US Barnstable MA 07 OCT 1844 to Boston, forwarded to New Bedford MA. Unpaid 10c + 10c forwarding = 20c due. Manuscript Barnstable postmark, red Boston OCT 10 CDS, red FORWARDED. Stampless FL. Barnstable Bank to cashier James B. Congdon. Cape Cod banking.

This is an attractive forwarded FL with a strong combination of markings: a manuscript Cape Cod town postmark, a red Boston CDS, and a red straightline FORWARDED, along with a corrected “Paid” to “Unpaid” rating and a red accumulated 20c due. Forwarded stampless covers showing the full rating sequence are more desirable than ordinary single-rate letters. It also pairs nicely with your 1838 Merchants Bank cover to the same recipient, James B. Congdon. The letter contents are missing, which holds the value down somewhat.

Summary

• Date sent: 7 October 1844 (from the manuscript Barnstable postmark). The Boston forwarding postmark is 10 October. The recipient’s docket reads 9 October, which may be the date the letter was written or a docketing slip.
• Country of origin: United States
• Sent from: Barnstable, Massachusetts (Cape Cod)
• Sent to: addressed to Boston, Massachusetts, then forwarded to New Bedford, Massachusetts
• Distance: Barnstable to Boston is about 65 miles by road, and Boston to New Bedford about 55 miles. The letter travelled roughly 120 miles in all. A direct route from Barnstable to New Bedford would have been only about 40 miles.
• Philatelic details:
  • Manuscript town postmark “Barnstable Ms Oct 7th.” The reading is tentative because the handwriting is cramped.
  • Manuscript “Paid 10” struck through and corrected to “Unpaid 10,” underlined. This is the 10-cent rate for 30–80 miles under the 1825 act, and the correction shows the postage was not prepaid after all.
  • Red circular datestamp “BOSTON OCT 10 Mass.”
  • Red straightline “FORWARDED” applied at Boston.
  • “Boston” struck through in the address and “New Bedford Mass” added in a heavier hand.
  • Red manuscript “20” due: the original 10 cents plus 10 cents for forwarding from Boston to New Bedford, both collected from the recipient.
  • Manuscript “Bk” at lower left, probably marking it as bank mail.
  • Pencil “1844” written inverted at the bottom.
  • Seal tear at the bottom from opening.
  • Stampless FL (the outer address leaf only).
• Sender: the Barnstable Bank, a Cape Cod bank chartered in the 1820s. It is often associated with Yarmouth Port, the shire area of Barnstable County.
• Receiver: James Bunker Congdon (1802–1880), Cashier of the Merchants’ Bank of New Bedford. He was a civic leader, local historian, anti-slavery advocate, and a supporter of the New Bedford Free Public Library. The letter was probably addressed to Boston because the sender believed he was there on bank business. The Boston post office then sent it on to his home bank.
• Historical interest: The cover shows the correspondence network among New England country banks in the 1840s, when notes and drafts were routinely cleared through Boston. Cape Cod and New Bedford were closely linked by the whaling and maritime trades. It also shows the high cost of pre-reform postage: forwarding doubled the charge to 20 cents. Discontent over charges like this helped bring about the postal reform act of 1845, which took effect in July of that year.

Transcription

Docketing at the top (written by the recipient on receipt):

Barnstable Bank
October 9 1844

Address panel:

Barnstable Ms Oct 7th (manuscript postmark; reading tentative)
Paid 10 Unpaid 10
FORWARDED
James B. Congdon Esquire
Cashier
Boston
New Bedford Mass
Bk

Pencil, inverted at the bottom:

1844

Only the address leaf survives; there is no letter text to transcribe. The faint mirror-image writing visible at the bottom is ink offset from a letter that was once folded against this sheet, and it is not legible. The cover is in English, so no translation is needed.