Born May 23, 1788 Salem, Massachusetts, the son of William and Lois (Orne) Paine.
Married Ann Cushing Sturgis, daughter of Russell and Elizabeth (Perkins) Sturgis, May 5, 1822.
Died September 16, 1869 in Worcester, Massachusetts
Children:
William Russell Paine 1823-1877
Elizabeth Orne Paine 1826-1911
James Perkins Paine 1827-1910
Mary Pickard Paine 1830-1853
George Sturgis Paine 1833-1908
Ann Cushing Sturgis Paine 1836-1873
Frederic William Paine (1788-1869) was one of the founders and the first treasurer of the Worcester County Horticultural Society (WCHC). He served as their treasurer for 27 years from its beginning in 1842 until his death in 1869. At that time, WCHC was located in Worcester, Massachusetts. It wasn’t until 1986 that they purchased and moved to the Tower Hill farm and became known as the Tower Hill Botanic Garden. A portrait of Frederic hangs today in the library at Tower Hilll.
Frederic was born May 23, 1788 in Salem, Massachusetts the 6th child of William and Lois (Orne) Paine. He moved with his family to his grandfather’s estate, “the Oaks” in Worcester in 1794, following the death of his grandfather, Judge Timothy Paine in 1793. Both Frederic’s father and grandfather, although loyalists during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), continued to be leaders and well-respected members of their community. His father, William, for instance, was a founder of the American Antiquarian Society (1812).
Frederic's father, Dr. William Paine upon returning to the town of his birth (Worcester), and buying out his siblings interest in the estate (although his mother still owned 1/2) began seriously farming the land. This did not sit well with Frederic or his brother, William Fitz Paine. In a letter dated October 23, 1822, Frederic (age 34) writes to his brother William (age 29) in Batavia, I have already told you that Father wishes us both to sink down into the miserable state of famers and he wishes to divide his landed property between us. This is one of the most unaccountable things I ever met with. The farm has been a curse and a torment and a yearly losss to Father from the day he bought it to the present moment. From people who enjoyed society it converted him and mother into hermits almost and rendered them dissatisfied and unhappy.....I detest a farm and will never live on one as a farmer. (1)
1822 was filled with many life events for Frederic. His mother dies in February; he marries Anne Sturgis in May and his Uncle James Perkins dies in August.
Before his marriage, he lived abroad representing the mercantile firm of his Uncle James Perkins (and Thomas Handyasyd Perkins) in places like Canton, London, Italy. His first adventure was a supercargo for the Perkins when he was 18 (1806) to the Nortwest coast, a trip lasting 3 years. He was then sent to Canton. After the war of 1812, he captain a ship to Rotterdam for the firm with a cargo of tea. And he was the Mediterranean Agent for the firm for many years. (2)
In about 1825 he was persuaded to represent the mercantile firm once again by Thomas Handasyd Perkins in London. He left his wife to live with her relative in Boston. This would be his last trip abroad.(2)
In Worcester, Frederic was well-loved, respected and admired by his associates and townspeople. He was said to have one of the largest libaries in the area, and was known for his total recall of facts. He served on many town committees and was also the President of the Worcester Mutual Fire Insurance Company. For many years he was chairman of the Board of Selectman and held numerous offices in banks and other institutions. But today, we remember him for his love of gardens and gardening.
His interest and love of gardening is what produced one of the most renowned gardens in the area, visited by many and treasured by all. He and his family (including many cousins) were active members of the Horticultural Society and their names can be found in the Early Transactions of the Worcester County Horticultural Society where details of the plants they exhibited are listed. His interests in gardens extended to the then ‘new’ cemetery in Worcester, being planned as a garden cemetery, call “Rural Cemetery”. He donated land, did much of the planning and layout and served as an incorporator of this private cemetery.
Source:
(1) American Antiquarian Society, Paine Papers
(2) Seaburg, Carl and Paterson, Stanley Merchant Prince of Boston, Colonel T.H. Perkins, 1764-1854, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1971
Mr. President and gentlemen:
Until within a very recent period, your Secretary had cherished a hope that he might be spared, for at least a single year, the painful task of preparing a necrology of the society. In a portion of that duty, inevitable alas, he has been relieved by our honored President who in sentences far too brief, so aptly alluded to the decease of our late Treasurer.
Would that it had also devolved upon him rather than upon the one who now address you, to deplore, in suis felicissimis verbis, the loss of him---our latest and best---from the freshly-laid sods of whose grave our reluctant feet are so lately turned. Of a modesty never overstepping its implied rather than defined limits; of a delicacy having in itself nothing effeminate, and yet transcending that of woman; reserved---perhaps from a too keen sensitiveness to a slight infirmity of which his intimate friends never thought, and upon which those who once knew him, ever so imperfectly, never again reflected; generous, tender, and unselfish, if ever that man lived; a horticulturist from sheer love of the pursuit, and pursuing it only the more resolutely from the multiplicity of obstacles to be encountered, whether of insects neglected by men, or of birds, rapacious of devastation, or of legislatures which protective of one become, curiously enough, a multiplier of the other, thereby working and insuring a twofold and inexorable woe; a constant and regular contributor to our exhibitions, through storm and sunshine, in summer and winter; a faithful and punctual trustee; a devoted associate---of him what shall not be said in eulogy?
Of those rarer qualities, somewhat veiled from general appreciation by the reserve already noticed, those who were honored by his personal friendship cannot trust themselves to speak. Yet it is not, perhaps, assuming too much, as illustrating the nobleness of his nature, to aver that his devotion to our interests was often manifested, to his great personal discomfort and inconvenience, because of a pure sympathy with the efforts which he was generous enough to believe were making to foster the aims and promote the usefulness of the society.
Nothing contemptible or mean could exist in his presence without instant detection and exposure. The scorn with which his upright and downright honesty regarded aught that savored of petty trickery, it mattered not how slightly, at any of our exhibitions, must be vividly recalled by many of your number. To the last the earnestness of his zeal for the Society remained ardent and unabated. After the death of your late Treasurer, whom he so swiftly followed, he found strength to come to this room that he might evince his concern for the selection of a proper successor. Little did the writer dream, as he strained his attention to catch each painfully-drawn accent of those low tones, that the voice which then uttered them would so soon be hushed forever. That with his last retreating footsteps departed from our hall, never more to mingle among us, one of who it can with verity be said---
“None knew him but to love him,
None named him but to praise.”
There remain gentlemen, some to whom that cordial salutation; that presence, manly in its reserve, exacting respect even where it was not commanded; that genial and unaffected companionship, will be a lifelong memory. Those who never received an unkind look, who can recall no harsh expressions---as, indeed, who could! Profoundly grateful that their lines were cast in such pleasant places; that their existence was brightened, howsoever briefly, by his acquaintance; they can but submit with resignation, or passively, to his fate. Time may assuage a grief, the lamentations whereof it cannot utterly silence.
Gentlemen, the Grim Reaper, in ‘this instance, shore sharply and swift. Yet there are affections which are perennial, and our love, if not our faith, assures us that,
“The sweet remembrance of the just
Shall flourish, when he sleeps in dust.”
All which is respectfully submitted.
Edward W. Lincoln
Secretary and Librarian
Horticultural Hall,
Worcester, Mass
November 3, A.D. 1869
