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Robert Treat Paine Papers

Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4

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From George Godfrey

12 January 1780

From Charles Thomson

22 January 1780
108
Resolve Directing Richard Cranch, Esq., Agent on the Estates of John Borland, Esq., Absentee, Deceased, to Permit Robert Treat Paine, Esq., to Take Possession of One of Said Estates After the Present Leases Are Expired, Paying Rent as the General Court Shall Order
Massachusetts General Court RTP
Passed January 13, 1780

Resolved, That Richard Cranch, Esq., Agent on the estate of John Borland, Esq., an absentee, deceased, be and he hereby is directed to permit the Hon. Robert Treat Paine, Esq., Attorney-General of this State, to take possession of any one of said estates after the present leases are expired, he to pay such rent as the General Court shall order.1

Printed as Chapter 768 [1779–1780] in The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, 1779–1780 (Boston, 1922), 353.

1.

It was not until Jan. 1, 1781, that the family moved from Taunton into Boston. RTP formally leased this property from Leonard Vassall Borland on Apr. 1, 1784 (see below) and purchased the house from him on Apr. 15, 1785 (Suffolk Deeds, 148:88). The house was described in the 1798 Direct Tax as a “brick & wooden dwelling; North on Milk Street; East on Federal Street; South on heirs of John Sprague. Land, 18,476 square feet; house, 3,243 square feet; 3 stories, 50 windows; Value, $8,000” (Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, 22:341).