Boston Decr. 1, 1758 Dear Sr.,

The design of this is to mind you of yr. Promise to favour me with yr. ever desirable company to Taunton the Monday after next. I have heard nothing from freind Abel,1 & as I can't tell when he will be down so can't plan out the time of my coming along exactly, whether on Saturday PM or on Monday Morning, but if you will go you can be ready at a minutes warning; Dear freind do not if possible dissapoint my Expectations of much Pleasure this Journey. He who go in quest of happiness ten to one but he is Chagrind, but he who Carrys it with him, come good come bad it does but aggrandize his felicity either by making a reall addition, or shewing his own in a better point of light by Comparison. Pray write me on the subject by the first Opportunity. I am got fixed at my new Lodgings where I long to see you; I have been in great confusion lately & in the clutter of moving have mislaid my best ready cut & dry'd compliments. Therefore pray you who always have a stock to lend me a few & present them in my name to Miss Hannah.2 that Sr. will be a121pleasure to you and a great peice of Service to me. My Respects to Md. Quincy,3 & wt. is proper to every body else. I have but just paper enough to desire you to convey the accompanying Letter to my Sister as it relates to business, renewing my Petition aforsd. I conclude yr. freind & hble. servt.

R. T. PAINE

RC ; addressed: "To Mr. Richard Cranch at Weymouth"; endorsed.

1.

Abel Willard.

2.

Probably Hannah Hill (1734–1782), who later married Samuel Quincy. See Benjamin Church to RTP, Dec. 3, 1758.

3.

Perhaps Elizabeth (Waldron) Quincy (1722–1759), daughter of Rev. William Waldron of Boston and second wife of Col. Josiah Quincy (H. Hobart Holly, Descendants of Edmund Quincy, 1602–1637 [Quincy, Mass., 1977], 6).

Fryday Decr. 1, 1758 Dear Eunice,

I am at last removed to Mrs. Elliots & begin to get settled.1 I wrote you from Braintree, wch. I suppose you recd. I have heard nothing from you wch. I much wonder at. I am now contriving abt. the horse to go to Taunton. I have some expectation of Freind Abel to go with me. If so he will be down on Saturday Night, & we shall set out on Monday, but if I can find that he will not come I shall set out on Saturday PM & go to Abington; therefore if you can send him on Saturday Morning so as to get here by Noon do. If not then so as to get here by Night, or if you cant be sure of such An Opportunity send him on fryday next. Order him to be left at Bracketts & notice to be given to me at my office next door to the Sun Tavern through the Alley with a letter.2 I hear Mr. Greenleaf has been gone to New York a fortnight yesterday. My paper is gone & I am yr. Brother &c.

R. T. PAINE

P: S if you should not be able to send the horse be not anxious tho' I should choose it.

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

1.

RTP notes in his diary that he "removed to Mrs. Elliots" on Nov. 28. Elizabeth (Marshall) Eliot (d. 1767) was the widow of Samuel Eliot (1713–1745), publisher and bookseller. She possibly carried122on his business in Cornhill until moving it in 1746 to the "South-End near the Great-Trees" (Benjamin Franklin V, ed., Boston Printers, Publishers, and Booksellers: 1640–1800 [Boston, 1980], 151–154).

2.

Anthony Brackett kept the famous tavern, Cromwell's Head, in School Street. Joshua Brackett (1738–1794) succeeded as innkeeper in 1768. RTP probably means the Sun Tavern kept by Capt. James Day in Cornhill, now Washington Street (Drake, Old Boston Taverns and Tavern Clubs, 19).