The eldest son and namesake of robert treat paine died in 1798. Three years later a Massachusetts statute altered the name of the dead man’s brother from Thomas to Robert Treat Paine (Sarah Cushing Paine, comp., and Charles Henry Pope, ed., Paine Ancestry: The Family of Robert Treat Paine, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Including Maternal Lines [1912], 41, 51). The Works, in Verse and Prose, of the Late Robert Treat Paine, Jun., Esq. With Notes. to which are prefixed, Sketches of his Life, Character and Writings was published in Boston in 1812. ignoro: “I do not know.” non curo: “I do not care.” The parable of the prodigal son is in the New Testament book of Luke, chapter 15. mother careys chicken is another name for the storm petrel, a seabird associated in nautical lore with a sea-spirit named for the Virgin Mary (OED description begins James A. H. Murray, J. A. Simpson, E. S. C. Weiner, and others, eds., The Oxford English Dictionary, 2d ed., 1989, 20 vols. description ends ). TJ returned to Philadelphia on 30 Sept. 1775 after a visit to Monticello. He was thus very likely in attendance in the Continental congress, on the 5th of october 1775, when its journal recorded the appointment of a “Committee of three” to “prepare a plan for intercepting two vessels, which are on their way to Canada, loaded with arms and powder” (PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 34 vols. description ends , 1:247n; MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 1:406; Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 [1904–37], 3:277). Early in 1813 Adams recalled that the committee had consisted of himself, Silas Deane, and John Langdon (Adams to Langdon, 24 Jan. 1813 [Lb in MHi: Adams Papers]). Adams’s notes on further debates regarding naval preparations held on 7 Oct. 1775 indicate that during the contentious discussion, a group of delegates including Paine and John Rutledge were “lightly skirmishing” (Paul H. Smith and others, eds., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789 [1976–2000], 2:131). As secretary of state, TJ privately supported the use of naval power to protect American shipping interests from the Barbary pirates, having already expressed similar ideas to Adams on 11 July 1786 (PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 34 vols. description ends , 10:123–5).