;

The Striking-part. The first Wheel (abt. 2 foot diameter has 80 teeth, and 10 Pins for drawing the Hammer; a Port Pinion of 10, Count-wheel 78. The 2d. Wheel 48, with a Pin: on its arbour of 8. Fly Pinion 6.

Watch-Part. First Wheel (about as large as the former) of too teeth to go round once in an hour, with a pin in it for lifting the Detents. The 2d. Wheel was the Ballance wheel, it had 39 teeth and its pinion was 7. The Pinion of report was 6, and Dial W: 72.

I have calculated the Watch part as follows. (Vizt.) The old Wheel of 100 now to go round once in 2 Houres and consequently 2 pins for lifting the Detents. The next Wheel and Pinion to be new, the pinion to, the W: 49, and then the old Ballance arbour and pinion of 7 to have a Swing W: of 36 fixt on to it, now the work being so fixt requires 5040 beats of a Pendulum, in once round of the great W:; which will be perform'd exactly by a Pendulum of 80 Inches, a Pendm. of that length vibrates 42 times in a Minute, or 5040 in 2 Houres. Now this Watch part will require but 15 turns of the barrell, to go 30 houres, and consequently the line will not wind one round over the other on the Barrell as formerly. Instead of the old Port Pinion of 6, there must be one of 12, to play in the Dial W: of 72.

P:S. Mr: Palmer, and Wife give their service to you, as doth Mr: Brown also.

	10)78(7,8		12) 72(6
Clock Part	{8) 80(10}	Watch Part New	{10)100(10	--10
	6) 48( 8		7) 49( 7	-- 7
			S 36 W	70
		6) 72(12		36
	The old Watch part	{7)100(14 2/7}		420
		B 39 W		210
				2520
				2
				5040

The old Ballance apears to have vibrated about 1114 times in an Hour.70

RC ; addressed: "For Mr: Robert Treat Paine at Lunenburg"; endorsed.

1.

Not located.

2.

Gawen Brown 1719–1800, clockmaker, who came to Boston from England about 1749 (David Hansen, "Gawen Brown, Soldier and Clockmaker," Old Time New England 30[1939]: 1–9; see also Charles Knowles Bolton, "Some Notes on Gawen Brown's Family," New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 64[1933]: 317–322).

3.

In a draft of this letter in the Paine Papers the old clock is referred to as "a large old Church clock." It was undoubtedly stored in Christ Church, where Timothy Cutler (1684–1765) was minister (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 5:45–66).