You may have heard of the shipwrecked barque Horace, the remains of which still occasionally make an appearance at very low tide near Lord’s Point. This week, while searching the archives for documents relating to the Eliphalet Perkins family of Kennebunkport who built the Nott House, I came across a contemporaneous handwritten letter that brought this shipwreck to life in my mind’s eye.

Joseph Hatch Jr. and Orlando Perkins were both partial owners of the Scarborough-built barque Horace that was wrecked after the crew mutinied on her maiden voyage. Orlando, son of Eliphalet Perkins II, lived in the beautiful home at the corner of Union and Cross Streets in Kennebunkport. A later descendant, Janet Goedecke, gradually donated 3 large archival boxes full of important Perkins Family documents she had found in the house, to the Kennebunkport Historical Society. One of the boxes contains a large envelope full of many small letters and receipts. The tiniest paper bundle in the lot caught my eye this week; an obviously old, folded letter addressed to Mr. George Callender of Boston.

The name Callender was familiar to me as a vessel of that name was built in Kennebunk in the 1840s. I carefully unfolded the little package to reveal a letter written on May 6, 1838, by Mr. Joseph Hatch Jr. See the transcription in the caption under the image of the letter I have shared. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did. For me, the thrill of studying our local history is that even after a couple of decades there is still so much more to learn. Every tiny paper bundle might just be a new connection still waiting to be made.