Lebanon Feby. l0th. 1762 Sr.,

I recd. yours1by My Father, & have been very much entertain'd with your Answers to the Observations made on your Character. You Judge right in supposing that I wrote them only for amusement, & as you made use of them as a Subject of haranguing, I do not regret my writing them since they have been the Occasion of so much Entertainment to Me.

I could have mentioned other Gentlemen besides Dr. Eliot who remember with Pleasure the Time they Spent in your Company, but Enough of this. Speaking of Dr. Eliot brings to my Mind a Discovery lately made by that Gentleman, which I imagine will be very advantageous to this Colony; The Sea shore, from New London to Norwalk is in many Places cover'd with a Heavy black Sand, such as we sift upon Paper to keep it from Blotting. 80 lb. of this Sand the Dr. carried to an Ironworks, out of which the workmen made 50 lb. of Bloom' Iron.2

I am glad to hear so good a Character of the Widow Father3addresses. His heart is very much set upon that affair & if he does not Succeed, it will not be his Fault.

I wish Sr. I could hear of your Attempting something in that way. I scarcely ever heard a man So Eloquent upon Matrimony & Courtship as you was when here, but, it seems, you content your Self with the Theory & leave the Practice to others.

As you are curious in searching after Epitaphs I here send you a very odd one, I think, upon the Late General Wolfe,4which concludes a Poem lately publish'd to the Memory of that Gentleman.

Here Lives & shines, while Seas & Sun endures The Sword which British Liberty Secures; 217 Dreadful in Death, it conquers Briton's foes, And Gaul shall fear & feel its heavy Blows,

The Poem was written by One Dr. Young,5 a profess'd Deist, who not long ago was prosecuted & fin'd for asserting that the Bible was a D—d Lye.

Mr. Williams & Trumble in health & present their Compliments. I hope Sr. to hear from you by Every Opportunity. The Bearer waits & have time only to Subsribe your Friend & H. Servant,

NATHAN TISDALE

RC ; addressed: "To Robert Treat Paine Esqr. Taunton Per Mr. Sprague"; endorsed.

1.

Not located.

2.

Jared Eliot published his findings in An Essay on the Invention or Art of Making very good, if not the best Iron, from Black Sea-Sand (New York, 1762). The essay was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Society of London (DAB).

3.

Ebenezer Tisdale, Nathan's father, was successful in his pursuit of Mrs. Deborah Gilbert of Taunton. They were married on June 8, 1762 (Orlo D. Hine and Nathaniel H. Morgan, Early Lebanon [Hartford, Conn., 1880], 172).

4.

James Wolfe (1727–1759), major-general, who commanded the successful British force that captured Quebec in 1759. He and Montcalm, the French commander, died of wounds received at the battle of the Plains of Abraham, Sept. 13, 1759 (DNB).

5.

Thomas Young (1732–1777), patriot and physician, wrote A Poem Sacred to the Memory of James Wolfe...who was slain upon the Plains of Abraham...September 13, 1759 (New Haven, [1761]) which appeared anonymously. Young was active in the patriot group in Albany, Boston, Newport, and Philadelphia. He served on the Boston Committee of Correspondence, was active in the Boston Tea Party, and helped frame the constitution of Pennsylvania (DAB).