Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 2
I hope you'l Excuse my not writing you before. I really have not had time lately to Eate Drinke or Sleep. Your favr.1 per Bracket I recd. & was very glad to find the Report of Mr. Brown's being Broke, without foundation. I was very partr. in my Enquiry of this matter & suppos'd to the person (a true friend of mine who just came from Providence) it might be some other Brown at or near Dighton but he persisted in it that he was told Wm. Brown of Dighton had faild & added that he understood there was no other of that name there, he knew sd: Brown, & that he was largely Indebted to me, therefore his Enquiry was the more particular. I shall try hard to find from whence this Crewell Report arrose430& let Mr. Brown know it if find it was done wth. a Design to hurt him, for want of time reffer to the Contents of the Inclos'd, wch. please to seal up & forward per Carefull hand. I have only to add my hearty thanks for yr: kind Enquiry & Trouble wth. this affair, wch. gives me pleasure to find to be in a secure situation & free from any Danger. I am wth. Esteem. Dr. Sir Y M H S
Pray forwd. Mr. Hoods Letter
Not located.
Inclosd. I1 send you a Note on Elisha Brewster, Who Stands Sued to the June Court at Plymo. and if you will be so good as to Carry thro' the action for me (as I Cannot Very well come) I shoud be Very glad, and I think you have from Majr. Doane a Power of Attor. which If you have not and any Dispute arises I have Inclosd a Substitution to Pelham Winslow.2 Your Very H. St.,
PS: please to ask Winslow Pelham for the Note. I have Inclosed it to him. I shoud be glad when the Court arises if you woud write me a Line whether Brewster action is appealed or not.
Shearjashub Bourne (1746–1806) graduated from Harvard in 1764, was admitted to practice at the Superior Court in 1767 and as a barrister in 1772. He settled at Barnstable, later served two terms in the Federal House of Representatives, and was appointed chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas of Suffolk Count in 1801. He became a good friend of RTP (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 16:20–23).
RTP represented Elisha Doane of Wellfleet in his case against Isaac Brewster of Kingston (represented by James Hovey) over trespass on a note, originally payable to James Warren but endorsed to Doane. The court awarded a judgment of damages and costs to the plaintiff in the July 1768 term of the Plymouth Court of Common Pleas. The defendant appealed the judgment, but there is no further record of the case (Plymouth Court Records, 8:264).
Pelham Winslow (1737–1783) graduated from Harvard in 1753 and studied law with James Otis, Jr. Admitted to practice before the Superior Court in 1764 and as a barrister in 1767, Winslow prac-431ticed law in Plymouth. During the Revolution he served as a major in the British Army and became a loyalist refugee (Law in Colonial Mass., p. 357).