The break-up of Paine's business at Lewes brought to a head a more
serious trouble. On June 4th of the same miserable year, 1774, Paine and
his wife formally separated.
The causes of their trouble are enveloped in mystery. It has been stated
by both friendly and hostile biographers that there was from the first
no cohabitation, and that concerning the responsibility for this neither
of them was ever induced to utter a word. Even his friend Rickman was
warned off the subject by Paine, who, in reply to a question as to the
reason of the separation, said: "It is nobody's business but my own; I
had cause for it, but I will name it to no one."
William Huntington, in his "Kingdom of Heaven," mentions a usage of some
Quakers in his time, "that when a young couple are espoused, they are to
be kept apart for a season to mourn"; this being their interpretation of
Zech. xii., 12-14. As Huntington was mainly acquainted with this Sussex
region, it is not inconceivable that Elizabeth Ollive held some such
notion, and that this led to dissension ending in separation. Nor is it
inconceivable that Paine himself, finding his excise office no support,
and his shop a failure, resolved that no offspring should suffer his
penury or increase it. It is all mere guesswork.
Mr. Alfred Hammond, of Lewes, who owns the property, showed me the
documents connected with it. After the death of Samuel Ollive in 1769,
Esther, his widow, enjoyed the messuage until her own death, in 1800,
when a division among the heirs became necessary. Among the documents is
one which recites some particulars of the separation between Paine and
his wife.
"Soon after the Testator's death, his daughter Elizabeth married Thos.
Pain from whom she afterwards lived separate under articles dated 4th
June 1774, and made between the said Thos. Pain of the first part, the
said Elizabeth of the 2nd part, and the Rev. James Castley, Clerk,
of the 3d part. by which Articles, after reciting (inter alia) that
Dissentions had arisen between the said Thos. Pain and Elizabeth his
wife, and that they had agreed to live separate. And also reciting the
Will of the said Saml. Ollive and that the said Thomas Pain had agreed
that the said Elizabeth should have and take her share of the said
Monies of the said House when the same should become due and payable and
that he would give any Discharge that should then be required to and
for the use of the said Elizabeth: The said Thos. Pain did covenant to
permit the said Elizabeth to live separate from him and to carry on
such Trade and Business as she should think fit, notwithstanding her
coverture and as if she were a Feme. Sole. And that he would not at
any time thereafter claim or demand the said monies which she should
be entitled to at the time of the sale of the said House in Lewes
aforesaid, or any of the Monies Rings Plate Cloathes Linen Woollen
Household Goods or Stock in Trade which the said Elizabeth should or
might at any time thereafter buy or purchase or which should be devised
or given to her or she should otherwise acquire and that she should and
might enjoy and absolutely dispose of the same as if she were a Feme.
Sole and unmarried. And also that it should and might be lawful for
the said Elizabeth to have receive and take to her own separate use
and benefit her said share of the Monies for which the said Messuage
or Tenement in Lewes should be sold when the same should become due and
payable."
Another paper is a Release to Francis Mitchener, October 14, 1800, in
which it is recited:
"That the said Elizabeth Pain had ever since lived separate from him the
said Thos. Pain, and never had any issue, and the said Thomas Pain had
many years quitted this kingdom and resided (if living) in parts beyond
the seas, but had not since been heard of by the said Elizabeth Pain,
nor was it known for certain whether he was living or dead."
This release is signed by Robert Blackman and wife, and eight others,
among these being the three children of Samuel Ollive, who under his
will were to "share alike "--Samuel, Thomas, and Elizabeth (Mrs.
