The Loyalists of Massachusetts Part 46

Again, under date of July 20, 1784, he writes: "Your country is so changed since I left it, and in my opinion for the worst, that the great pleasure I should have in seeing my dear friends would be lost in a great measure in the unhappy change of government."

His next letter was from Parr, on the river St. John, N. B., Nov. 18, 1784. He says: "Dear Brother. I have been at this place about ten days, am surprised to find a large flourishing town, regularly laid out, well built, consisting of about two thousand houses, many of them handsome and well finished--And at the opposite side of the river at Carlton, about five hundred more houses on a pleasant situation. A good harbor lies between the two towns, which never freezes, and where there are large ships and many vessels of all sizes. The country appears to me to be very good, and am satisfied will make a most flourishing Province."

He writes again the next year: "You may wonder perhaps at my saying I hope I'm settled in this Province for life, and that I can be contented or happy in the place formerly called Nova Scotia."

"I want to see you and my friends, if I have any, but I don't wish to live in your country or under your government. I think I have found a better. No thanks to the Devils who have robbed me of my property. I do not wish to live with or see such infernals."

"G.o.d bless you, your wife, your son, your daughter, my brother, etc., who I shall be glad to see again, but not in the American States."

In another letter, dated St. John, N. B., May 13, 1785, to his brother, he says: "As to seeing you any more, you have no reason to expect it in your State.

"You may be a.s.sured, I should be exceeding happy in seeing you both here. I can give you a comfortable lodging, and wholesome good fresh provisions, excellent fish and good spruce beer, the growth and manufacture of our own Province.

"Tho' we should be glad to see the few friends we have remaining there among you, we don't wish to give them the pain of seeing us in your State, which is evidently overflowing with _freedom and liberty_[231]

without restraint.

[231] During 1785 Shay's rebellion occurred in Ma.s.sachusetts and was put down by General Lincoln.

"The people of the States must needs now be very happy, when they can all and every one do just what they like best. No taxes to pay, no _stamp act_, _more money_ than they know what to do with, _trade and navigation as free as air_."

Under date of Nov. 4, 1786, he writes: "The people of your State seem to be stirring up another revolution. What do they want now? Do they find at last, to be freed from the British Government, and becoming an independent State does not free them from the debts they owe one another, or exempt them from the charge of taxation. I wish they would pay me what they justly owe, they may then have what government they please, or none, if they like that best."

He was appointed in 1784 Judge of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick, and a member of the Council. It was said that he was the ablest lawyer in all America. Judge Putnam was the first of the council and bench of New Brunswick, who died from failing health; he had not attended council meetings for over a year. He died 23 Oct., 1789, in his 65th year. In character he was upright and generous; his health was never robust; and loss of country, friends and wealth must have been a severe blow. Sabine says: "I have often stood at his grave and mused upon the strange vicissitudes of human condition, by which the Master, one of the giants of the American Colonial Bar, became an outlaw, and an exile, broken in fortune and spirit, while his struggling and almost friendless pupil, elevated step by step by the very same course of events, was finally known the world over as the Chief Magistrate of a Nation." It is thus in all successful Revolutions, those that were at the head of affairs are hurled from power, and their fortunes wrecked, whilst young men like John Adams, of great abilities but poor, and little prospects for advancement, are elevated to the highest offices. Who would have ever heard of the "Little Corporal" had it not been for the French Revolution, then there would not have been any "Napoleon the maker of Kings."

Judge Putnam had two relatives who became famous in the Colonial wars, and the Revolution. Major-General Israel Putnam was of the fourth generation from John. He was born in Salem Village, 1717. He distinguished himself at Crown Point, Montreal and Cuba, and later at Bunker Hill. General Rufus Putnam was of the fifth generation. After serving in the Colonial wars under his cousin Israel Putnam, he took part in the siege of Boston, and constructed the works on Dorchester Heights, on the 4th of March, 1776, that forced the evacuation of Boston.

At no time during the youth of these two men would one have predicted that they would be two great soldiers. Their early education was very defective, partly because school advantages were then very meagre in the rural districts, in which they pa.s.sed their youth, and partly no doubt, because their strong inclinations were for farming and active outdoor life, rather than for books and sedentary occupation. Robust and full of energy, they were as boys, given to feats of strength and daring.

In 1780 General Rufus Putnam "bought on easy terms" the confiscated property of Colonel Murray, who married Lucretia Chandler. This property was situated in Rutland, and consisted of a large farm and s.p.a.cious mansion.

JAMES PUTNAM, JR., son Judge Putnam, graduated at Harvard College in 1774. He was one of the eighteen country gentlemen who addressed Gen.

Gage, and were driven into Boston. He went to England and died there in 1838, having been a barrack master, a member of the household, and an executor of the Duke of Kent, the father of Queen Victoria.

