Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
I am ordered by a Warrant from James Williams & Benja. Williams,1 Esqrs. quorum unus to Notify the Several Justices of the peace for the County of Bristol2 to meet at the Court House in Taunton in sd. County on friday the ninth day of January instant at one oClock in the aftern noon to act upon a petition of the Selectmen of Freetown respecting Licencing an Hospital for Inoculating for the smallpox in sd. Freetown3—& you are desired to attend at time & place aforesd. for the purpose aforesd.
Brothers James (1703–1779) and Benjamin Williams (1720–1784) were both active in Taunton town affairs. Benjamin was judge of probate for Bristol County (1778–1783), and James was register of deeds (1747–1779). James was succeeded in that office by his son James Williams, Jr. (1741–1826), who also served with his uncle Benjamin on the local Committee of Correspondence during the Revolution (Samuel Hopkins Emery, History of Taunton, Massachusetts [Syracuse, N.Y., 1893], 377, 474, 477; Duane Hamilton Hurd, History of Bristol County, Massachusetts [Philadelphia, 1883], 900).
RTP had served as a justice of the peace in Bristol County since Sept. 7, 1763.
No smallpox hospital at Freetown was mentioned in the journals of the House of Representatives, which was the usual agency for such places.
Council Chamber
I am directed to inform you, of your Appointment1 this Day by joint Ballot of both Houses with the Honble. Thomas Cushing Esqr. & Mr. John Pickering2 to meet in Convention with the other States, at New Haven,3 agreeable to a late Resolution of Congress on the 15th: Jany. Inst. in Order to regulate and ascertain the Price of Labour, Manufactures &c. &c.
RTP recorded in his diary, Jan. 9: “rode to Boston horse back, found my self appointed to go to NHaven Convention of Cmttes.”
John Pickering (1740–1811), who graduated from Harvard in 1759, was for many years register of deeds for Essex County and represented Salem in the General Court frequently from 1769 to 1779, serving as Speaker in 1778 and here as one of the commissioners for the New Haven Convention (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 14:481–485).
On the New Haven Convention, see below, Extracts from the Minutes of the Massachusetts Council, Jan. 13, 1778.