Paine). The large seals attached to the signatures were fortunately
well preserved, for each represents the head of Thomas Paine. By the
assistance of Mr. Hammond I am able to present this little likeness of
Paine that must have been made when he was about thirty-five, or nearly
twenty years earlier than any other portrait of him. The reader must
form his own conjecture as to the origin of this seal, its preservation
by the wife, and use on this document At this time, and probably since
her separation, Elizabeth Paine would appear to have resided with her
brother Thomas, a watchmaker in Cranbrook, Kent. That she and the family
did not know Paine's whereabouts in 1800, or whether he were dead or
alive, argues that they had not followed his career or the course of
public events with much interest. One would be glad to believe that
Elizabeth cherished kindly remembrance of the man who considering his
forlorn condition, had certainly shown generosity in the justice with
which he renounced all of his rights in the property she had brought
him, and whose hand she might naturally have suspected behind the monies
anonymously sent her. We will therefore hope that it was from some other
member of the family that Oldys obtained,--unless, like his "A. M. of
the University of Philadelphia," it was invented,--the letter said to
have been written by Paine's mother to his wife.*
* "Thetpord, Norfolk, 27th July, 1774. Dear Daughter,--I
must beg leave to trouble you with my inquiries concerning
my unhappy son and your husband: various are the reports,
which I find come originally from the Excise-office. Such as
his vile treatment to you, his secreting upwards of 30L.
intrusted with him to manage the petition for advance of
salary; and that since his discharge, he have petitioned to
be restored, which was rejected with scorn. Since which I am
told he have left England. To all which I beg you'll be kind
enough to answer me by due course of post.--You 'll not be
a little surprized at my so strongly desiring to know what's
become of him after I repeat to you his undutiful behavior
to the tenderest of parents; he never asked of us anything,
but what was granted, that were in our poor abilities to do;
nay, even distressed ourselves, whose works are given over
by old age, to let him have 20L. on bond, and every other
tender mark a parent could possibly shew a child; his
ingratitude, or rather want of duty, has been such, that he
have not wrote to me upwards of two years.--If the above
account be true, I am heartily sorry, that a woman whose
character and amiableness deserves the greatest respect,
love, and esteem, as I have always on enquiry been informed
yours did, should be tied for life to the worst of husbands.
I am, dear daughter, your affectionate mother,
"F. Pain.
"P. S. For God's sake, let me have your answer, as I am
almost distracted."
The letter may have been manipulated, but it is not improbable that
rumors, "exaggerated by enmity or misstated by malice," as Oldys
confesses, elicited some such outburst from Thetford.* The excisemen,
angry at the failure to get their case before Parliament, and having
fixed on Paine as their scapegoat, all other iniquities were naturally
laid on him. Eighteen years later, when the scapegoat who had gone into
the American wilderness returned with the renown of having helped to
make it a nation, he addressed a letter to Lewes, which was about
to hold a meeting to respond to a royal proclamation for suppressing
seditious writings. His tone is not that of a man who supposed that
Lewes had aught against him on the score of his wife.
"It is now upwards of eighteen years since I was a resident inhabitant
of the town of Lewes. My situation among you as an officer of the
revenue, for more than six years, enabled me to see into the numerous
and various distresses which the weight of taxes even at that time of
day occasioned; and feeling, as I then did, and as it is natural for
me to do, for the hard condition of others, it is with pleasure I can
declare, and every person then under my survey, and now living, can
witness the exceeding candor, and even tenderness, with which that part
of the duty that fell to my share was executed. The name of Thomas Paine
is not to be found in the records of the Lewes justices, in any one
act of contention with, or severity of any kind whatever towards, the
persons whom he surveyed, either in the town or in the country; of this
Mr. Fuller and Mr. Shelley, who will probably attend the meeting, can,
if they please, give full testimony. It is, however, not in their power
to contradict it. Having thus indulged myself in recollecting a place
where I formerly had, and even now have, many friends, rich and poor,
and most probably some enemies.
* When Paine had the money he did forward twenty pounds to
his parents, and made provision for his mother when she was
a widow. As to writing to her, in those unhappy years, he
probably thought it better to keep his burdens to himself.
He may also have been aware of his mother's severity without
knowing her interest in him.
I proceed to the import of my letter. Since my departure from Lewes,
fortune or providence has thrown me into a line of action which my first
setting out in life could not possibly have suggested to me. Many of
you will recollect that, whilst I resided among you, there was not a man
more firm and open in supporting the principles of liberty than myself,
and I still pursue, and ever will, the same path."
