Boston August 28th. 1758 Sr.,1

I receivd yrs. by Mr. Flint & gladly embrace the Opportunity of writing to you by him. I transacted yr. business of the moneys according to yr. directions but have never had an conveyance that I could trust them by till now. I immediately made enquiry abt. Strangest2 Reports. Mr. Condy3 told me they were partly engaged tho not absolutely & as they had been cast away & not new bound I did not know whether you would like them at the little abatement he would make, so I waited an opportunity to write to you abt. them but could get none, till Mr. Flint came down & now I find he has sold them. But he would make so little abatement considering the damage, that I remember I would not buy them for my self before you spoke of them. There will be more in the fall and you'll suit yr. self better. The other day I recd. a Letter from Mr. Backus4 of Norwich As Executor to Benja. Wheat desiring me to agree upon the bringing an action for the settling the title of the Land my father sold Lassel at Canada.5 He proposes as the Land is wild, either his or our cutting on the Land and the other bringing an Action. As I don't know yr. method of trying tittles by Trespass so I cant determine which will be the least trouble & expense to us to act or to sue. I shall depend on yr. assistance in this matter & will reward you for yr. trouble. As there is no Court till Decr. in yr. County there is some time to consult the affair & should be glad if you would write to me abt. it dericting what will be necessary to be done here. I suppose you'll want a Power from all three of us, & also the original deeds under which we hold. As you have opportunity you will talk with Baccus on this matter & hear what they want to do. I delivered your message to yr. kinsman Jn. Dyar & he desired me to write you that he would be glad to have the second Bond paid & then108let the rest lay till the dispute is Bared. Excuse the length of my Letter. My Respects & Compliments to yr. Spouse & all freinds. I subscribe yr. Most hble. servt.,

RTP

P.S. Pray desire Dr. Gray6 to quicken up father Simons to survey and Plan this land &c. according to direction?

RTP

LbC ; addressed: "To Colo. Eliphalet Dyar at Windham Pr. Mr. Flynt."

1.

Eliphalet Dyer (1721–1807) graduated from Yale College in 1740, and was a jurist and inhabitant of Windham, Conn., a leader in the organization of the Susquehannah Company which sought to found a Connecticut settlement in the Wyoming Valley, a delegate to the First Continental Congress, and later chief justice of Connecticut from 1789 until 1793 (DAB).

2.

Sir John Strange, Reports of adjudged cases in the courts of Chancery, King's Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer, from Trinity Term, 2 Geo. I to Trinity Term 21 Geo. II, 2 vols. (London, 1755).

3.

Jeremiah Condy (1708/9–1768) graduated from Harvard College in 1726 and was at various times a bookseller, publisher and minister of the First Baptist Church of Boston (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 8:20–30).

4.

Joseph Backus (1691–1762), a 1718 graduate of Yale College, lawyer of Norwich, Conn., and at one time sheriff of Hartford County (Dexter, Yale Biographical Sketches, 1:180–181).

5.

Canada Parish, Windham, Conn. A draft of a deed conveying a 100-acre lot and a half lot in the Burnt Cedar Swamp, Windham, to Joshua Lassel, dated June 4, 1741, is in the RTP Papers. The Connecticut lands were part of Eunice Treat Paine's inheritance from her father.

6.

Dr. Ebenezer Gray (1697–1773), a 1716 Harvard graduate and physician at Windham, Conn., was the father of town clerk Samuel Gray. He was appointed the first clerk of courts for Windham County in 1726 and later served as a Windham selectman and representative to the General Assembly (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 6:139–141).

Boston August 28, 1758 Dear Eunice,

I suppose by this time you have gotten to Weymouth & are fix'd out with horse & saddle. Pray how do things suit. It stands you in hand to get well soon, for you must come to Boston & keep house for me. I can hire a convenient house in a fine place, & by all calculation I can keep house as cheap as I can board my self for we Lawyers are such big folks that no one will board us without paying top price tho' we agree to have nothing for it. You or somebody else must come. You have lived long eno' in Spain come & try Boston, a retired place in the midst of the Town. Think of it and tell me. Weell keep the Nag, & as a certain gentle-109man once wrote you in another case1 if you consent to come pray get a good maid & bring with you; & speak for yr. winter's butter. I must know soon. We have got things enough to keep house, & take the comfort of life our own way. I must alter soon & cant marry yet. I want to see you & Nag. Ive something to tell you from yonder.

Think of nothing further but that I am yr. disconsolate & projecting Brother & hble. servt.

R.T.P.

RC ; addressed: "To Miss Eunice Paine at Weymouth"; endorsed.

1.

Eunice had rejected an offer of marriage from Ebenezer Prout of Halifax arranged by her father. See Thomas Paine to Eunice Paine, Halifax, Feb. 2, 1756; and Eunice Paine to Ebenezer Prout, Boston, Mar. 8, 1756, both in the RTP Papers.