JUDGE TIMOTHY PAINE.

Stephen Paine, from whom so many of the family in America are descended, came from Great Ellingham, near Hingham, Norfolk County, England. He was a miller, and came with a large party of immigrants from Hingham and vicinity, in the ship Diligent, of Ipswich, John Martin master, in the year 1638, bringing with him his wife Rose, two sons and four servants.

Mr. Paine first settled at Hingham, Ma.s.s., where he had land granted to him, was made a freeman in 1639 and elected Deputy in 1641. In 1642 he, with four others, settled at Seekonk, and became prominent in the affairs of the new settlement at Rehoboth.

Mr. Paine survived the eventful period of King Philip's war and died in 1679, outliving his two sons, Stephen having died at Rehoboth in 1677, and Nathaniel in 1678.

NATHANIEL PAINE, son of the aforesaid Nathaniel, of the third generation, was born at Rehoboth 1661, married Dorothy, daughter of Jonathan Rainsford, of Boston. He removed in early life to Bristol, Ma.s.s., now R. I., and was one of the original proprietors of that place.

In 1710 he was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and Judge of Probate. He was one of the Council of Ma.s.s. Bay from 1703 till his death in 1723, with the exception of the year 1708. Nathaniel Paine died at Bristol, R. I., in 1723, and his wife Dorothy Rainsford, in 1755.

NATHANIEL PAINE, of the fourth generation and fourth son of the preceding Nathaniel, was born at Bristol 1688. He was an active and influential citizen of Bristol, was for five years elected Representative. In 1723 he was a member of a Court of Admiralty for the trial of pirates. In 1724 was a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas.

Mr. Paine married Sarah, daughter of Timothy Clark of Boston. After his death in 1729, his widow married John Chandler and removed to Worcester.

TIMOTHY PAINE, son of the aforesaid Nathaniel and Sarah Clark, his wife.

He was born in Boston in 1730 and married Sarah Chandler in 1749, the daughter of John Chandler, so these young people had probably been brought up under the same roof from early childhood. He graduated at Harvard College in 1748, and was a stout government man in the controversies which preceded the Revolution.

Soon after leaving college, Mr. Paine was engaged in public affairs, and the number and variety of offices which he held exhibit the estimation in which he stood. He was at different times Clerk of the Courts, Register of Deeds, Register of Probate, member of the executive council of the Province, in 1774 he was appointed one of his Majesty's Mandamus Councillors, Selectman and Town Clerk, and Representative many years in the General Court. In 1771 he was also Special Justice of the Supreme Court. Solid talents, practical sense, candor, sincerity, ability, and mildness, were the characteristics of his life.

When the appeal to arms approached, many of the inhabitants of Worcester, most distinguished for talents, influence, and honors, adhered with constancy to the Government. Educated with veneration for the sovereign to whom they had sworn fealty; indebted to the government for the bounty, honor and wealth which they possessed--loyalty and grat.i.tude alike influenced them to resent acts that were treasonable, and rebellious. The sincerity of their motives were attested by the sacrifice of life, property, loss of power, and all the miseries of banishment, confiscation and exile.

The struggle between the revolutionist, and the loyalty of a minority of the people, powerful in numbers, as well as talents, wealth, and influence, arrived at its crisis in Worcester early in 1774, and terminated in the total defeat of the loyalists.

Among the many grievances of the revolutionists, was the vesting of the government in the dependents of the King, it aggravated the irritation, and urged the mobs to acts of violence.

Timothy Paine, Esq., had received a commission as one of the Mandamus Councillors. High as was the personal regard, and respect for the purity of private character of this gentleman, it was controlled by the political feelings of a period of excitement; and measures were taken to compel his resignation of a post which was unwelcome to himself, but which he dared not refuse, when declining would have been construed as contempt for the authority of the King, by whom it was conferred.

August 22, 1774, a mob of nearly 3000 persons collected from the surrounding towns, visited Worcester and entered the town before 7 o'clock in the morning. They chose a committee to wait upon Mr. Paine and demand his resignation as Councillor. They went to his house, and he agreed to resign from that office, and drew up an acknowledgement, mentioning his obligations to the country for favors done him, his sorrow for having taken the oath, and a promise that he never would act in that office contrary to the charter, and after that he came with the committee to the common, where the mob made a lane between them, through which he and the committee pa.s.sed and read divers times as they pa.s.sed along, the said acknowledgment. At first one of the committee read the resignation of Mr. Paine in his behalf. It was then insisted that he should read it with his hat off. He hesitated and demanded protection from the committee, which they were incapable of giving him. Finally, with threats of tar and feathers, and personal violence, in which his wig was knocked off, he complied, and was allowed to retire to his dwelling unharmed.

