Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
Tho I1 have not the Pleasure to boast of an Intimacy with you yet from the Little Acquaintance which Subsisted between us I flatter my self it will make an Apoligy for this Intrusion in trubling you with the reading of this; and taking the Liberty of Communicating to you my Present Inclinations.
During my residence in Boston at the time of the blockade I fell into ill health and was Advised by my Physicians to take a voyage to sea for which I went with my family to the Province of Nova Scotia a Place whare I had some Intrest with an Intention to return Earley the next Spring but during my resedence in that Province Boston was Evacuated and they Soon after Passed an Act that no Absent Person should return untill some future Day which Act my Brother in Law Mr. John Avery with Some of my friends write me is an obstical to my return. Unless I could find friendship in you Sir as the States Attorney, whose Influence is so grate as to remove all obsticales that might be throne in my Way & Should I obtain Permishion threw your Intrest I Shall Look upon my Self bound for Ever 256 to Acknowledge so grate a favor, I have also wrote to my farther in Law Mr. Avery2 and his Son the Secretary, who has long wished for my return, but finding their Prudence in the matter Least they Should give umbrage to the People, they wish me to Seek higher Powers, and as you Sir are above being rule’d by the People I would wish to Ask that Assistance of you in whose Power it is to open a Door for my Admittance, as I have not don Any thing that should Prejudice my Countrymen Against me And have During my Absence refused Such offers as would Sett my famely above the frowns of Fortune; and as I have therefor Sir taken the Liberty to Communicate to you in Confidence my Inclinations of returning to my Aged Parents who has Long wish’d for that happy Day, and should my request not be granted, I trust that your Goodness will not make known this Letter to my Disadvantage.
Mr. Blanchard a young Gentleman, who was brought In hear a few Days Ago has Promised to Deliver this to you, and Should you think Proper to Answer this Letter Mr. Blanchard Will convay it to me and the same will be gratefully Acknowledge by. Sir
George Spooner was a merchant in Boston who left for Halifax with the British troops in 1776. He later moved to New York, Georgia, and Charleston, S.C., returning to Boston after the Revolution and living there from 1784 until 1787, when he moved to Worcester, Mass. (Gregory Palmer, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution [Westport, Conn., 1984], 816).
John Avery (1711–1796), a 1731 Harvard graduate, was a Boston merchant. By his first marriage, to Mary Deming, he was the father of John Avery (1739–1806), the first secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. By his second marriage, to Sarah (Bridge) Spooner, he was stepfather to George Spooner (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 9:8–11).
In the supplement to the Boston Gazette of 10 March current,1 you have exhibited divers complaints against several Persons for high crimes &c whereupon you claim their Estates in the County of York as forfeited to the sole use of the Common-Wealth of Massachusetts. Among which I observe one against Willm. Brattle Esqr. of Cambridge &c for an Estate lying partly 257 in Biddeford and partly in Arundell, bounded in part on Saco River. Now Sir as I have an undoubted claim to one half, at least, of that tract; which has never been divided between the heirs of Colo. Fitch,2 as one of whom he held, or pretended to hold it; the propriety of which claim is perhaps still liable to dispute: and as I take for granted that you have no desire to involve the innocent with the guilty, I thou’t the above information might not be amiss, in order to prevent it. I am Sir, with Friendship & Respect
As noted in Timothy Frost to RTP, Jan. 12, 1783 (above).
Col. Thomas Fitch (1668/9–1736) had six children including Mary (1706–1775), the wife of Andrew Oliver, and Martha (1704–1763), who married first James Allen and second William Brattle.