Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/192

 PAINE

PAINE

ement in the Louisville conference of 1844 for the division of the church, north and south, and was elected bisliop of the M.E. church, south, at the first general conference held at Petersburg, Va., 184G. of which he was presiding officer. He con- tributed ably to the support of tiie church during the embarrassments Incident to the civil war. He was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. The honorarj- degree of A.M. was conferred on him bj- the University of Nash- ville, and that of D.D. by Wesleyan university in 1842. He is the author of: Life and Times of Bishop McKcndree (2 vols., 1859). He died in Abenleen, -Aliss.. Oct. 18, 1882.

PAINE, Robert Treat, signer, was born in Boston, Mass., March 11, 1731; son of the Rev. Thomas and Eunice (Treat) Paine. His fatlier was pastor of the church at Wej'mouth, Mass., a merchant in Boston after 1730 and the author of several published sermons and lectures. His mother was the granddaugliter of Gov. Robert Treat of Connecticut and of the Rev. Samuel Willard, vice-president of Harvard college. His grandfather, James Paine, was a member of the expedition against Canada in 1694; his great- grandfather. Thomas Paine, emigrated to Cape Cod with his fatlier, Thomas, and subseqviently settled in Eastham. Mass., and was a representa- tive in the colonial court. Robert Treat Paine was graduated from Harvard college, A.B., 1749, A.M., 1752. After his father's loss of prop- erty in 1750, he taught school one year, made tiiree voyages to North Carolina as master of a vessel, calling on one voyage at Cadiz and Fayal, and next was master of a whaler to the coast of Greenland. He studied law and theology; was cliaplain of a northern frontier regiment at Lake George, 1755; preached at Shirley, Mass.; was ad- mitted to tiie bar in 1757 and practised in Boston, 1757-61, removing to Taunton, Mass., in 1761. He was a delegate to the convention of 1768 held at Boston to consider the condition of the country, and conducted the prosecution against Captain Prescott and his soldiers for the Boston Massacre of 1770. He was married in 1770 to Sally, daughter of Thomas Cobb and sister of Gen. David Cobb. In 1773-74 he was chairman of the Taunton committee to remonstrate against public wrong, writing the address for the governor's removal, and was chairman of the committee on the impeacliment of Chief-Justice Peter Oliver. He was a delegate to the first Continental con- gress, 1774; to the second Provincial congress at Cambridge, 1775, and one of the committee on the state of the Province; a delegate to the 2nd and subsequent Continental congresses, 1775-76, where he served on many important committees and as chairman on the committee of supplies, and voted for the adoption of the Declaration of

Independence, July 4. 1776, of which instrument he was a signer. He was re-elected to the Con- tinental congress for 1777 and 1778, but did not again attend. He was a member of the committee of three that visited Gen. Philip Schuyler's army on the northern frontier; was elected a repre- sentative in the Massachusetts legislature in 1777, being part of the time speaker, and was unanimous- ly elected attorney-general of the state. He was a member of the committee appointed from Mas- sachusetts to confer with members from the other colonies on the regulation of the price of labor, provisions and manufactures in 1778; of the executive countil of Massachusetts, 1779-80, and a delegate to the convention that adopted the state constitution. He was attorney-general of Massachusetts, 1777-90, covering the period of Shays's rebellion; judge of the supreme court, 1790-1804, and a member of the executive council in 1804. The honorarj- degree of LL.D. was con- ferred on him by Harvard in 1805. He was one of the founders of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780. He died in Boston, Mass., May 11, 1814.

PAINE, Robert Treat, philanthropist, was born in Boston, Mass., Oct. 28, 1835, son of Charles Cushing and Fanny Cabot (Jackson) Paine; grandson of Ciiarles and Sarah Sumner (Cushing) Paine and of Judge Charles Jackson, and great-grandson of Robert Treat Paine, the signer. He attended the Boston Latin school; was graduated from Harvard in 1855; studied law at Harvard Law school the following year; traveled and studied in Europe for two years, and then re- sumed his law studies under Richard H. Dana and Francis E. Parker of Boston. He was admitted to the bar in 1859 and practised in Boston,

1859-70. He was married, April 24, 1862, to Lydia Williams, daugliter of George Williams and Anne (Pratt) Lyman of Boston. In 1870 he retired from business and devoted himself to philantliropical work. He was a member of the sub-committee which had ciiarge of tiie building of Trinity church, Boston, 1872-77, and was prominent in organizing the Associated Charities of Boston, being elected its first president in 1879. In 1887 lie gave $10,000 to endow a fellowship at Harvard college for the study of sociology, and in 1890 he endowed a trust of

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