Finally, it should be added that Rickman, a truthful man, who admits
Paine's faults, says: "This I can assert, that Mr. Paine always spoke
tenderly and respectfully of his wife; and sent her several times
pecuniary aid, without her knowing even whence it came."
While Paine was in London, trying to get before Parliament a measure
for the relief of excisemen, he not only enjoyed the friendship of
Goldsmith, but that of Franklin. In the Doctor's electrical experiments
he took a deep interest; for Paine was devoted to science, and the
extent of his studies is attested by his description of a new electrical
machine and other scientific papers, signed "Atlanticus," in the
_Pennsylvania Magazine_, The sale of his effects in Lewes paid his
debts, but left him almost penniless. He came to London, and how he
lived is unknown--that is, physically, for we do find some intimation of
his mental condition. In a letter written many years after to John King,
a political renegade, Paine says:
"When I first knew you in Ailiffe-street, an obscure part of the City,
a child, without fortune or friends, I noticed you; because I thought
I saw in you, young as you was, a bluntness of temper, a boldness of
opinion, and an originality of thought, that portended some future
good. I was pleased to discuss, with you, under our friend _Oliver's_
lime-tree, those political notions, which I have since given the world
in my 'Rights of Man.' You used to complain of abuses, as well as me,
and write your opinions on them in free terms--What then means this
sudden attachment to _Kings_?"
This "Oliver" was probably the famous Alderman Oliver who was imprisoned
in the Tower during the great struggle of the City with the Government,
on account of Wilkes. Paine tells us that in early life he cared little
for politics, which seemed to him a species of "jockeyship"; and how apt
the term is shown by the betting-book kept at Brooks' Club, in which
are recorded the bets of the noblemen and politicians of the time on the
outcome of every motion and course of every public man or minister. But
the contemptuous word proves that Paine was deeply interested in
the issues which the people had joined with the king and his servile
ministers. He could never have failed to read with excitement the
letters of Junius, whose "brilliant pen," he afterwards wrote,
"enraptured without convincing; and though in the plenitude of its rage
it might be said to give elegance to bitterness, yet the policy survived
the blast." We may feel sure that he had heard with joy that adroit
verdict of the jury at the King's Bench on Woodfall, Junius' printer,
which secured liberty of the press until, twenty-two years later, it was
reversed by revolutionary panic, in the same court, for Paine himself.
Notwithstanding the private immorality of Wilkes, in which his
associates were aristocratic, the most honorable political elements
in England, and the Independents and Presbyterians, were resolute in
defending the rights of his constituents against the authority arrogated
by the Commons to exclude him. Burke then stood by Wilkes, as John
Bright stood by Bradlaugh at a later day. And while Paine was laboring
to carry his excise bill through Parliament he had good opportunity
to discover how completely that body's real opinions were overruled by
royal dictation. It was at that time that George III., indifferent
to his brother's profligacies, would not forgive his marriage with a
commoner's sister, and forced on Parliament a Marriage Act which made
all marriages in the royal family illegitimate without his consent. The
indignant resignation of Fox modified the measure slightly, limiting the
King's interference at the twenty-sixth year of the marrying parties,
and then giving the veto to Parliament. For this the King turned his
wrath on Fox. This was but one of the many instances of those years--all
told in Trevelyan's admirable work*--which added to Paine's studies of
the Wilkes conflicts a lasting lesson in the conservation of despotic
forces. The barbaric eras of prerogative had returned under the forms of
ministerial government. The Ministry, controlled by the Court, ruled by
corruption of commoners.
* "The Early History of Charles James Fox," 1880.
It was a _regime_ almost incredible to us now, when England is of all
nations most free from corruption and court influence in politics; and
it was little realized in English colonies before the Revolution.
But Franklin was in London to witness it, and Paine was there to grow
familiar with the facts. To both of them the systematic inhumanity and
injustice were brought home personally. The discharged and insulted
postmaster could sympathize with the dismissed and starving exciseman.
Franklin recognized Paine's ability, and believed he would be useful and
successful in America. So on this migration Paine decided, and possibly
the determination brought his domestic discords to a crisis.
{1774}