Author: Paine, Robert Treat, Jr.
Biography:
PAINE, Robert Treat, Jr. (1773-1811: ANBO)
His names are confusing: he was born Thomas Paine (named for his paternal grandfather, not for the incendiary author of The Rights of Man) but in 1801 he legally changed his name, taking that of an elder brother who had died in 1798. His father Robert Treat Paine--a prominent Massachusetts lawyer, attorney general, and signer of the Declaration of Independence--eventually outlived him. His mother was Sally Cobb; he was born in Taunton MA. The family moved to Boston when he was about seven. Like his father, he attended the Boston Latin School and Harvard (Class of 1792), excelling academically though sometimes in trouble for misbehaviour. He started in business but gave it up for a career as a writer, contributing poems to the Massachusetts Magazine as "Menander" to the "Philenia" of Sarah Wentworth Morton (q.v.); turning an interest in theatre into astute dramatic criticism; founding and running the bi-weekly Federal Orrery for two years; and providing songs and poems for public occasions. In 1795 he married a young actress, Elizabeth Baker, and his father turned him out of his house, though they eventually resumed contact. The couple had five children. Paine studied law and was called to the bar in 1802, but he drank heavily and suffered increasingly from ill health. He died in the house of his parents in Boston. (ANBO 30 May 2020; ancestry.com 30 May 2020)
Other Names:
- R. T. Paine, Jr.
- Robert T. Paine, Jr.
- Thomas Paine