Halifax Septr. 12. 1759 Sr.,

I wrote you per Capt. Homer, acquainting you of a proposal made by Mr. Monk for purchasing the house, since which Mr. Wenman has been with me, & offered £60, to pay half in 3, & the other half in 6 months, who I make no doubt will be very punctual, you'll please to let me have your answer in regard to these proposals, & also what you propose to do for Mrs. Pool, & her child, or Either of them. I am Sr. your most he. servt.

MALACHY SALTER 149

RC ; addressed: "To Mr. Robert Treat Paine Attorney at Law In Boston per Capt. Stevenson QDC"; endorsed.

Barnstable Septr. the 17th 1759 Sir,

Father and Mother1 Recd. your Letter Dated June the 20th2 and Return you Thanks for it as also for the News Conserning Sister Freeman.3

I4 Hope these Lines will find you in Good Health. I Desire to be thankfull I Enjoy a Good Measure of Health as also the Most of my Friends do. Father & Mother Send their Love to you. Aunt Russell5 is Something Poorly Just Recovering from Sickness. She Sends Her Love to you Brother Hinckley & Sister6 are Well Send Love also.

You Wrote Nothing Conserning your Marriage and so I Conclude you to be an Honest old Bachelder.

I Recommend you to Read a Sermon Entitled a Wedding Ring7 if you Can find it. However we must wait with Patience till Providence & Time Brings about our Marriage.

The Reverend Mr. Jonathan Russell8 of the West end of This town Died Last Week & Doctr. John Russel is Dead.9

I Should be Exceeding Glad to See you here Should Providence order your Business this Way or Should you Count it Worth While to Come & See us. Pray forgive the Irregularity of this Letter.

I Desire a Line from you & haveing No more to add but my Love & Service I Remain Yours to Sereve

EDMUND HAWES JUR.

RC ; addressed: "For Mr. Robert Treat Paine In Boston"; endorsed.

1.

Edmund and Mary (Paine) Hawes.

2.

Not located.

3.

Elizabeth, widow of James Freeman.

4.

Edmund Hawes, Jr., son of Edmund and Mary (Paine) Hawes, half-brother of James Freeman, and first cousin of RTP.

5.

Bethiah (Paine) Russell (1698–1763), younger sister of Thomas Paine, wife of Dr. Samuel Russell (Paine, Paine Ancestry, 13).

6.

John and Bethiah (Freeman) Hinckley.

7.

William Secker, A Wedding ring, fit for the finger; or, the salve of divinity on the sore of humanity.150 With directions to those men that want wives how to choose the; and to those women that have husbands, how to use them (Boston, 1750).

8.

Rev. Jonathan Russell (1689/90–1759), a 1708 Yale graduate, succeeded his father as minister at Barnstable in 1712 and continued in office until his death. Married Mercy, daughter of Col. John Otis of Barnstable (Dexter, Yale Biographical Sketches, 1:77–78).

9.

Dr. John Russell (1685–1759), brother of Rev. Jonathan Russell who died shortly afterwards. He graduated from Harvard in 1704 and was the physician at Barnstable (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 5:256–259).