John B. Paine (1807 - 1878)

Born 18 Oct 1807 in Freetown, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Rebecca Morton (Reed) Paine — married about 1834 (to 1878) in Bristol, Massachusetts, United States

Descendants

Died 21 Jul 1878 at age 70 in Taunton, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Robert Gerrity [send private message]

Biography

JOHN B. PAINE, ^[1] (Silas, Job, Thomas, Ralph), was born at Freetown on 18 October 1807, and died at Taunton on 21 July 1878.^[2] He married in New Bedford on 19 May 1833 REBECCA MORTON REED,^[3] who was born at Middleborough on 18 May 1808, and died at Middleborough on 11 December 1880.^[4] She was the daughter of Levi and Lucy (Doten) Reed of Middleborough, and through her mother was a descendant of Mayflower pilgrims John Doty, Francis Cooke and Stephen Hopkins.^[5]

John was eight when his mother, Chloe (Chase) Paine, died. Memory of her must have dimmed quickly as neither he nor his brothers named any of their daughters after her and, at John's death, no one in his surviving family could remember her name for the official death notice.^[6]

From first to last, John’s occupation is consistently identified in deeds as "carpenter" or "housewright." His first recorded land transaction was a mortgage John arranged with Samuel Gulliver of Taunton, "yeoman," on 28 September 1831, two weeks before his twenty-fourth birthday. He mortgaged 66 & 1/3 rods of land in Taunton for $200, land that lay "a little northerly of the Town House".^[7] The money probably financed his entry into business. He was successful in paying the note off within two years. How he came into possession of the parcel originally is not known.

After securing the mortgage, John moved to New Bedford, met and married Rebecca Reed, and went into business with his cousin, Warden Payne.^[8] On 23 September 1833, they separately purchased from two New Bedford yeoman two adjoining parcels of land close to the town's commercial area. John paid $191 for his parcel that included house and buildings.^[9]

Perhaps to further capitalize his business, John re-mortgaged the Taunton property on 23 December 1833 for $150 from Ethan Pierce, yeoman, of Middleborough.^[10] Those possible business needs may be why he also took out two large mortgages in 1834 on the New Bedford property. These where loans, in effect, with the property as collateral. Both were with his wife's brothers. The first, on 26 February 1834, was for $900 from Thomas died Reade, cooper, of Middleborough, the full amount with interest to be paid back in three annual payments.^[11] The second mortgage, made three months later on 31 May 1834, was with Levi Reed, Jr., "yeoman," for $800 for the same piece of property but with no repayment date.^[12] Perhaps of some note, Rebecca signed the first but not the second.

Whatever boom New Bedford was enjoying was wiped out three years later in the Panic of 1837. John tried to weather it, but even the extra four months his brother-in-law Thomas allowed were not enough. Thomas died Reed foreclosed on 17 June 1837.^[13] There are no records in Bristol or Plymouth County Deeds that Levi's loan was ever paid back. The young family moved to Middleborough to live with Rebecca's family. Two days before his thirty-first birthday, John sold the Taunton property for $150 to a fellow "housewright" to clear the Peirce mortgage.^[14]

John and Rebecca remained in Middleborough, rebuilding their lives and raising their family of eight children. (Rebecca averaged a baby about every three years.) In the 1850 Census, John's real estate was valued at $700, and they shared the house with a young laborer, his wife and child.^[15]

Rebecca's brother Thomas was determined, however, that his sister would not lack her own resources again. In 1853, after her family had moved back to Taunton, he sold to her alone thirty-five acres with buildings for $625.^[16] This was a farm he himself had purchased in 1840. He bluntly stated in the deed that the farm was to be hers "forever, it being intended as a Homestead for herself and her family."^[17] Thomas was by this time living with brother Levi and his family. Rebecca held onto the property until late 1859 when she and John sold it back to the farmer from whom her brother had originally bought it (and who more than likely had always farmed it).^[18]

