Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 2
You desire a State of the Case, between Wigglesworth & Delano, or rather between Gould & Delano.
When I desired you to commence the Suit on The absconding act, Delano was indebted to Gould on Execution a considerable Sum I think about £30 or 40. lmy.1 Mr. George Minot2 who did Business for him here In Expectation of receiving Sufficient to discharge the Excon. Debt beged I wd. delay issuing the Excon. & he wd. See it discharged, alledging at the Same Time that Mr. S. Wentworth,3 Gould's4 Father in Law, was indebted to him a certain sum which wd. become due in about a month from The Time I spoke to him, which he wd. venture to discount, & Said He wd. get his Directions as Attorney to Gould to Stop the Process, wch. he accordingly did, but between This & The Period he said The Sum wd. be due from Wentworth I imagine your Process was a foot & of Course held all that was due from Delano to Gould. The proposed Discount with W. notwithstanding, & to This Day W. tells me there is a Balla. of about £8 due on the Excon., so taking it in the most favorable Light D. must have perjured himself, for I don't imagine he ever put any Thing into Minot's Hand, except a Sum wch. was paid to Gould pending the original Suit. This is all at present, if there is need I will endeavour to obtain an exact State of the first Debt, The Payments made & the Balla. due yet. & Interim am Yours &c
legal money.
George Minot (1703–1783) was a Boston merchant who owned Minot's Wharf, later known as T-Wharf (Minot, Minot Family, 22).
Samuel Wentworth (1708/9–1766), a son of Lt. Gov. John Wentworth of N.H., was a merchant at Boston after his graduation from Harvard (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 8:526–529).
John Gould, Jr., another Boston merchant, was married to Wentworth's daughter Elizabeth347(Thwing Index). He had periodic dealings with RTP along with his father and brother in a business partnership. At least twice (Mar. 7 and July 18, 1764) he assigned his power of attorney to RTP.
I1 Left your Amiable Sister About 2 hours ago, something better than you left her on Saty: The Anxiety which naturaly arrises in the mind at Leaving a Friend in Such distressg. Circumstances as your Sisters are, is the reason, of my troubling you with this Letter—which I hope you'll excuse as my only motive is disintrested friendship for her, whose state for several years past, has calld for all the care and kindness of her friends; not only those whose natural duty it is to affoard her all the Assistance in their power, but for them who have no other Ties but than those of humanity, and the Obligation they owe to every one in distress, as members of Christian Society. While She was at Germantown the care seem'd more immediately to Be Mr. Palmers; but as the Doctor disapproves of That Air, she was Laid under a necessity of changing it, to preserve a life which hangs by a very slender thread. And I am well satisfied if She had some friend to take some of them cares off of her mind, 'twould very much lighten her suffrings. My Circumstances in Life deprives me of that Ability to Serve her, which I heartily wish was in my power. She is now Among intire Strangers, and those that can have no Idea of What she suffers, nor can it be expected they should, and therefore the demand seems to be greater upon those who not only know, but have every inducement to make her cares their Own. And in her afflicted state 'Tis as much as human fortitude can sustain, to bear patiently such Agonies as She daily suffers without the Additional concern of providing for supporting Life Tolerably. Some faithfull friend she very much wants who will make her cares it their business to take her cares upon themselves; and I know none whose disposition or Abilities qualifies them so well for that Office as yours. How dangerous she may be I dont pretend to Say, but 'tis evident she cant Live thro many more such Shocks. 'Tis not so much she wants, but truffles to one in her weak state are of as much importance, as things of the greatest moment can be to persons in full health. If you Should think my Zeal has carried me too far, I hope you'll excuse it, as it springs from so Laudable a Cause; for I feel too keenly348any thing that effects her ease or happiness not to be Zealous. I am Sir your Hume. Servt.,
P.S. I write without Miss Eunices knolidge.
Mary Nicolson apparently was a seamstress in Boston. A bill from her to Isaac Smith for making breeches for his son Billy dated Aug. 19, 1769, is in the Smith-Carter Papers in the MHS. She was a member of the Cranch-Palmer-Smith-Paine circle of female correspondents (see Lyman Butterfield, ed., Adams Family Correspondence, 4 vols. [Cambridge, Mass., 1963–1973], 1:27 et passim). Several letters from Eunice Paine to Mary Nicolson during 1769 are in the Benjamin Pickman Papers, Essex Institute, Salem.