One of our more recent and remarkable artefacts is this Bill of Sale for a Schooner called ‘Hopewell’. The ship was built at the Condon ship yard in Hopewell Cape in May 1868, and was one of four known ships built in the area called ‘Hopewell’. It was sold by Samuel James Calhoun to a Jonathan Robinson of Harvey for more than $400 (approximately $7500 today). James Carnwath, a notary public who lived in Riverside at that time, witnessed the sale, and from records in Bradley Shoebottom’s 1999 thesis, we know that the initial captain was Edward Pye. Abner R. McClelan, a Canadian senator and the tenth Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick, is also believed to have been an eventual managing owner.
Little else is known about the history of this item, except that the bill of sale was found in a yard sale in Hopewell Cape, and was donated to the museum by Dr. Rev. Ralph Richardson, former President of Crandall University.