At the commencement of the Revolution some American soldiers quartered at his house repaid his perhaps too unwilling hospitality, and signified the intensity of their feelings towards him by cutting the throat of his full length portrait.

Madam Paine, in pa.s.sing the guard house, which stood nearly where the old Nashua Hotel stood in Lincoln square, heard the soldiers say "Let us shoot the old Tory." She turned around facing them and said: "Shoot if you dare," and then she reported to General Knox the insult she had received, which was not repeated.

Mrs. Timothy Paine or Madam Paine, as she was styled from respect to her dignity and position, was a woman of uncommon energy and acuteness. She was noted in her day for her zeal in aiding as far as was in her power the followers of the crown, and in defeating the plans of the rebellious colonists. In her the King possessed a faithful ally. In her hands his dignity was safe, and no insult offered to it, in her presence, could go unavenged.

Her wit and loyalty never shone more conspicuously than on the following occasion: when President Adams was a young man, he was invited to dine with the court, and bar, at the home of Judge Paine, an eminent loyalist of Worcester. When the wine was circulating around the table, Judge Paine gave as a toast "The King." Some of the Whigs were about to refuse to drink it, but Mr. Adams whispered to them to comply, saying "we shall have an opportunity to return the compliment." At length, when he was desired to give a toast, he gave "The Devil." As the host was about to resent the indignity, his wife calmed him, and turned the laugh upon Mr.

Adams, by immediately exclaiming "My dear! As the gentleman has been so kind as to drink to our King, let us by no means refuse in our turn to drink to his."

Timothy Paine and Sarah Chandler, his wife, not only feared G.o.d, but honored the King, so the old record goes. They belonged to families, often a.s.sociated together in the remembrance of the present generation, as having adhered through the wavering fortunes and final success of the Revolution, devoted and consistent to the British Crown. Solid talents, practical sense, candor, sincerity, affability, and mildness, were the characteristics of his life. He died July 17, 1793, at the age of sixty-three. His widow died at Worcester, in 1811.

DR. WILLIAM PAINE.

William Paine, son of the aforesaid Timothy Paine, was born in Worcester, Ma.s.s., June 5, 1750. He graduated at Harvard College in 1768, his name standing second in a cla.s.s of more than forty, when they were arranged in the catalogue according to the dignity of families.

He then began the study of medicine with a very distinguished physician, Dr. Edward A. Holyoke, of Salem, while here he made the acquaintance of the lady whom he married a few years later.

One of his earliest instructors was John Adams, who was then reading law in the office of Hon. James Putnam, at Worcester. He began the practice of medicine in Worcester in 1771. That year Mr. Adams revisited Worcester, after an absence of sixteen years, and notes the impression of his former pupils as follows: "Here I saw many young gentlemen who were my scholars and pupils. John Chandler, Esq., of Petersham, Rufus Chandler, the lawyer, and Dr. William Paine, who now studies physics with Dr. Holyoke of Salem, and others, most of whom began to learn Latin with me."

In 1771, after about three years of study, he returned to Worcester, with every prospect of becoming a leader in the medical profession. In 1773 he entered into partnership with two other physicians or "Traders in the Art, Mystery and Business of an Apothecary and the practice of Physick." This interest was confiscated in 1779.

In 1773 Dr. Paine was married to Miss Lois Orne of Salem, with a fortune of 3,000 pounds sterling. Six children were born from this union.

For the purpose of facilitating his business abroad and of perfecting his medical education, Dr. Paine in Sept. 1774, sailed for England, and the following winter was pa.s.sed in the study of medicine. During his visit there he was presented to the King, and Queen Charlotte, wearing the court dress prescribed for medical men, which was a gray cloth coat with silver b.u.t.tons, a white satin waistcoat, satin small clothes, silk hose and wearing a sword, and a fall of lace from cravat or collar, and lace in the sleeves. It is interesting to read some of his letters written as he was about leaving England. In one of them he writes "The Colonists had better lay down their arms at once, for we are coming over with an overwhelming force to destroy them." His wife and children seemed to have remained with his father and mother while he was in England, but finding their position in Worcester unpleasant on account of their unpopular political opinions, she left and went to Rhode Island.

Dr. Paine returned to America in 1775, shortly after hostilities commenced, and while there was apparently no legal impediment to his return to Worcester, it was doubtless a very prudent decision of Dr.

Paine not to make the attempt. His feeling of personal loyalty to the government was too strong to allow him even to appear to yield to the Revolutionists, then dominating his native town, and he wisely returned to England. His study of medicine there must have been pursued with unusual zeal and success, for Nov. 1775, he received from Marischal College, Aberdeen, the degree of M. D.