A descendant of Caleb Hodgdon Sr. has donated to Boothbay Region Historical Society an East Boothbay deed Hodgdon once owned. On June 29, Mahala Ernst donated an 1815 property deed for the 12.5-acre parcel “back to its rightful owner.” Ernst found the document in February at her Tampa, Florida home.

“We were doing some housecleaning preparing to move when I found this. It looked like it was packed in parchment in one of my father’s boxes,” she said. “I unwrapped it, and found this deed for a property owned by Caleb Hodgdon Sr.”

Hodgdon founded Hodgdon Yachts in 1815. The property was later sold, but the deed remained in the family’s possession for 207 years. Ernst is the granddaughter of Percy and Mahalia Orne. Her grandmother, Mahala, was Caleb Hodgdon Jr.’s granddaughter. The Ernsts were downsizing their possessions in preparation for moving. Mahala Ernst began looking through a box owned by her father, John Potter. “Somehow it wound up in his possession,” Mahala Ernst said. “I became very excited when I realized what it was. I knew immediately it belonged back in Boothbay Harbor.”

Mahala Ernst has summered in the Boothbay region since she was a child. The Ernsts donated the find when they arrived in Boothbay Harbor this summer.