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1731–1814, political figure in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Boston, Mass. He served briefly as a chaplain in the French and Indian War but gave up the ministry for law. In 1770 he conducted the prosecution of the British troops indicted for murder in the Boston Massacre. Paine was a member of the Continental Congress (1774–78) and in 1775 was sent (with John Langdon and Robert R. Livingston) on an unsuccessful mission to win Canada to the Revolutionary cause. Paine later served as attorney general of Massachusetts and then (1790–1804) as state supreme court justice.

American Revolutionary leader and jurist. A signer of the Declaration of Independence, he later served as a justice of the Massachusetts supreme court (1790–1804).

(1737-1814)

1795	"The Invention of Letters." A commencement verse delivered at Harvard University, recording the history of thought and including a eulogy of Washington and an attack on Jacobins. A well-regarded poet, drama critic, editor, and lawyer, Paine was the second son of Robert Treat Paine the elder, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
1796	"The Ruling Passion." Paine's longest and best poem praises "private virtue ripening public love." Biographer Charles Prentiss proclaims, "We know of no satire, of Horace, of Juvenal, Boileau or Pope that surpasses it."
1798	"Adams and Liberty." The verse, written for the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society, praises post-Revolutionary America's triumph over European oppression. It is Paine's most famous work, sung throughout America.
1812	Works. A posthumous collection gathered by the editor Charles Prentiss that displays the author's versatility with various genres, including political satire, drama criticism, neoclassical verse, and spiritual prose.

Robert Treat Paine was born March 11, 1731, in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1749 and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1757. After a brief career in the ministry, he became an eminent lawyer, politician, and judge.

Paine first won fame as an associate prosecuting attorney in the Boston Massacre trial. The Boston Massacre, which occurred in 1770, was a violent response to the passing of the Townshend Acts by Great Britain. These acts decreed that customs duties would be imposed on the importation of tea, lead, glass, paints, and paper. When British troops were sent to Boston to enforce payment of the duties, the colonists harassed them to such an extent that they fired into a crowd, killing five men.

Subsequently Paine served two terms as a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Assembly, from 1773 to 1775 and from 1777 to 1778, acting as speaker during 1777 and 1778. During the next four years, he was an active member of two congresses: the Provincial Congress, in 1774 and 1775, and the Continental Congress, from 1774 to 1778. In 1776 he signed the Declaration of Independence.

Paine continued to be active in Massachusetts government after the American Revolution. In 1777 he became the first attorney general of Massachusetts and held that office until 1790. From 1778 to 1780, he was involved in the enactment of the Massachusetts constitution and was instrumental in the establishment of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780.

In 1790, Paine became a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, where he remained until 1804.

Paine died May 12, 1814, in Boston, Massachusetts.

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