Boston Feby: 9. 1763 Sir,

I reed: yours of 27th. Ulto:1 per Capt. Cobb2 & answer you with Sighs on The Loss of my late worthy Patron3 & the Friend of Mankind.

I have taken The Execution against Bagnal & shall give it to The Officer.

The Bar found no Inconvenience on account of Cold in Their Gowns over a Cloth Coat I speak by Experience for I was at Charlestown one Day Myself.4

The Bar have invited The Court to dine with 'em The first Day of the Term at Gooch's The Bunch of Grapes Tavern in K. Street,5 if you do not dissent (as Some Others have done) please to notifie it & you may be one. Strange Phænomena! are abroad; Which perhaps you may here & see more of in Time. Adieu & believe me your Friend & Sert.,

SAML. QUINCY

RC ; addressed: "To Robt. Treat Paine Esq. in Taunton"; endorsed.

1.

Not located.

2.

Capt. Thomas Cobb (ca. 1705–1779), an iron manufacturer at Attleborough, moved to Taunton in 1760. He was the father of Gen. David Cobb and Sally Cobb who married RTP in 1770 (Paine, Paine Ancestry, 90–91).

3.

Benjamin Prat, then chief justice and member of the council for New York, died in New York City, Jan. 6 (Boston News-Letter, Jan. 27, 1763).

4.

At some time in 1762 judges and barristers of the Superior Court of Judicature were directed to wear gowns. The minute book for the August term 1762 in Suffolk County noted that RTP was one of twelve who appeared "in Barristers Habits" at that session.

5.

The Bunch of Grapes tavern, kept by James Gooch, was on the southeast corner of Kilby Street.

Boston February 25th 1763 Dear Eunice,

Here I am, & intended to have paid you a Visit at G.Town on this Journey but the Riding is too fatiguing to my decaying Nature. I send herewith a letter from our parts to revive your Motely Spirits. I received yours1 since I have been in Town & find you are neerly in the same Scituation in which I have been my self this Winter, never so beat out before; tho I hope this Journey will recruit me, I am as much245disappointed in not seeing you; as you can be in not seeing me, but fear I must adjourn it. We often talk of you at the Dr.'s.2 Their boy3 is a fine one, & they do cleverly. My head is so full that I fear you'll read what I write with less pleasure than you do old Advertisments. I intended to have wrote largely, if I did not visit you & I think I'm like to fulfill my Intentions by telling them, for I have not one single Idea in my Mind that is sentimential. Take an Ex Temp. Parody on Dr. Watts lines

When 'ere I feill my Quiet fail And discontented Thoughts prevail I'll take a view of the various schemes & Efforts4

of Mankind, & note well the event of them. There ten thousand ill fated occurences, base designs, false appearances & Counterballancing Prospects, thwart, frustrate, disapoint & suspend Tranquillity & Satisfaction. Blessed is the Man who has a thick skin for he may walk among Brambles. Blessed is he who has known but one sort of thing for he can make no Comparisons. Blessed is he who knows what he wants, blessed is he who wants nothing but what he knows, but most blessed is he who wants nothing but what he knows, but most blessed is he who wants nothing but what the Desire will introduce him to the Enjoyment off; I wont enlarge in that strain for a Folio would not hold my thoughts; Take a Recipe to Roast a Goose & make the Greavy Sauce at the same Time. Sew up the Neck, fill the Body full of Water & butter & sage & onions &c. &c. hang it up by the Legs & let it Roast & it will eat fine & crisp. This is a Modern discovery. By this Letter you surely learn two things, my desire to divert you & utter inability to do it. Take the will for the deed.

My sincere Remembrance & Compliments to Mrs. Palmer & to Mr. Cranch taken collectively in both his Parts or in more if there be an appearance of them. May the blessings of Wedlock surround 'em.

A Pendelum will not swing for ever, but when the weight is down it will stop not through Judgment but want of Motive. Miserable is the man who is well off & don't know it. Vexatious it is to miss one's Road & travail in it till it is too late to return, but most happy when by thus missing a designed Road he reaches where he ought to go. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Secret fates guide our states both in Weal & Mourning. Mathew Cummings5 is published to the fortune Girl at Swanzey. I'm obliged to write what comes uppermost, not having time246to fixx my thoughts & haveing no thoughts to fix. I purpose to send you the lively & most Agreable Representation of King John of Portugal,6 upon which you must feast till I see you again. If your demands are larger let me hear it; wishing you well till I see you again I am your mindfull Brother &c.

R.T. PAINE

RC ; addressed: "To Miss Eunice Paine at German Town"; endorsed.

1.

Not located.

2.

Dr. William McKinstry (1732–1776), who married Priscilla Leonard of Norton in 1760. He was a successful physician in Taunton, "of highly respectable personal and professional character," although he had "a feeble constitution and a consumptive habit." His suspected loyalist leanings led to his fleeing to Boston, and he died on shipboard in Boston Harbor awaiting evacuation with the British fleet. RTP served as administrator of his estate (Samuel Hopkins Emery, The Ministry of Taunton, with Incidental Notices of Other Professions, 2 vols. [Boston, 1853], 1:239–240; NEHGR 12[1858]: 325–326).

3.

William McKinstry, Jr. (1762–1823) later followed his family into loyalist exile in England where he became rector of East Grinstead and Lingfield, near London. He also "was tutor to children of several noblemen, whom he accompanied in their travels on the continent. He was a good scholar and a polished gentleman" (NEHGR 12[1858]:324).

4.

Citation unidentified.

5.

Matthew Cuming of Taunton (b. 1741) was a 1762 Harvard graduate. The identity of his betrothed is unknown (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 15:203–204).

6.

That is, a Portuguese johannes.