Sometime before 1853, the family moved to Taunton, probably renting the house at what would later be numbered 119 Weir Street. John and Rebecca bought that property on 17 May 1859 for $273.70 from Albert Field of Taunton, taking out a mortgage the same day with the Bristol County Savings Bank for $600 at 6% interest, length unspecified but payable quarterly. The loan was paid off on 20 July 1876.^[19] John and Rebecca took out second mortgages with the bank three times in subsequent years. The first time was on 19 November 1860 for $150, paid off 11 April 1869; the second was on 23 January 1874 for $450, paid off 20 July 1874. The last mortgage was on 20 July 1876, which was paid off 18 January 1882, but only after the deaths of both principals.^[20] The property was valued at $2000 in the 1860 Census.^[21]

John probably worked right up until the time of his death. A court action, initiated but never tried, for breach of contract perhaps resulting from his work, resulted in his property being attached in 1874.^[22] John died 21 July 1878 at Taunton of "phthsis peumonalis." ^[23] Rebecca died two years later in Middleborough of pneumonia on 11 December 1880. ^[24]

The will that was probated was one John had drawn up 6 December 1859 naming Rebecca as executrix and guardian with general provisions only. It was presented 21 January 1881, just after Rebecca's death and approved with no further action.^[25] The couple are buried together, along with their son William H., in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Cohannet Street, Taunton, adjacent to the family plots of their daughters Joanna and Elizabeth.

Children

Children, PAINE, first born at New Bedford, the others in Middleborough:

1. i. LEVI M. REED, born April 1834.
2. ii. JOHN FRANKLIN, born about 1837.
3. iii. CHARLES B., born about 1838.
4. iv. JOANNA HARLOW, born 12 October 1840.
5. v. ELIZABETH P., born 16 March 1843.
6. vi. WILLIAM H., born 28 May 1846.
7. vii. EMILY REBECCA, born 2 July 1848.
8. viii. MARY CLINTON, born 27 December 1849.

Sources

1. ↑ Robert M Gerrity, THE YANKEE ANCESTRY OF EMILY REBECCA PAINE (1877-1972) (Acton, Mass.: The Author, 2007 edition). Copy at Old Colony Historical Museum, Taunton, Mass
2. ↑ VR Freetown for his birth; MAVR 301: 140 for his death, also newspaper and gravestone.
3. ↑ VR Taunton for their marriage.
4. ↑ VR Middleborough for her birth. For her death, see also Taunton Daily Gazette, 12 December 1880, MFG3 - SOULE , and MAVR .
5. ↑ Mayflower Index, vol.1& 2 (1960).
6. ↑ MAVR 301: 140.
7. ↑ Bristol County Deeds 132: 501, 502-3.
8. ↑ BCD 152: margin note on p.502.
9. ↑ New Bedford VR, II: 357; BCD 141: 517-8.
10. ↑ Insert reference here
11. ↑ Bristol County Deeds 141: 516
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See also:

• Robert cites VR Freetown for his birth; MAVR for his death; *VR Taunton for their marriage; VR Middleborough for Rebecca's birth; MAVR or her death (see also Taunton Daily Gazette, 12 December 1880);
• Mayflower Index, vol.1& 2 (1960); MAVR 301: 140; Brisol Co. Deeds 132: 501, 502-3; BCD 152: margin note, p.502; New Bedford VR, II: 357; BCD 141: 517-8; BCD 141:516; BCD 142:420-1; BCD 153:539; BCD 157:227; U.S. Census, 1850, MA, Plymouth Co., Middleborough, household no. 864;
• BCD, 253:248;
• MA Census 1855: Plymouth Co., Middleborough; BCD 284: 116; BCD 246:265; 247:6-9; BCD, 254: 422; 331: 241; 357: 100;
• U.S. Census 1860, MA, Bristol Co., Taunton, household no. 1338;
• BCD, "Records of Attachment," I: p. 1-3, Docket no. 243; First District Court of Taunton, "First Book ... July 1 1874 (to February 21 1877)", no further action recorded therein;
• MAVR 320: 300; Taunton Daily Gazette, 12 December 1880; Bristol County Probate, 220: 287.

• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/about/LY2Q-Y3M -Family search shows 26 sources.