Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
I learn, by yr. letter,1 that sister Paine, Cha. & Harry are in the Hospital: I wish them well thro’ the small pox, but, you will have a good deal of anxiety first, let it work never so kindly.2 Tho’ The capriciousness of your town has deprived this state of an able Statesman, &, I believe, one of its most principled friends & servants, yet they have rendred you a singular private benefit. They have often been foolishly capricious. Witness the Barber, & waggoner, whom they formerly chose to represent them.3
I wish you would let them feel the want of your services by leaving them. Pray sell your estate there, & return to Boston. Yourself, family (especially your promising children) and all your friends, would not only rejoice but be benefited by your removal.
We have no news, but from Warren & Bristol,4 which you had before us—please to remember me to sister and the Children—my wife is very unwell, I have been trying to persuade her to make you a visit, but her low spirits won’t allow her to accept the offer.
Not located.
On May 21: “this morning Mrs. Paine & our two youngest Children Charles & Henry went into the Hospital at Taunton & were inoculated for the small Pox by Dr. Cobb”; June 10: “my Family came out of the Hospital having had the Small pox finely” (RTP Diary).
RTP was not re-elected to the House of Representatives by Taunton.
British raid on Bristol.
Being detained in this Town for three years past on acct. of the Enemy, and thrô. Fear of the small Pox, wch. I1 have been happily delivered from lately by receiving that dreaded Evil in the Method of Innoculation; I am now preparing to return to Boston, with my Family, to seek a Support for them by negotiating Business in a public Character if you and my Friends should esteem me capacitated for it. I have wrote to the Honble: Mr. Hancock, Saml. Adams & James Lovell Esqrs. on this Matter; that if a Vacancy may happen in any Office already appointed by Congress in Boston, or in any Office wch. may hereafter be constituted; that I should esteem my self greatly favored by Them, as I shall be by you if on any Appointment of Persons to transact Business in sd. Office, I may be nominated as one of the Members—and if I am so happy as to meet wth. the Consent of Congress; I shall endeavor to approve my Self to Them, as well as to answer your kind Recommendation; And as my eldest Son Jonas Clarke2 who has been a large Sufferer by the Enemys Detention of his Goods to a large Amount in Quebec is now without Business your favorable Notice of him in the Way wch. I have requested for my Self, will ever be duly regarded by us.
45I beg leave to refer you to Mr. Hancock, and Mr. Lovell who have some Knowledge of this my Son’s Character; and its with Pleasure that I can submit it to a public Scrutiny. I intend to apply to Mr. Appleton as soon as I arrive in Boston, on acct. of the Lincolnshire Compy: Affairs,3 as I hear that a lawless Crew are cutting, and carrying off the Timber belonging to the Proprietors.
Stephen Minot (1711–1787), a 1730 Harvard graduate, dabbled in the law early in his career but was mostly involved in managing the family’s real estate holdings. Upon the outbreak of the Revolution, he and his wife retired to a family property in Marlborough, Mass. His efforts to find a position for himself seem to have come to naught (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 8:735–736).
Jonas Clarke Minot (1738–1808) later became a successful merchant in Boston, was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and served as inspector of the Custom House from 1789 to 1802 (Oliver Ayer Roberts, History of the Military Company of Massachusetts [Boston, 1897], 2:213; Columbian Centinel, June 22, 1808).
On the Lincolnshire Company, see the letter from Nathaniel Appleton, Jr., Mar. 25, 1768, note 1, RTP 2:426.