The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• General Introduction, With Last Gleanings, Historical and Biographical.
• The Age of Reason. Editor’s Introduction.
• I.: The Age of Reason.
• Chapter I.: The Author’s Profession of Faith.
• Chapter II.: Of Missions and Revelations.
• Chapter III.: Concerning the Character of Jesus Christ, and His History.
• Chapter IV.: Of the Bases of Christianity.
• Chapter V.: Examination In Detail of the Preceding Bases.
• Chapter VI.: Of the True Theology.
• Chapter VII.: Examination of the Old Testament.
• Chapter VIII.: Of the New Testament.
• Chapter IX.: In What the True Revelation Consists.
• Chapter X.: Concerning God, and the Lights Cast On His Existence and Attributes By the Bible.
• Chapter XI.: Of the Theology of the Christians; and the True Theology.
• Chapter XII.: The Effects of Christianism On Education. Proposed Reforms.
• Chapter XIII.: Comparison of Christianism With the Religious Ideas Inspired By Nature.
• Chapter XIV.: System of the Universe.
• Chapter XV.: Advantages of the Existence of Many Worlds In Each Solar System.
• Chapter XVI.: Application of the Preceding to the System of the Christians.
• Chapter XVII.: Of the Means Employed In All Time, and Almost Universally, to Deceive the Peoples.
• Recapitulation.
• The Age of Reason.: Part II.
• Preface.
• Chapter I.: The Old Testament.
• Chapter II.: The New Testament.
• Chapter III.: Conclusion.
• III.: Letters Concerning %u201cthe Age of Reason.%u201d
• IV.: Prosecution of the Age of Reason. 1
• V.: The Existence of God. a Discourse At the Society of Theophilanthropists, Paris. 1
• VI.: Worship and Church Bells. a Letter to Camille Jordan. 1
• VII.: Answer to the Bishop of Llandaff. Editorial Note.
• VIII.: Origin of Free-masonry. 1
• IX.: Prospect Papers. Editor’s Preface.
• X.: Examination of Prophecies. 1 Author’s Preface.
• XI.: A Letter to Andrew Dean. 1
• XII.: Predestination.
• Appendix A.: Atuobiographical Sketch.
• Appendix B.
• Appendix C.: Scientific Memoranda.
• Appendix D.: The Iron Bridge.
• Appendix E.: the Construction of Iron Bridges.
• Appendix F.: to the People of England On the Invasion of England.
• Appendix G.: Constitutional Reform. 1
• Appendix H.: Constitutions, Governments, and Charters.
• Appendix I.: The Cause of the Yellow Fever, and the Means of Preventing It In Places Not Yet Infected With It.
• Appendix J.: Liberty of the Press. 1
• Appendix K.: the Snowdrop and the Critic, 1 to the Editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine, 1775.
• Appendix L. 1: Case of the Officers of Excise; With Remarks On the Qualifications of Officers, and On the Numerous Evils Arising to the Revenue, From the Insufficiency of the Present Salary: Humbly Addressed to the Members of Both Houses of Parliament.
• Appendix M.: The Will of Thomas Paine.

APPENDIX M.

THE WILL OF THOMAS PAINE.

Note by theEditor.—The fact that Paine’s wife (née Elizabeth Ollive) is not mentioned in his Will may be explained by the fact that she pre-deceased him. In the Monthly Repository (London) of September, 1808, is the following obituary: “Mrs.Paine. On Sunday July 27, at her brother’s house, at Cranbrook in Kent, in the 68th year of her age, Mrs. Paine, wife of the celebrated Thomas Paine, author of the ‘Rights of Man,’ ‘Age of Reason,’ &c. &c. She was the daughter of Mr. Ollive, a respectable tradesman in Lewes, Essex, in whose house Mr. Paine lived before his marriage as well as some time after. The marriage took place at Lewes in the year 1771; but brought the parties little satisfaction or comfort. After living together three years Mr. and Mrs. Paine, convinced it would seem that they were unsuited to each other, agreed mutually to separate, and accordingly a legal deed of separation was executed. Mrs. Paine’s family were Dissenters of the Calvinistic persuasion. It may be considered unfortunate that Mr. Paine knew little of Christians in England but as Calvinists, or in France but as Papists. His attack on Christianity was indeed directed against the gross corruptions of it, as exhibited by those two great Christian parties. Few or none of his sneers affect the religion of the New Testament. Mrs. Paine lived amongst her friends, maintaining a respectable and Christian character. Some of her time was passed in London, where she communicated with the Calvinistic church under Dr. Rippon, meeting in Carter Lane, Tooley-st, Southwark; the rest of it at Cranbrook, where she attended on the ministry of Mr. Stonehouse of the same denomination.—The death of Mrs. Paine has given occasion for much abuse of her husband. This was needless, ungenerous, and we believe in a great measure unjustifiable. Husbands and wives may live uncomfortably together where there is no deism or republicanism to favour dissension.” Paine’s domestic troubles are detailed, so far as known, in my biography of him. He gave to his wife all of his possessions, and went to America penniless. When he had secured means he sent money to her anonymously. Madame Bonneville and her children, to whom most of his property was left, were its proper recipients. She and her husband (detained in France under surveillance, by Napoleon) had given Paine a home, 1797–1802, for which he could partly pay, but also care and affection which his always warm gratitude could not forget.

