Windham 8th of May 1759 Sr.

I Receivd yours by which you Informd me of your purchase of Stranges Reports at the price of £6. I think they are Very Dear notwithstanding am obliged to you for your Care therein. The books have recievd have sent you Inclosed Mr. Samll. Fitches note of hand for £6 with an order on him to pay you that sum says he will to your Acceptance. I also mentioned to Dr. Gray the affair of your Land left with Mr. Simons and as he has Since been to Boston supose he has acquainted you therewith. Am Sorry I am not able to afford you my Assistance in those affairs but being so much from home am not able to do it. As to the land Claimed by Doctr. Wheets1 Heirs as I before Informd you unless they Enter no action Can be brought and no dispute Can arise for any person to Enter for you It will bring the suit on them which no person would choos & the matter Lies Safe for you till some body Enters thereon under Wheets Heirs. I mentiond the same to Dr. Wheets son by whom I understood they would soon Enter to have the matter Tried but nothing as yet is done. Am Sr. yr. Very Hle. Servt.

ELIPHT DYER

RC .

1.

Dr. Benjamin Wheat (ca. 1709–1758), originally of Watertown, Mass., moved to Norwich, Conn., about 1730 and practiced medicine there until his death (Silas Carmi Wheat, Wheat Genealogy [Guilford, Conn., 1960], 12–13).

May 15, 1759

In the Name of GOD amen, I Robert Treat Paine of Boston being of sound & disposing Mind, remembring the Uncertainty of human Life & desirous to regulate the distribution of my Estate do hereby make this my last Will & Testament.1

First I recommend my Soul to the Mercy of God through Jesus Christ hoping for an Inheritance of incorruptable Treasures in a future State. My Body I resign to the Earth to be buried in a Christian frugal Manner; And respecting my Estate I do dispose of it in the manner following Vizt.

I give Mr. Abel Willard of Lancaster all my Law Books of the sort142which he has not got already, including a parcell I have Sent to London for by Mr. Gawen Brown.

Item, I give Mr. Joseph Greenleaf of Abington, all my Cloaths, Watch Rings, buttons, Saddle Baggs, My Province Law books Salmon's Gazetteer2 Historical Dictionary two Volumns.

Item I direct the remainder of my Law books not disposed off to be sold & the Money to be distributed as hereafter directed.

Item I give Mr. Richard Cranch of Braintree all my books not already disposed off & my papers of every of every kind such as? relate to business, to be sold to his own use 3 fit, including likewise Some 4 by Mr. Gawen Brown as aforsd. And also my Belsicord,5 my Clocks, & all my tools as also a large rough Box which is Nailed up & lays at this time in Mr. Joseph Greenleaf's distill-house in Boston.

Item I direct a Stone white enameled Ring to be given to 6 with only these Words on it "Follow Truth".

Item I give My older Sister Abigail Greenleaf one third part of all my remaining Estate Real and personal to her and her heirs for ever.

Item I give to my younger Sister Eunice Paine the remaining two thirds of all my Estate Real and Personal to her and her heirs forever, and as in Consideration of her weakly State of health I make this unequall distribution I therefore affix this Condition to this devize to her, that if she shall marry Any Person, that them She shall pay my Sister Greenleaf aforsaid or her heirs one quarter part of the Value of my devise to her to make their devises equall.

Lastly I Appoint the afornamed Abel Willard and Richard Cranch my truely and much endeared Freinds the Executors of this my last Will, directing them to be paid for their Trouble in Settling this my Estate beside the Legacys already given them. In Witness hereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this fifteenth day of May Annoque Domini 1759,

ROBERT TREAT PAINE

Signed Sealed published pronounced and declared to be his last Will in presence of us,

SAML. ELIOT 7 ELISABETH ELIOT 8 RUTH ELIOT9

MS; RTP's signature has been torn off.

143 1.

RTP sailed for Halifax on May 17 and that is, perhaps, the reason for the will.

2.

Thomas Salmon, The Modern Gazetteer: or; a Short View of the Several Nations of the World (London, 1756 and later editions).

3.

Part of manuscript missing.

4.

Part of manuscript missing.

5.

Meaning of this word not found.

6.

Name inked out in ms. Possibly Mary Fletcher.

7.

The witnesses were the children of RTP's landlady, Elizabeth (Marshall) Eliot, widow of Samuel Eliot, bookseller. The son, Samuel Eliot (1739–1820), became a merchant in Boston and for a time president of the Massachusetts Bank. He established a professorship of Greek literature at Harvard (William H. Eliot and William S. Porter, Genealogy of the Eliot Family (New Haven, 1854, 171).

8.

Elizabeth Eliot (1736/7–1777), eldest daughter of the family, died unmarried.

9.

Ruth Eliot (1741–1809), second daughter in the family, married in 1767 Rev. Jeremy Belknap, minister of the Federal Street Church, Boston, and principal founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1791.