full of incident, and, says one of Franklin's biographers (Morse), "brings to mind some of the Jacobite tales of Sir Walter Scott's novels." He carried dispatches to Congress from the United States Commissioners in Paris early in 1779, and in January 1780, was dispatched to Europe to secure loans for Massachusetts in Spain and Holland. Capture and release That same month Austin was captured by the British while on this mission. He was later released. He failed to secure the loan and he returned in the autumn of 1781. Marriage Austin married Hannah Ivers, the daughter of James & Hannah (Trecothick) Ivers, in Boston, on April 4, 1782. Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth Austin served as Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth for two years, from 1806 to 1808. Treasurer and Receiver-General of Massachusetts Austin served as Treasurer and Receiver-General of Massachusetts from 1811 to 1812. References Julie Helen Ott, "Lydia and Her Daughters: A Boston Matrilineal Case Study," NEHGS Nexus, Vol. IX, No. 1, pg. 25 (1992). Cutter, William Richard, ed., Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts,'' Volume IV (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1908), 1717. Footnotes 1748 births 1826 deaths American Revolutionary War prisoners of war held by Great Britain Continental Army officers from New Hampshire Harvard College alumni Massachusetts state senators Politicians from Boston Politicians from Portsmouth, New Hampshire Secretaries of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts State treasurers of Massachusetts American spies during the American Revolution People from colonial Boston Military personnel from Massachusetts