Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
after three weaks Looking in vain I have by Dr. Williams you dont want to Come home—if their is nothing in me that deserve your affection one would think your Children would have a Share I did think you would have a desire to See the new daughter1 But it Seems as if you had forgotten al Behind you—but if publick matters are to be attended to before your family you have an undoubted rite So to doe—I hope you feal happy & injoy your helth—much Better then I doe though I am very Spry considering the ill turn I have had Since I have been confind. I thank you for your kind Letter2 inquiring of my welfare—Becca complains you have not fulfild your promise to her if you dont Come home very Soon I dont know what wont be done to you. I have not had the Butter of Capt. Smith he ask 7 dollars a bll. must I Give it or Can you get it Cheaper in Boston doe you expect to get Sugar in Boston or must I get it of Capt. Hall. I Can have a hundred of him. The flour you Sent by Macumber is not come the team was Left at milton on account of the Badness of traveling if you Should Come home before the team can come you Can put the wine into the Same Cart & Bring the tea from Mr. Crockers they ask 43 dollars all for it here. I have not got any maid nor no prospect of any your horse is almost well we have had him to tend ever Sence he came from Boston he was road very hard—our family are well—my kind Love attend Mr. Greeleafs family am very Sorry hear of the Illness Becca Send complyments—
Mary Paine, the sixth child and second daughter of RTP and Sally Cobb Paine, was born at Taunton, Feb. 9, and baptized there by Mr. Thacher on Mar. 26. In 1825, when she was forty-five years old, she married Rev. Elisha Clap (1776–1830). Mary survived her husband for more than a decade and died on Feb. 27, 1842. Both are buried in RTP’s tomb in the Granary Burying Ground, Boston.
Not located. According to RTP’s diary, he had left Taunton on Jan. 31 and traveled to Boston, where he attended “the Convention,” the inferior court, Superiour Court, the “Oration on the Massacre” on Mar. 6, and the General Court before returning to Taunton on Mar. 13.
The Superiour Court session included a murder trial following the death of one John Reyner. Anthony Barber, Joseph Gasket, Joseph Figonier, and John Bowen, all laborers of Boston, were charged with assault 114 and murder. The latter two were found not guilty, while Barber and Gasket were convicted of manslaughter. RTP, as attorney general, moved for the sentence of death, but they pleaded benefit of clergy, which was granted (benefit of clergy was abolished for any capital crime by Act of Congress in 1790). Barber and Gasket were sentenced to “forfeit their Goods & Chattels” and “be burned in the Hand with the Letter T” (Superiour Court of Judicature Minute Books, Suffolk County, Feb. 1780. Massachusetts Judicial Archives, Boston, Mass.).
Sometime since, As I1 was looking over the Clerk of the Supr. Court’s Book, I observed the names of Several Gentlemen, who had been proposed by you, to that Court, to have the Honor of Barresters confir’d upon them.2 As said list included most of the practising Atty. of that Court, I concluded my Name was omitted through inattention, and was confirm’d in that opinion by Mr. Lowell, which induces me to write you upon the Subject, and informing you, there are not more than one Gentleman in that list, but were sworn at the Court below Since my Admittance there, & that upon my being sworn at the Supr. Court, the Court Order’d that the Attys. Should rank, agreable to their Admission in the lower Court. If Any possible Advantage may be received, in order of time, I could wish not to loose it, And therefore must request (if not inconsistant with any Rules of the Bar) that my Name may be inserted in that list. I write this Confidentially hopeing the same may not be used to my prejudice. Your favourable interposition in this matter, shall be warmly resented by
William Hunt (1749/50–1804) graduated from Harvard in 1768 and developed an active law practice in his native Watertown, Mass. (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 17:46–48).
RTP, as attorney general, was the state’s senior attorney and, as such, routinely recommended individuals for recognition before the courts as attorneys or barristers.