Halifax Decr: 9th. 1750 Dear Sr. Robt.,

I recd. Two days ago yours of Novr. 14.1Am glad to hear your in To go business at present, also that Friends &c. are all well. Am Sorrow to hear Uncles Business remains unsetled & more so on account of Mrs. Eunice whom I Sincerely love. You Can Stur & busk abot. but a Feable Feamail what is more Helpless? Pray write me more particular abot. E. &c.

You Seem to urge from me an Epistle of length abot what had befell me Since I left you. Sho'd I be particular a small volum wd. not Contain it; however since your Relation so pleas'd & Diverted me—mine tho. attended with lower life more confin'd language & Common thought may please you. However am most Sure it will Require once Reading. I left Boston the 14 of Septr., ariv'd here after a comfortable passage the 21st Instt. Sept., having not a House nor where I lodge in I went to a Sick mans Mr. Upham (the muff makers) there I Staid till he went away the 26th of octor. Than to my own House which was Shingled but abot half—no Chimney in it, & in a few days one of said Uphams men Come to see me was taken Sick and So Continued & the 15 of Novr. Died in which time I did no work nor hand had any done hardly. This brot. a turne of Cold Snowey weather for a Time & the first of Decr. I made my Morter & had my Room Plasterd & in 4 days got in to it. But my Chimney being badly made I was forsed yesterday to have one part taken down & built up againe. So now I have a warm Room & keep a nice fire free127from Smoke—& as Retired as I will, I want a Clinging Bed-fellow like you—& sometimes I have a good mind to fall in with the advice of my acquaintance to get me a Femail Companion—which when I think off, there flyes into my Nodle So many Charges, Troubles & what I Cant Realize—that I am Dowsed Frade I Shant find a Companion who is indowed with eno. to Ballance all—& I might add that I love but it is too near Home. I get up at Sun Rize (the Sun shining direct into my Room from 'Tother Side Corwallis Island2) get my Breakfast & than To work For I am fors'd to do all myself, most—or in To Town at Dalightin3 Mr. J. Codman4 or some other is with me or I with them—then home to Reading or writing or Scheeming. Thus I live & now injoy a greater portion of Contentment than being Empire of the world Could give me. Pray write me why Silence Setts & holds the Pens from the South End Brother &Sisters writing Since I left them. Trade is very Dull here; we have recd. Mr. Cleaveland5 & voted to give him at least 100£ pr. an[nu]m and as it is to Come by Contribution he is to have what more is got, & sho'd they Hold on as is begun it will amount to more than l50£ pr. yr.

Four men going to The Island a few days ago in a Cano over set it & Drown'd Two. We have poor hunting in our woods & no Fowle in or on the water hardly. The Sickness Still prevails (tho: not to the degree it has) here & going to Church this day I saw between Ten & Twenty Bodys of men women and Children lie above ground, but I dont suppose it is because men obey that Command of Christ "Let the Dead bury their Dead, but follow thou me." Thus I might—Indite & write all Night—Supposing you by this time art tired & my pen wanting to be minded—I'll add a few more lines in prose an thus this long Epistle Close.

Let us live like men, & sure to die like Christians. We Shall Spend an Eternity free of Trouble Sorrow & all that wounds us here.

I now made a Stop to Think who I wod. be remembered too But thinking of Mr. Cranch Mr. Palmer his wife & Two Children Mr. Parker6 & many more, I thot. it best to Desire you to Note me to all Just as it sutes & that will Exactly please me. Yr. Cousin & Friend,

J. FREEMAN

P.S. Tho: I have write like a Craz'd man Note I say I am in my Senses but the much I had & have to Say, Confounds & leads my thots. Estray.

RC ; addressed: "For Mr: Robert-Treat Paine in Boston In, or Near School laine"; endorsed.

128 1.

Not located.

2.

Cornwallis Island, named after Frederick Cornwallis (1713–1783), archbishop of Canterbury, the twin brother of Edward Cornwallis, governor of Nova Scotia, 1749–1752 (DNB). The name has since been changed to McNab's Island.

3.

Sundown (DAE).

4.

Probably John Codman (1719/20–1792) of Charlestown, Mass. A John Codman was still in Halifax at the time of the 1752 census (Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society 8[1892–1894]: 258).

5.

Aaron Cleveland (1715–1757), after serving churches in Haddam, Conn., and Malden, Mass., went to Halifax in 1750 but returned to Connecticut in 1753 and the next year was ordained in the Church of England, which he served in Delaware (Sibley's Harvard Graduates. 9:493–500).

6.

Not identified.