Beacon #1 September 1, 2021
By Gary Berton
An article in the journal The Log of the Mystic Seaport in December, 1948 recounts an oral history of the Haley family there. It seems that Captain Nathan Haley, according to the oral history, was a friend of Thomas Paine, having been the captain of the ship that brought him back to America in 1802. Haley had embraced the political and religious philosophy of Paine, and had remained friends.
In 1803, we know that Paine traveled first from Washington, DC to Bordentown, NJ. From there he went to New York City and was celebrated in receptions and dinners. From New York, Paine did not go directly to his farm in New Rochelle, but instead traveled to Connecticut, ostensibly to arrange schooling in a Deist academy for the two Bonneville boys he was attending to. There were other suitable academies and it has been unexplained why he chose Connecticut. He did stay there for several months.
Now we may have a tie to Connecticut, Capt. Haley. The Log reports:
“The Haleys lived on Pistol Point and it was there that Capt. Nathan took him, to the home of his father, Jeremiah. But the house that Tom Paine occupied was a “little” house, it was said, nearby Jeremiah Haley’s. We can only speculate whose house it was but it seems likely it may have been an earlier house of Jeremiah’s, before he built a larger pretentious place.”
The account also includes the name of the ship that brought Paine over, the Neptune, and Haley was not the captain of that ship at the time, and it was assumed Haley had arranged the passage. The friendship between Haley and Paine may have predated the voyage in France, as Haley had ties to France at the time, bringing back to America a French wife. The two men had similar world views, and Haley requested that “no religious ceremony be performed at his funeral.”