Paine, Robert Treat (1731-1814), an American statesman, was a Massachusetts signer of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He had been a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776. Paine served as the first attorney general of his state from 1777 to 1790. He helped write the Massachusetts Constitution, which was adopted in 1780. In 1790, he became a justice of the state supreme court, where he served until his retirement in 1804.
Paine was born in Boston on March 11, 1731. He graduated from Harvard in 1749. He then studied law and became a lawyer in 1757. In 1780, he helped found the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Paine died on June 11, 1814.
