Robert Treat Paine (March 11, 1731 – May 11, 1814) was a signer of the Declaration of Independence as a representative of Massachusetts.

Biography

Paine was born in Boston, Massachusetts, a descendant of Richard Treat (or Trott) (1731-1814) who was an early New England settler and a Patentee of the Royal Charter of Connecticut, 1662. Paine attended the Boston Latin School, graduated from Harvard College in 1749, and then taught school and studied theology. He became a merchant and traveled to the southern colonies, Spain, the Azores and England. He returned home and was admitted to the bar of Massachusetts in 1757 or 1759, practicing in Portland (then part of Massachusetts but now in Maine), and later in Taunton, Massachusetts.

In 1768 he was a delegate to the provincial convention which was called to meet in Boston and conducted the prosecution of Captain Thomas Preston and his British soldiers following the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770; John Adams was opposing counsel. Although Paine was a great orator, Adam's "appeal for justice" won the judge's sway, and all the troops were let off, save for two who were branded on their right thumbs for manslaughter.

He served in the Massachusetts General Court from 1773 to 1774, in the Provincial Congress from 1774 to 1775, and represented Massachusetts at the Continental Congress from 1774 through 1778. In Congress, he signed the final appeal to the king (the Olive Branch Petition of 1775), and helped frame the rules of debate and acquire gunpowder for the coming war.

He was speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1777, a member of the executive council in 1779, a member of the committee that drafted the constitution of 1780, Massachusetts Attorney General from 1777 to 1790 and a justice of the state supreme court from 1790 to 1804 when he retired. When he died at the age of 83 in 1814 he was buried in the Granary Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts. A statue to commemorate him was erected in the Church Green area of Taunton.

Robert Treat Paine was a Congregationalist and a devout Christian. He worked as a full-time Congregationalist clergyman, among other occupations, prior to signing the Declaration of Independence. Later he left Congregationalism and Calvinism and embraced Unitarianism, which during that era was an alternative denomination within Protestant Christianity.

Trivia

Paine is featured in the 2008 miniseries John Adams. In episode one, Paine prosecutes the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre. After losing in court, Paine and some colleagues visit Adams at home and attempt to enlist his support and use his credibility as an impartial party in taking a stand against the British. Paine admires Adams's ability to be impartial even while he detests the British stationed in Boston.

References

External links

• Biography by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, 1856