The People of the State of New York, by the Grace of God, Free and Independent, to all to whom these presents shall come, or may concern, send greeting:

Know ye, That the annexed is a true copy of the Will of THOMAS PAINE, deceased, as recorded in the office of the surrogate, in and for the city and county of New York. In testimony whereof, we have caused the seal of office of our said surrogate to be hereunto affixed. Witness, Silvanus Miller, Esq., surrogate of said county, at the city of New York, the twelfth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nine, and of our Independence the thirty-fourth.

SilvanusMiller.

THE WILL.

The last Will and Testament of me, the subscriber, Thomas Paine, reposing confidence in my Creator, God, and in no other being, for I know of no other, nor believe in any other. I, Thomas Paine, of the State of New York, author of the work entitled Common Sense, written in Philadelphia, in 1775, and published in that city the beginning of January, 1776, which awaked America to a declaration of Independence on the fourth of July following, which was as fast as the work could spread through such an extensive country; author also of the several numbers of the American Crisis, thirteen in all; published occasionally during the progress of the revolutionary war—the last is on the peace; author also of Rights of Man, parts the first and second, written and published in London, in 1791 and 1792; author also of a work on religion, Age of Reason, parts the first and second—N. B. I have a third part by me in manuscript, and an answer to the bishop of Llandaff; author also of a work, lately published, entitled Examination of the Passages in the New Testament, Quoted from the Old, and called Prophecies concerning Jesus Christ, and showing there are no Prophecies of any such Person; author also of several other works not here enumerated, Dissertations on First Principles of Government,—Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance,—Agrarian Justice, &c. &c., make this my last Will and Testament, that is to say. I give and bequeath to my executors hereinafter appointed, Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, thirty shares I hold in the New York Phœnix Insurance Company, which cost me fourteen hundred and seventy dollars, they are worth now upwards of fifteen hundred dollars, and all my moveable effects, and also the money that may be in my trunk or elsewhere at the time of my decease, paying thereout the expenses of my funeral, in trust as to the said shares, moveables, and money, for Margaret Brazier Bonneville, wife of Nicholas Bonneville, of Paris, for her own sole and separate use, and at her own disposal, notwithstanding her coverture. As to my farm in New Rochelle, I give, devise, and bequeath the same to my said executors, Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, and to the survivor of them, his heirs and assigns forever, in trust nevertheless, to sell and dispose of the north side thereof, now in the occupation of Andrew A. Dean, beginning at the west end of the orchard, and running in a line with the land sold to——Coles, to the end of the farm, and to apply the money arising from such sale as hereinafter directed. I give to my friends Walter Morton, of the New York Phœnix Insurance Company, and Thomas Addis Emmet, Counsellor at Law, late of Ireland, two hundred dollars each, and one hundred dollars to Mrs. Palmer, widow of Elihu Palmer, late of New York, to be paid out of the money arising from said sale; and I give the remainder of the money arising from that sale, one half thereof to Clio Rickman, of High or Upper Mary-le-Bone Street, London, and the other half to Nicholas Bonneville, of Paris, husband of Margaret B. Bonneville, aforesaid: and as to the south part of the said farm, containing upwards of one hundred acres, in trust to rent out the same, or otherwise put it to profit, as shall be found most adviseable, and to pay the rents and profits thereof to the said Margaret B. Bonneville, in trust for her children, Benjamin Bonneville, and Thomas Bonneville, their education and maintenance, until they come to the age of twenty-one years, in order that she may bring them well up, give them good and useful learning, and instruct them in their duty to God, and the practice of morality; the rent of the land, or the interest of the money for which it may be sold, as hereinafter mentioned, to be employed in their education. And after the youngest of the said children shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one years, in further trust to convey the same to the said children, share and share alike, in fee simple. But if it shall be thought advisable by my executors and executrix, or the survivors of them, at any time before the youngest of the said children shall come of age, to sell and dispose of the said south side of the said farm, in that case I hereby authorize and empower my said executors to sell and dispose of the same, and I direct that the money arising from such sale be put into stock, either in the United States Bank stock, or New York Phœnix Insurance Company stock, the interest or dividends thereof to be applied as is already directed for the education and maintenance of the said children, and the principal to be transferred to the said children, or the survivor of them, on his or their coming of age. I know not if the society of people, called Quakers, admit a person to be buried in their burying ground, who does not belong to their society, but if they do, or will admit me, I would prefer being buried there; my father belonged to that profession, and I was partly brought up in it. But if it is not consistent with their rules to do this, I desire to be buried on my own farm at New Rochelle. The place where I am to be buried, to be a square of twelve feet, to be enclosed with rows of trees, and a stone or post and rail fence, with a headstone with my name and age engraved upon it, author of Common Sense. I nominate, constitute, and appoint Walter Morton, of the New York Phœnix Insurance Company, and Thomas Addis Emmet, Counsellor at Law, late of Ireland, and Margaret B. Bonneville, executors and executrix to this my last Will and Testament, requesting the said Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, that they will give what assistance they conveniently can to Mrs. Bonneville, and see that the children be well brought up. Thus placing confidence in their friendship, I herewith take my final leave of them and of the world. I have lived an honest and useful life to mankind; my time has been spent in doing good, and I die in perfect composure and resignation to the will of my Creator, God. Dated the eighteenth day of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and nine; and I have also signed my name to the other sheet of this Will, in testimony of its being a part thereof.

ThomasPaine.

Signed, sealed, published, and declared by the testator, in our presence, who, at his request, and in the presence of each other, have set our names as witnesses thereto, the words “published and declared” first interlined.

Wm.Keese, JamesAngevine, CorneliusRyder.