Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 2
Very lately recievd. yours acquainting me that Bacons Abridgt. Still lay on hand that you purchasd. for me. Soon after my Return from Boston I recievd. your letter Informing that you had purchasd. those books but at a very dear rate that there was a Gentn. Insisted much on having them & Stood ready to take them but as you had bot them on my request Chose to give me the offer but that it would be no dissapointment if I had them not. Imedeately I wrote you that I had Supplyd my Self before I left Boston desird you would not keep them for me was obligd. to you for your Care which letter understood by the barer he deliverd you & ever have Suposd the Gentn. whom you wrote wonted them had them. Am very Sorry you have been out of the Cash So long as you purposd obliging me in the affair & therfor tho Supplyd yet if you Cannot part with them as you wrote me let me know or send the books & the Cash Shall be Imedeately Sent you with proper Acknowledgments for your Intention to oblidge me. Hope to see you here Soon as land is falling & application has been made for the purchase of Some lotts fm. yr. Very Hle. Servt.
RTP moved his home and office to Taunton in June 1761.
Inclosed you have Yesterday's Paper wch. contains but little, save What I imagine you have heard already; I have waited thus long in Expectation of fulfilling my Promise to You, By transmitting to you some account of Mr. Winthrop's Discoveries, Whose Arrival I presume you must long ere This have been acquainted With: But You, with The Rest of The World must be content with What The Printers have been pleased to favor Us with, Which (If you have not heard) is no more Than, That On The long wish'd for morning of The Sixth of June last He had a fine clear Prospect of The Transit for near 50 minutes, & That upon208Examination, The Calculations of The great Dr: Halley were found to be strictly true. This is in Substance The Whole of What we've been obliged with, & by all I can learn The Whole of What we may expect.1
My next shall be longer, But being in The Hurry of Moving, I can now add no more, Than That with Mrs. Quincy's Compliments to You I am Your most respectfl. Friend & Sert.,
P:S: Dr. Jno. Greenleaf Wife The late Miss Ruth Walker2 was buried last Evening.
NB If any Thing on The above perspires shall not fail to send it.
John Winthrop (1714–1779), second Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural and Experimental Philosophy at Harvard, with two of his students left for St. John's, Newfoundland, on May 9, 1761, to observe the transit of Venus which had been forecast earlier by Edmund Halley (1656–1742), the English astronomer. The transit took place as predicted, and Winthrop and his student assistants "had the high satisfaction of seeing that most agreeable sight Venus on the sun, and of shewing it in our telescopes to the gentlemen of the place." Various Boston newspapers reported the event in their July 27 issue.
John Greenleaf (1717–1778), a Boston apothecary, had married Ruth Walker on May 1, 1759 (Greenleaf, Genealogy of the Greenleaf Family, 90, 207).