Adams Papers Digital Edition

Diary of John Adams, volume 1

February. 1756. 1 Sunday.

3 Tuesday.
2 Monday. JA 2 Monday. Adams, John
2 Monday.

Wrote to John Wentworth1 by Coll. Josiah Willard. Spent the Eve, sup’d and lodg’d at Major Chandler’s, with that universal Scholar, gay Companion, and accomplish’d Gentleman Mr. Robert Treat Pain.2 Misty, thick Weather.

 1.

This letter to a classmate, who was to become the last royal governor of New Hampshire and subsequently lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia (see DAB ), has not been found.

 2.

Robert Treat Paine (1731–1814) preceded JA into the law by a few years, and the two became keen professional rivals. The eulogistic phrases in this first mention of Paine in the Diary are not untouched by sarcasm; many of JA’s later references are in the same tone. Paine became a member of the first and later Continental Congresses and a judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. His papers (in MHi) are being edited for publication by the Society.