Boston Decr. 12. 1785 Dear Sr.,

We have just recd. yrs.1 of Decr. 2d2 by Capt. Holbrook, by the date I suppose it was expected that Nancy should have gone to Plymouth & returned before Thanksgiving, but if she comes now she must be absent at that time which would be most inconvenient for us, & disagreable to her. Capt. Holbrook thought it not as important for her to go now, and says there will be other opportunities soon so we concluded that it was best for her to tarry till after Thanksgiving. She has never said one word about going home & behaves very well—we expected an opportunity would have offered Soon after you left Boston & accordingly kept the other Girl a fortnight to supply Nancy’s place during her absence but finding she was not sent for we dismissed her to another place. We do not wish to depart from the proposall of her visiting her mother but wish her mother to 355 consider whether the coldness of the Season may not render it inconvenient for her to come this Winter & impracticable for her to return in a short time, for her long absence will much incomode us, however she shall come the next coaster if desired.

Hoping yr. Welfare I rest yr. hble. Sert. R T Paine

P:S. pray

RC (Spooner Collection, Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, Mass.); addressed: “To Mr. Ephraim Spooner, at Plymouth. favr. Capt. Holbrook”; endorsed.

1.

Ephraim Spooner (1735–1818) of Plymouth was a merchant, town clerk, and judge. He was an associate justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas from 1775 to 1790 and then judge of the Plymouth County Court of Common Pleas until his retirement from the bench in 1811. Spooner was also deacon of the First Church in Plymouth for many years (Records of the Town of Plymouth [Plymouth, 1903], 3:4; Thomas Spooner, Records of William Spooner of Plymouth, Mass., and His Descendants [Cincinnati, 1883], 1:136–138).

2.

Not located.