Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
Cmn. Wealth of Massa.
Hampshire Ss. Notice is hereby given that the Att: Genl. of this Comnwlth. hath exhibited to the Justices of the Infr. Ct. of Cmn. Pleas. for the County of Hampshire on the 2d. Tuesday of February current complaints agt. the following Persons for Treasons & high Crimes agreable to the Law of this State entituled an Act for Confiscating the Estates of certain Persons comonly called Absentees & therein alledging their respective estates, lying in the county of Hampshire hereafter described to be forfeited & escheatd to the use of the Cmnwlth. aforsd. vizt: agt. J:C.1, late of Worc: in the Co. of W. Esqr.: his Estate as follows vizt. Lotts N. 9, 13, 14, 15, 33, 56, in 1st. division of Murray fields
agt: Nathl. Dickenson2 late of D. in Co. of H: yeo. his Estate as follows vizt.
which complaints are continued to the next IC. of CP. to be held at thereon the said Estates will be proceeded with according to Law
if any are before due proceeding will be had thereon.
Feby. 1781. by order of the said Court
Continental Journal, Mar. 22, 1781, with additional estates noted for Moses Foster, late of Shelburne; James Oliver, late of Conway; Thomas Beaman, late of Petersham; Elijah Williams, late of Deerfield; Jonathan Bliss, late of Springfield; and additional property of Nathaniel Dickinson, late of Deerfield. A similar notice for Bristol County appears in the same issue.
John Chandler (1720–1800).
Nathaniel Dickinson (1734–1788) of Deerfield was an outspoken loyalist. He evacuated to Halifax with the British army in 1776 and was among those banished in 1778. His property was confiscated, part of it set aside in 1780 for “the use of the State for pasturing cattle for the use of the Army” (The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 1779–1780 [Boston, 1922], Chapter 9 [1780], 518; George Sheldon, A History of Deerfield, Massachusetts [Deerfield, 1896], 2:697). He settled at Westfield, Kings County, New Brunswick (Hampshire County Probate, 17:207–208).
Robert Breck (1737–1799) of Northampton, Mass., was clerk of the courts in Hampshire County from 1781 to 1798 (Samuel Breck, Genealogy of the Breck Family [Omaha, 1889], 45).
Here with I send you some eight libels against absentees Estates in yr. Co. if any more Estate in your Co. of those Persons has come to knowledge please to add them, please to ask Col. Porter for the bounds of the Estate of Benjn. Pickman1 & put it into the blank herewith sent, by the Col. return it consists of a house & 200 acre in N Salem in possn. of David Boyce also a Gristmill & Sawmill in possn. of Elihu Ketchum also a Lott in Greenwich; I also send another Blank if any new Estate should came to light please to file those with the Court & move the Court that Notification be put into 3 News Papers according to the Act in Addition to the Confiscating Act. I have enclosed a form for the notification, please to deliver it to the clerk having amended it if you think it is not right, the shorter it is the better if it answer the purposes. I think one should be sent to Worcester paper one to Edes & one to Gill. I expect Genl. Danielson will bring the sd. additional acts wch. provides that the notification shall be by publishing in three news Papers instead of Service by a Sherriff &—before another Court I hope to see you mean while I
Benjamin Pickman (1740–1819), a 1759 Harvard graduate, was a successful merchant in Salem before the Revolution. A loyalist, Pickman left for England at the start of the conflict, but his wife retained the estate in Salem until he returned in 1785. He shortly after repossessed the limited portion of his lands that had been sequestered and reestablished himself as a leading Salem citizen (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 14:485–491).