Wednesday, November 30, 2022

November 1845 Document from Bion Bradbury, Customs Collector at Passamaquoddy, Eastport, Maine, to Customs in Alexandria, Virginia

November 22, 1845 document from Bion Bradbury (1811-1887), Customs Collector at the District of Passamaquoddy, in Eastport, Maine, to the Customs Collector in the District of Alexandria, then, apparently, considered part of Washington, D.C.


The document concerns the Schooner Lucinda Snow of Boston, whose master was then William Hall.

The schooner Lucinda Snow came to grief after a voyage to the Gulf of Mexico, where her cargo was unloaded in Galveston, and she was then chartered by the U.S. Government for use during the Mexican-American War.  During the "great norther" of May 2, 1846, the schooner was cast upon the island of Sacrificios near Vera Cruz, Mexico, and later became the subject of a lawsuit.

Bradury, a native of Biddeford, Maine and graduate of Bowdoin College, was an attorney, before, in 1844, being appointed Customs Collector for the Passamaquoddy District. He served in the Maine State Legislature and ran several times for governor, but was not successful, although, according to a contemporary note in pencil on the document, he did serve as Lieutenant Governor at one time.

See a photograph of him circa 1880, on the Maine Memory Network.  From the July 2, 1887 issue of the Portland Daily Press:







If you have information on Bion Bradbury, William Hall or the Schooner Lucinda Snow, please leave a comment for the benefit of other researchers.  

And if you know of a way for Google Maps to show sea routes, please let me know.

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