Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 1
Know all men by These Presents, That I Thomas Paine of Boston in New England merchant For and in Consideration of Five hundred Pounds old Tenor To me in hand paid by Mrs. Abigail Treat of sd. Boston Deceased, to be paid by me To her Grandchild Robert Treat Paine, my Son. I do by these Presents Sell, Convey, & Confirm unto him the said Robert Treat Paine all my Books,1 and such a part of my plate as he has in Pesession, to have and to hold to him the said Robert Treat Paine his heirs and assigns for ever. Witness my Hand and Seal Boston Novr. 28th. 1749.2
In Presents of
Catalogues of the books owned by RTP are in the Paine Papers. See John D. Cushing, ed., "Catalogue Librorum: The Library of Thomas Paine of Boston (1694–1757)," in Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 100(1988):100–127.
A similar deed to Abigail Paine Greenleaf and Eunice Paine on the same day gave them "my Negro Cato and all my houshold Stuff of one kind or other, Clothing Beds; and what Plate they each of them have in Posession to have and to hold ... in Equal halves ... Reserving Cato to me my life time." (RTP Papers).
These deeds were signed one day before Thomas Paine's intended departure on an extended voyage.
An unwitnessed deed, dated Mar. 9, 1748
Barnabas Hedge (1705–1762) graduated from Harvard in 1724 and settled at Plymouth where he was a mariner (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 7:356).