Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
I find my self exceedingly hurt, by your1 Treatment to me respecting the bounds of the Absentees Estates in the Co. of Plymo.2 You last of all engaged to furnish me with a Copy of them so that I might prepare the Libels for the July Court &c but I have heard nothing of them. You said if would send the blanks you would fill them You deprive me of using my own Judgt. in the matter but to prevent further delay I now Send eleven blanks for you to fill up if there be Decision for so many. I also send a libel vs. C:W. Apthorp, finished & pray you to file it, it will serve as a model, mutatis mutandis, for the others, I have also began one vs. Peter Oliver, & filled all the blanks as near as I can witht. the bounds of his Land. I rely upon it you will prepare them & file them in Court & move the Court that the Clerk be directed to notify according to Law the News papers furnish forms of notification, the description in the Notification should be as short as may be: Mr. Paddelford has told me that he will assist you in filling them up. and had particular knowledge of the said Absentees their Estates I can give no particular directions only that I would by no means have Scotts Estate omitted or Blowers libeled
Joshua Thomas (1751–1821) graduated from Harvard (A.B., 1772) and by 1779 was practicing law in his native Plymouth County. Also in 1779, the legislature appointed him to report on absentee estates in that county. Thomas later became a justice of the peace and judge of probate (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 18:170–177).
The Plymouth County absentee estates were brought before the Court of Common Pleas in July 1782, continued until Dec., and then continued again to Apr. 1783. The individuals cited were Josiah Sturtevant, land in Halifax; Pelham Winslow, land in Marshfield; Peter Oliver, land in Middleborough; Daniel Dunbar, land in Halifax; Charles Curtis, land in Scituate; Charles Ward Apthorp, land in Abington; Sampson Salter Blowers, land in Plymouth; and Joseph Scott, land in Plympton (Massachusetts Spy, Mar. 27, 1783).
The Bounds you have so long wanted, I have at length sent you. I have made them as intelligible as I could from my minutes. There are two or three yet to be procured. If you will leave me as many Blanks, I will fill them up before our July Court. Should your Business render it necessary for you to be absent the present week, I shall be happy to afford you any little assistance in my Power, towards compleating your Papers for our next Court. I should have waited upon you in person, had I been well.
I1 recd. your Favor of the 15th. of May,2 respecting the Absentees Estates, together with a Letter and power of atty. pr. Mr. Cushing,3 therein inclosed. Mr. Cushing had been previously engaged for some of the Claimants, and therefore could not engage for the Commonwealth against those Claimants, notwithstanding which, I thought it adviseable to deliver him your Letter & Power of Attorney, that he might act for the Commonwealth where he was not engaged for the Claimants; and in those Cases Major Lithgow4 will appear for the Commonwealth. There were several Claims fil’d, but we could not proceed to Trial for want of necessary papers to support the Title in Behalf of the State, and therefore were 216 oblidged to have them continued to next Term. Judgment was recovered for the Whole of the Estates of each of the Absentees as described in the Libels, excepting only such parts thereof as were claimed. Major Cushing by whom I send this can give you any Information concerning the same, & therefore must refer you to him.
A List of Claims fil’d—vizt.
Will. Colman of Boston for part of Dr. Gardiners5 Estate, called the Chops farm—R:Cus
Saml. Harnden of Woolwich for part of Dr. Gardiner’s Estate, vizt. for Lyndes’s Island. R Cush
William Lithgow Esqr. for part of Dr. Gardiner’s Estate, viz: an Island opposite Fort Hallifax. Lithgow
Briggs Hallowell for the 3200 Acre Lot No. 22. RC
Wm. Gardiner for 12000 acres at Cobbiscconte T:L:
Ebenezr. Whittier of Pownalboro’ for part of Charles Ward Apthorps Estate, vizt. 400 acres in Pownalboro number’d Aa 1—this was sold for Tax
Abrahm. Page of Hallowell for Part of Wm. Vassals Estate viz. part of Lot No. 5 in Hallowell. Lithgow
Hallowell mortgaged to Gardner who Sued out the Mortgage
then Hallowell told Court & by unproper intentions got the Judgt. Sent it aside
the Claims of Possn. is forwarded on Vassalls Deed
Mm. John Jones, who broke Gaol in Boston, conveyed his Land at Kennebeck since March 5th Deed not recorded till after he went away
Samuel Waterhouse
Aylen
Wm. Bowes
3200 acres of Dr. Gardner
John Carlton of Woolwich Gentleman went to Baggaduce Nov. 1780
Francis Waldo
Jonathan Bowman (1735–1804) graduated from Harvard (A.B., 1755) and was sent to Maine in 1760 to represent the interests of the Plymouth Company. There he was appointed collector of excise, register of probate and deeds, clerk to the inferior court, and a justice of the peace (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 13:545–550).
Not located.
Although William Cushing (1732–1810) was practicing law in Pownalborough at this time, based on the reference of “R. Cushing” against the claims in the notes, this probably refers to his younger brother Roland 217 Cushing (1750–1788), a graduate of Harvard (A.B., 1768) and register of probate for Lincoln County from 1772 (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 17:13–14). See also RTP to Jonathan Bowman, Sept. 7, 1782 (below).
William Lithgow, Jr. (c. 1750–1796), served as a major in the Revolution. After the war, he began to practice law at Pownalborough and was appointed district attorney for the Maine District from 1789 (William Dawson Bridge, Genealogy of the John Bridge Family in America, 1632–1924 [Cambridge, Mass., 1924], 427).
Dr. Sylvester Gardiner (1708–1786) studied medicine in England and France and was practicing in Boston at the outbreak of the Revolution. Following the Battle of Bunker Hill, he “rendered conspicuous service” in tending the wounded British officers. Dr. Gardiner left for Halifax in 1776, was proscribed and banished as a loyalist, and later went to live in England. He returned to New England in 1785, settling at Newport, R.I. His estates in Massachusetts were confiscated and sold, but his extensive Maine landholdings through the Kennebec Company were saved due to a flaw in the legal process (Jones, Loyalists of Massachusetts, 140–142; Stark, Loyalists of Massachusetts, 313–317).