Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
Samuel Henshaw1 Collector of Impost & Excise for the County of Suffolk, informs the Attorney General, that on the Day above mentioned, He seized forty Casks of Molasses, imported into the said County, on board the Brigantine called the Harmony, Zebulon Foster Master, for not being entered in the Manifest as required by an Act passed the first Day of July last, intitled “An Act in addition to, & for the explanation of, an Act, entitled An Act laying Duties of Impost & Excise on certain Goods Wares & Merchandize therein described; & for repealing the several Laws 320 heretofore made for the Purpose,” and desires the said forty Casks may be libelled for trial agreeably to Law.
Samuel Henshaw (1744–1809) graduated from Harvard in 1773 and became a lawyer in Milton. He was appointed collector of excise for Suffolk County in 1783 and five years later moved to Northampton, where he was appointed a justice of the peace and of the quorum for Hampshire County the same year (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 18:246–250).
Your favor of 23d Novr. past,1 I rec’d this morning. I do not recollect that any thing was mention’d about Taxes, & am satisfied there was not. If the Deed warranted its being free & clear of all incumbrances, which ’tis probable it did, as you pen’d it, this may be what they lay hold of; but to what purpose, you will judge.
I have been out in the Chaise, 3 or 4 Miles, & am on the recovery, but do not expect to be able go much further ’till the Spring.
Pray my respects to Mrs. Paine, & love to Children. I am your Affeco. & real Friend,
P.S. Pray Sir, is there any good Sadler Settled at Taunton? This with a view to R G Cranch.2
Not located.
Robert Garland Cranch, “Saddler & Cap-Maker from London,” advertised the opening of a shop in Boston, 1770 (Boston Gazette, Sept. 10. 1770). He was a nephew of RTP’s friend Richard Cranch and nephew-by-marriage to Palmer.