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William Paine, a physician and prominent citizen of Worcester,
Massachusetts,
was one of the eleven incorporators of the American Antiquarian
Society
in 1812. He served as the Society's vice president from 1813 to
1816 and
later was a member of the committee for publications. He
bequeathed his
professional library which consisted of many early medical texts
to the
Society.(1) His personal and business papers, including documents
relative
to his activities during the Revolutionary War, are preserved in
the Society's
manuscript collection.(2)
Paine was born in Worcester and graduated from Harvard College
in 1768.
He studied medicine with several Worcester county physicians and
was a
partner in an apothecary business in town. During the
Revolutionary War
he supported the Loyalists and left Worcester for England and
Scotland
in 1774. He received his medical degree from the University of
Aberdeen
and enlisted in the British Army as a surgeon. In this capacity
Paine
was sent to New Jersey, New York, and Nova Scotia.(3) After the
war was
over, Paine was given land in Canada as a reward for his loyalty
to the
crown, but instead chose to live in Salem, Massachusetts, near his
wife's
family. In 1793, when Paine's father died, he left the family
mansion
in Worcester to his son, who soon returned to the city of his
youth and
re-established his medical practice. During the hostilities with
England
in 1812, Paine gave up his British military pension and was
naturalized
as a United States citizen. In Worcester, he quickly regained his
social
and civic prominence, not only as a physician, but also as a
supporter
of education and an active member of the Second Parish Church.
Around 1830, Chester Harding, who was then the most fashionable
painter
in Boston, painted Paine's portrait. Although Harding's sitters
included
patriots such as James Madison and John Quincy Adams, he agreed to
paint
the former Loyalist, who by then was almost eighty years of age
and had
long been retired from the practice of medicine.(4) A contemporary
recalled
that Paine 'was of medium height and of slight figure; his white
hair
was brushed back from his head, made into a cue and bound with
black ribbon,
with a bow at the end. Even at the age of eighty his complexion
remained
clear and delicate.'(5)
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1) George E. Francis, 'William Paine,' Proceedings of the
American
Antiquarian Society 13 (April 1900): 404.
2) Paine Family Papers c. 1721-c. 1918, American
Antiquarian
Society Manuscript Collection.
3) For more on Paine's activities during the war see
Francis,
'William Paine,' 398.
4) A miniature after this portrait by an unknown artist
is owned
by the Worcester Art Museum and is illustrated in Susan Strickler,
American
Portrait Miniatures (Worcester: Worcester Art Museum, 1989), 134.
According
to Strickler, the miniature was copied in the 1870s by the artist
James
Sullivan Lincoln. In addition, there is a profile silhouette of
William
Paine in the Society's Graphic Arts Collection.
5) Francis, 'William Paine,' 405-6.
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