Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
Mr. Robert Eastburn will hand you this with the produce of the Lead Ore you left in my care. He met with an accident in makeing the Assay which makes the yield less than it would otherwise have been. Notwithstanding it appears a rich Ore and if a suitable quantity can be got it must recompense any adventurers in working for it. You may 196depend upon Mr. Eastburns probity, & veracity. He will acquaint you more fully, and of the Cost. I1 am yours &c.
Owen Biddle (1737–1799), Philadelphia merchant and member of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety and later of the American Philosophical Society (Henry D. Biddle, “Owen Biddle,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 16[1892]:299–329).