Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
PassedJanuary 13,
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
The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, 1779–1780 (Boston, 1922), 353.
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).
I have long expected to have had the pleasure of seeing you in Congress: but I now begin to despair. Pray are Have you wholly disengaged yourself from public affairs? I cannot persuade myself you have. I should therefore be glad to know whether you at times turn your attention to the nursing of Salt petre making, a child of your own, which cost you much pains at the birth. I fear through the carelessness of the nurses it is in a dangerous way.
To Drop Allegory, I wish to know whether people continue the manufacture of that useful article: And shall be much obliged if you will send me a paper written on that subject by (If I recollect) a clergyman pointing out 109 an easy & expeditious method of making it by mixing lye of ashes with the lye extracted from earth.1 Your Compliance will much oblige
RTP had widely distributed a pamphlet on the subject by Dr. William Whiting (see Whiting to RTP, Oct. 6, 1775, RTP 3:92–95).