Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
Dinsdell & Sumner, for whom I appeard: under the libell of part of Isaac Winslow’s Estate, tell me, they are called upon by Capt: McCarthy1 the agent on that Estate & are about settling the Ballance due on their respective Mortgages with him. Sumner has obtained Evidence of the exact sum due & says he has the money to pay it. This being the Case I suppose ’twill be unnecessary to trouble you any more about the matter. Ellis, who claims part of the Estate of C. W. Apthorp told me when I was called from the Bar, that he should employ some other Gentn. to make his defence, which I suppose he has done. If he has not, I wish you would oblige me so much, as to suffer a Continuance, in order that I may write him & let him know his danger. I promisd. to give you a state of the Case, but I cant find my minutes. His Defence is a Serious one, however I will beg no further indulgeance for him than next Term.
NB Goldsbury’s2 Claim I have no concern with.
Capt. Daniel McCarthy of Boston (d. 1791).
Samuel Goldsbury (d. 1815) was a lieutenant in the Associated Loyalists unit in Boston and among the refugees to Halifax (Jones, Loyalists of Massachusetts, 146).
I1 have received yours of the 23d. Ulto:2 I mean to be at Boston in all this month; when I propose seeing Genl. Wadsworth, & furnishing you with materials for Mr. Langdons Case. If that will not be timely; shall take it a favor, If you will consult the Genl.; should you see him in Boston, where he frequently is. I think it necessary to have due Copies of his Commiss
Stephen Hall (1743–1794), Harvard class of 1765, had been a tutor at his alma mater from 1772 to 1778, when he was replaced after he secretly married Mary Holt in Falmouth. He then returned to Falmouth and served as chairman of that town’s Committee of Correspondence until he was chosen president of the Committee of Safety for Cumberland County in 1779. He was Gen. Peleg Wadsworth’s secretary in 1780 and temporarily relocated to Boston, where he served in the House of Representatives that year and the next. After the Revolution, he returned to Falmouth and advocated for the separation of Maine from Massachusetts (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 16:165–169).
Not located.
A tear in the manuscript.
I wrote you by the last Post; since which we have arrived at the place I mentioned. We came down the River in flat Boats, forming one of the most agreeable views in the world; perhaps equal to Sir Jeffery’s1 move down the Lakes, last War. We have constant information, by Deserters, 226 Informants, & others, that the British will certainly move from New York by the 10th. Octr. what credit must be given to this information, it will not do for me to say; some of the Enemies movements are certainly in favor of this report, others are much against it, upon the whole, it will be best, to suspend our opinions for a short time.
You may see by a New York paper, which I have inclosed to Mr. Hastings, postmaster, that Charlestown must be evacuated before this, & a Letter addressed to the Citizens, plainly to me, points out the plan that will be perseued by all the Refugees in America.
My best Love to Mrs. Paine & my Daughters & believe me ever your Friend
During the French and Indian Wars, Sir Jeffery Amherst (1717–1797) took command of British forces in America in 1758 and led a flotilla of various craft down Lake Champlain in Oct. of the following year. The flat-bottomed boats, which proved particularly effective, had been produced by Amherst’s naval officer Joshua Loring (1716–1781), a native of Roxbury, Mass. (Dictionary of Canadian Biography; A. B. McLeod, British Naval Captains of the Seven Years’ War: The View from the Quarterdeck [Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2012], 155).