Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
I have Just recd. yr. favr.1 by C. Barnum2 but as he is Just going out of Town, I have time only Just to inform you that I have purchased the Candles, 52½ @ 6/, & Box 9/, & have paid for them. The price of New flour is £15 pr. Ct.3 I bot. last week for £14.0 of Mr. Durant. If I can persuade him to spare another Bl. for you I will. Mrs. Leverett4 has raised the prise of her Tea to £3 pr. tr.5 We were obliged to give her 54/ a week ago.
As to the Butter, I was about buying some for you, but Sister Eunice, & the Children, all agreed that you had already bought a firkin, so I took no further Care about it. But I will look out for some. The “Bonnet” is finished. Nabby will send the Gloves.
Since you left us, yr. Sister has been very sick, she has not yet left her Chamber, she grows better as fast as we can expect, but gathers strength very slowly. We are otherwise pretty well, & rejoyce that your family are so. We have no news.
The whole family Joyn in sending Love & duty to be distributed secundum artem.6
Not located.
Caleb Barnum (b. 1762), eldest son of the town’s late minister (Samuel Hopkins Emery, Ministry of Taunton [Boston, 1853], 2:9).
Hundredweight.
Probably Martha (Crosier) Leverett, the widow of Thomas Leverett, who had been a stationer in Boston. He died in 1778, and Martha continued to advertise (at least through 1782) the sale of stationery and other goods: “sweet Oil, Flower of Mustard . . . Pepper, Spices, &c.” and another time “Moroco-Shoes, choice Velvet Corks, Raisins, Citron, Spices, Starch, &c. &c.” (Boston Gazette, Nov. 5, 1781, and Independent Chronicle, May 30, 1782).
Probably troy pound.
According to art. Sometimes also given as, according to the rules of art.
There shall be no Difficulty about your Appearance to the Action Brimmer vs. Sprout1 on Friday, the Court I suppose will do Business next week when Mr. Brimmer would wish to have the Cause tried; the Case was thus Mr. Brimmer bought divers Articles of Judge Olivers at Vendue among the Rest were these Chairs at £11 the Acct. was footed & paid the goods delivered & at Bs Risque when he was about to transport them to Plymouth Sprout2 discovered an Error in the Calculation of £8:10/ which Mr. Watson who recd. the Goods & was in Doubt whether it was real or not offered to become accountable for & that Mr. Brimmer should pay but Sprout with some Insinuations as to the Credit of them both refused there was an Article in the Invoice of the very Price with the Amount of the Error this Mr. Watson urged Sprout to detain if he would detain anything but he refused & took the Chairs. Brimmer in particular want of the Chairs & at the same Time offended at the Treatment he recd., brings this Action, let the Chairs be deld. at Plymo. where they would at that Time have been carried without any further Expence to him & the Costs paid & Mr. B. wishes for no more & stands ready to account for the Error if there is one—& I will be his Bondsman for the Payment. I write in Haste Representatives Room House just forming. Your Friend & Bror.
Zebedee Sprout v. Martin Brimmer was heard at the Feb. 1779 term of the Superiour Court of Judicature for Suffolk County, and the jury awarded Brimmer damages of £29. The case concerned the sale of furniture from the estate of Judge Peter Oliver (1713–1791), a loyalist who had left Massachusetts in 1776. Martin Brimmer (1742–1804), a Boston merchant, was married to Sarah Watson of Plymouth, a granddaughter of Judge Oliver. RTP represented Brimmer in this case but left only cursory notes concerning it (Superiour Court of Judicature Minute Books, Suffolk County, Feb. 1779. Massachusetts Judicial Archives, Boston, Mass.; NEHGR 12[1858]:338).
Zebedee Sprout (1742–1810) represented Middleborough in the state legislature between 1778 and 1784 and served on the Plymouth County committee on confiscated loyalist estates (Schutz, Legislators of the Massachusetts General Court, 345).