Author: Charles Hodge Hudson (1812–1898), telegraph superintendent and long-time clerk of the Essex County Probate Court, Newburyport, Massachusetts. Part of the Hudson family involved in operating and maintaining early telegraph lines between Boston and the North Shore in the 1850s.

Date & Place: Newburyport, May 27, 1852

Addressee: “Stephen” [unidentified colleague]

Content Highlights:

Sends twelve shillings (£4.12) to settle a Boston bill for the firm Moore & [She—] and expresses satisfaction with their work

Acknowledges receipt of a deed copy, confirming lot measurements and noting no further legal precautions needed

Discusses technical problems involving “defective wheels” and working “outside of the repeater,” a clear reference to telegraph station equipment and operational troubleshooting

Provides a rare, firsthand look into the overlap between legal/property matters and early telegraph communications in coastal Massachusetts

Physical Description:

Single folded sheet of laid paper, approx. 9.75 x 7.5 in.

Ink: Pale blue, legible

Condition: Light toning, minimal edge wear, no envelope present

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Importance of This Letter

This is a signed business and technical letter from Charles Hodge Hudson, a documented Newburyport telegraph superintendent and Essex County probate court clerk. Hudson’s role in overseeing telegraph operations for the Boston–Newburyport connection gives context to his discussion of “defective wheels” and “working outside of the repeater,” both technical terms from mid-19th-century telegraphy.

The letter illustrates:

How regional communications networks were maintained and troubleshot in the 1850s

The integration of property/legal work into the daily life of a telegraph official

The business links between Newburyport and Boston merchants (Moore & [She—])

As a primary source, it provides historians, collectors, or institutions with a rare, date-specific artifact connecting early Massachusetts telegraph history, legal administration, and coastal commerce.

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Full Transcription

Newburyport May 27th 1852

Dear Stephen,

I send twelve shilling (£4.12) to pay enclosed bill of Moore and [She—]. Please say to them with my respects that it is perfectly satisfactory, and I should certainly be unreasonable if it were not so.

I thank you for the copy of the Deed, but it does not seem to require any additional precautionary measure on our part. Both lots are in perfect accordance with our several quantities, and I trust we shall not be subjected to any inconvenience from the other two thirds deed to Mr. [—] to predict.

Our interfering examining Mr. Pearson’s trouble was first partially ascertained by defective wheels before length was at breakfast. This however is not the occasion of delay and interruption so often as 13 & 12 seem to suppose, for we occasionally have 33 when you are working outside of the repeater without knowing that such is the case.

Very truly yours,

C. H. Hudson