down stream, for 3 or 4 days past we have had frost & snow, there is now a good snow on the ground & if the swamps are hard enough will be fine halling [of masts] I hope you will not be Disapointed in some fine Trees which your workmen have allready got down. I suppose Brother Marsh writes you particularly & fully on this head. The 17th inst we had the most violent storm of wind & snow that perhaps ever was known, there being many vessels, lost near 30 sail ashore in Marblehead, & many of them stove in pieces. The gail was short from four o'clock in the morning till Eleven in the fore noon. I hope the Bladen was not near at the Time I hope you have rec'd my acco1 with Capt Wentworths Bill of his Timbers sold & that you from Time to Time receive my money of Mr Jones if you should have any thing in your hands Desire you would Ship me in such things as will best answer our Markets you being a better Judge than I am & let it come Insured Capt [ ] writes you to pay one hundred pounds sterling to my order when you are in Cash for him Please to pay it to Mr Thomas Plummer it being on his Deceased Brothers accot I have advised him hereof who will call upon you I must beg the favour of you to get me a handsom ring 'tis for Mrs. Atkinson as a memento of her daughter - Mary Atkinson dyed the 20th day of July 1740 aged fifteen months, & let it come by Brother Ben's [Benning Wentworth]. I am Sr with great esteem your most Oblig'd Humble serv A [Thomlinson to Atkinson.] [Belknap Papers, Vol. I., p. 88.] London 6th Febry 1740-1 Sir Your favrs of ye 2d & 26th of Nov' are both before me, in that of the 2d you acknowledge the receipt of some of my Letters and say that there is something in them too grave for a Joke indeed it was my design to have it should be so but I do imagin it found you in a much graver Humor than I wrote it in or else two single words could not have carry'd you into two long destinct desertations, as to my mentioning your friend How, (as you say so emphatically) whatever you may see more in friend How than Richard How is Just so much more than I meant by it, and I could have wished you had read it in the same temper of mind in which I wrote it, then you would have saved yourself & me a good deal of needless trouble. As to the other thing [that] has agitated you so much, I must de clare that alltho I thought I had reason to say so much from what I had then mett with from sundry letters & otherwise, yet I did not mean to lay any particular Imputation upon you but only express my fears that that was allready or might soon be the case. for the rest I shall refer you to Benning [Wentworth] when you shall see him which I hope will not be long first, For his Grace the Duke of New Castle has now actually promised him your Government as soon as it shall be seperated, and which has been delayed longer than we expect but we now are pretty sure that it will be done by the beginning of next month. Capt. Christopher Rymes is made a Councilor in opposition to H. Sherburn after the Gov's agents had opposed it att the Council Board, & they have yesterday recommended N: Gillman to succeed Mr. Rindge, upon which I again recommended Mr. Richard Wibird lest the Lords should be inclinable to accept of Gov's recommendation in his turn, or at lest for once, and alltho' I had sent Benning to get Coll. Dunbar before to go up and recommend Richard Wibird and which he had done, But I thought it might be necessary to recommend him also and that verbally, and at the same time to take occasion to acquaint the Lords that he was a proper person to succeed Mr. Rindge and which I did very fully and it is now left to their Lordships to recommend one or the other and which I shall hear of in a few days. I observe what you say in yours of the 22d relating to the mast contract & your Brother [in-law] Mark Wentworth and you must know that I had allways as good an oppinion of him as you or any body could have. I shall soon have the opportunity of writing you again, and am Sir your most hum1 Sert Theodore Atkinson Esq' John Thomlinson [John Thomlinson to Christopher Rymes. "Copy per Banfield."] [Belknap Papers, Vol. I., p. 91.] Capt Christopher Rymes, London, 10 Feb 1740-1. Sir I have now to acknowledge your favour under cover to Mrs. Sumers, and as we had the news of Mr. Rindge's death some time before that came to hand, We had therefore agreed to joyne Charles Apthorp with Mark Wentworth in the mast affair, and as to the affair of recommending of his Majesty's Council you will find by my last letters to you that was done before, and also that the Gov's agents opposed it & recommended your Brother S. Sherburn, but that is all over and your Mandamus is in my Counting House, and which I shall send you by Capt. Shepardson under cover to Mr. Charles Apthorp, and how the Gov's and his agents have recommended Nath' Gilman to succeed my good friend John Rindge and I am Endeavouring to get Mr. Richard Wibird to succeed him, and I have no doubt of doing it, only this, that the Board of Trade or the Lords of his Majestys most honoble Privy Council may not care to set aside so many of the Govrs recommending one after another; however I shall do all in my power to effect it. I must reffer you to Mr. Atkinson or Mr. Wiggan for news of the Province affairs, and am Sir, your most hum' servt John Thomlinson. [Thomlinson to Atkinson.] [Belknap Papers, Vol. I., p. 92.] London, 21 March 1740-1. Sir-Since mine to you of the 6th of Feby my good Lord Precedent has been very much out of order so that we have not had any Committees and therefore nothing done in our affairs but as he is now much better I hope soon to have it in my power to write you something agreeable, And I can now tell you that just as I last wrote the Lords of Trade recommended Mr. Richard Wibird to his Majty in Council to succeed Mr. Rindge in the Council And as I expected the Governors Agent has petition'd against him and prays that N: Gillman may be