Lebanon Jany. 21st. 1762 Dear Sir,

I1am in the first place to acknowledge the Favor of the Visit you was so good as to make me & shall number among my happiest Hours those wherein I had the Pleasure of your Conversation.

Have been since Entertain'd with the Remarks made upon you. One says you are an Enemy to the Clergy, another, taking all you said for Earnest, imagines you are very great Libertine, another thinks he has found out, that notwithstanding you discours'd in so gallant a manner about the Ladies, you can less make your way among them than any other Company.

I accidentally heard that Doc Eliot2 was mightily Pleas'd with your Conversation & the more so because you gave him Oppy. to diplay himself upon his Favorite subject—Agriculture.

Can you excuse all this Nonsense? Indeed Sr. the Esteem & Friendship I have for you make me Extremely desirous of Correspoinding with you, tho I am afraid it will be troublesome to you Since all the Burden of it will on your side & all the Pleasure & advantage on mine.

I intended to have wrote to Mr. Dodge3 by this Opportunity but cannot. When you see him present my Compliments & tell him I shall never forget our Friendship at College & hope (when he has an Opportunity) for the Favor of a Letter.

As my Father's Business carries him so often to Taunton I hope Frequently to have the Pleasure of hearing from you in the Epistolary Way. I am Sr. your Friend & Servant,

NATHAN TISDALE

RC ; endorsed.

1.

RTP's diary entry for Dec. 28, 1761 indicates that he lodged with his classmate Nathan Tisdale that night. Tisdale became well-known as the schoolmaster of Lebanon, Conn.

2.

Jared Eliot (1685–1763), the famous Congregational minister and physician who wrote an Essay on Field Husbandry in New England (New London and New York, 1748–1759) (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 5:191–204).

3.

Ezekiel Dodge, a classmate of RTP.