Paine, William

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Carol Anne Janzen, “PAINE, WILLIAM,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/paine_william_6E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Physician, office holder, and politician; b. 5 June 1750 in Worcester, Mass., son of Timothy Paine and Sarah Chandler; m. 23 Sept. 1773 Lois Orne of Salem, Mass., and they had six children; d. 19 April 1833 in Worcester.
    • After graduating in 1768, he took up the study of medicine with the eminent Dr Edward Augustus Holyoke of Salem, and in 1771 he began his practice in Worcester, where he later brought his bride. Although Paine apparently remained aloof from pre-revolutionary political debate, in favour of his studies, he was led by increasing disturbances to sign a protest on 20 June 1774 “against all riotous, disorderly, and seditious practices.
    • Subsequently, he served until 1781 as apothecary to the British forces in the Carolinas, Rhode Island, and New York. Commissioned a physician in 1782, he was shortly thereafter ordered to Halifax, N.S. The following year, with the conclusion of peace, he was placed on half pay. Since he had forfeited his personal estate in 1779, Paine and his family joined the stream of refugees seeking new homes in British North America.
    • More fortunate than the majority of exiles, Paine received substantial grants of land in the Passamaquoddy Bay area of New Brunswick, as well as his half pay, and was awarded by the loyalist claims commission £300 on his claim of £1,440. In spite of his extensive landholdings and various sources of income, Paine felt increasingly frustrated in his new home. 
    • Paine remains an intriguing loyalist figure because of his uncommon decision to return permanently to his native home, where he not only achieved social acceptance but acquired wealth, honour, and dignity as well. Although the reasons for such complete acceptance of a former renegade on the part of Paine’s neighbours, especially in a society that demanded outward consensus, remain largely conjectural, the most probable explanation lies in his own personality. His apparent lack of strong ideological bias, his academic nature, and his professional desirability all helped to ease his return to his original home.
  • United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=6365
  • Find A Grave : https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9036761/william-paine