appointed and tells his Majty If Mr. Wibird is appointed there will be a majority in the Council against the Gov But notwithstanding this notable petition I think I can promise you and you may venture to tell Mr. Wibird so, that I shall soon send him a Mandamus. I have sent Capt. Rymes's by this Ship under cover to Mr. Charles Apthorp and I hope soon to send you something of much greater consequence, and altho' I have sometimes unavoidably fail'd of my promises in point of time yet I think I have never yet finally faild in any, and I hope never shall. Pray my service to all friends and believe me to be Sir, your most hum1 serv John Thomlinson Shall send the druggs you wrote for by the next good opportunity -you have allso John Minors & Henry Pursevalls Bond for 17th to Robt Pike Theodore Atkinson Esq UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ATKINSON AND THOMLINSON CORRESPONDENCE. Pr. Mast Ships To Jno Thomlinson - [Atkinson to Thomlinson.] [Belknap Papers, Vol. I., p. 97.] Portsmo May 31st 1741. 171 Sir I have only time to acknowledge the rect of yours of the 9th of April giving us the agreeable news of the success you had the day before agst your opponents before the Comittee of Council. This letter I recd last night & this being Sunday have scarce seen How it opperates on either side; however this I am certain the Province nine in ten at least receive it with the greatest joy. I hope you will carry the affair thro' to your own Satisfaction as well as ours. My house is now full of friends to learn the news, and if the ships don't sail early in the morns shall write something more, tho' the convoy is now to, the Mast Ships are now at Harbour mouth. G. Belcher hath not been here since I wrote you last, so of course no alteration material. I then wrote you a narrative of the Gen' Court proceedings & that three persons were appointed by the Gov' as Survs to run the lines, that our Province furnished his Excellency £500 tho' they at the same time imagined it was never intended they should, but we tho't the Execution should not be delay'd for want of money, The Line between the County of York & this Govermt is run about 60 miles into the wilderness, and the winter being breaking up diverted the finishing of it; - however that being a straight line I hope is run far enough. This Line was run by one Walter Bryant and leaves the noted White Hills in our Goverm 'about 7 miles. From Pentucket Falls Mr. Hazzen run the West Line allowing 10 degrees variation to Albany & crosses Hudson River about 8 miles to the north ward of the City of Albany. Mr. Mitchell had the Sircular Line to make out & in order thereto took upon the Ice, & since that broke up on the shores of Merrimack, the exact Plan of the River & is now soon going to mark out the Line on the Land. I know there will be great difficulty in doing this it being utterly Impossible to Do it according to the Letter of the Judgm' that is, to be three miles Exactly Distant from the River, in some places where the river takes sudden bend & makes a neck of land of 4 or five miles across & yet Perhaps 7 miles long, so that there is no possibility of getting within Three miles of the Point of such neck without being within Two miles of the river on each side, as you proceed Downward I believe before Mr. Mitchell runs this line he will know the Govrs determination thereon. He at present Proposes if he runs it at all to make straight lines from reach to reach, & if he runs nearer or further than 3 miles to make an exact allowance for the number of acres in each Turn of the river: thus at Present stands the affairs of the Lines. The Massachusetts haveing Done nothing in the affair as yet nor will they very soon; for Wednesday was their Election when the Land bank Gentry prevailed in the choice of Councilours, the Gov negatived eleven, as my friend writes me, some say more, he also negatived the Speaker, Mr. Watts of Winnisimet & since has disolved the Assembly, that that Government is in the greatest confusion, these things have so lately occurr'd that I can't be so particular as otherways I would but as to our own affairs, if you read the Judgment of King's Council on the affairs of the Lines you'l finde the Line of Merrimack & the West line after it crosses that river is said to be the northern Boundary of the Massachusetts but not the South Bounds of New Hampshire, nor is it call'd a Dividing Line, so those people above the river are in a state of anarchy the Govern' can have nothing to say to them as Massachusetts men nor will he as New Hampshire men for the reason above, now as to the Line on the other side that in Comission's Judgment is said shall be the Dividing Line between the two Provinces & his Majty affirming of it makes it so, in that there is no Dispute. The curve Line at Merrimack when 'tis run if that can be will admit of no Dispute that having been always our Line namely 3 miles north of the River, but as this last Line cannot be run according to the Letter of the Judgment & the West line above the river not allowed a Dividing line, we reap no benefit by the whole affair at Present. Thus you see how the affair stands. I don't care unless it be to Particular friends to give my real opinion, but in some measure fall in with the Gov' &c. least he should grant away the Land on the other side of the River, & this opinion keeps him from it. Thus much for Publick affairs. Theo. Atkinson [Atkinson to Thomlinson.] [Belknap Papers, Vol. I., p. 101.] Boston, July 11th 1741. Sir I am now to acknowledge the rec of your favour of the 9th May, & accordingly have communicated it to Brother Mark & Sam1 Wentworth, my business in Town being on purpose & had Brother Benning have drawn on us for the sum you say will be wanting we should have readyly answered his Draught. However I have Marks order to assure you, which I now Do that he will remit you one hundred pounds sterling having ordered some effects by the way of the |