Robert Treat Paine

Massachusetts (1731-1814)
Massachusetts Grand Lodge

Robert Treat Paine was a Massachusetts lawyer and politician, best known as one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence as a representative of Massachusetts.

Robert Treat Paine was born in Boston, Mass. on March 11, 1731. Graduate of Harvard in 1749 where he studied theology and law and practicing in Boston. Paine was a delegate to the provincial congress in 1774-75, and the Continental Congress from 1774-78 signing the Declaration of Independence.

Paine went on to become speaker of the Massachusetts house of representatives in 1777, and later the attorney general of the state. In 1780 he founded of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and then going on to become a judge of the supreme court of Massachusetts from 1790-1804.

Its believed that he was a member of Massachusetts Lodge, Boston. He was among those present at a Roxbury, Mass. meeting of the grand lodge on June 26, 1759.

* Excerpt as it first appeared on www.freemasoninformation.com