political capacities in the town. At one point he even served in the Massachusetts Legislature. Sarah Hodgkins Sarah Hodgkins (née Perkins) (April 28, 1750 – March 1803) was the daughter of Jeremiah and Joanna Perkins. Her father was a cooper and one of original settlers of Ipswich. From 1776 to 1779, Sarah and Joseph would exchange letters as Joseph served in the Continental Army during its darkest hours. Amongst her more famous writings, she is known for writing, "So I must be contented to live a widow..." to Joseph to express her fear for his safety. Sarah and Joseph had several children, but only his daughter Hannah survived into adulthood to marry and have children. Hannah married the son of Colonel Nathaniel Wade, Joseph's former commanding officer. Death Hodgkins died of old age on September 25, 1829, and would be buried near his wife in Ipswich's Old North Burial Ground. He and his wife are largely regarded as local heroes in Ipswich and a burial memorial was even constructed for the Colonel. The Hodgkins' letters, along with those of Wade, ended up in the hands of Herbert T. Wade – Wade's and Hodgkins' great-great-grandson – and would be preserved and published by Dr. Robert Lively of Princeton University in The Adventures of Two Company Grade Officers in Washington's Army in 1958. The letters have since been featured in several works of non-fiction including Library of America's The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence, David McCullough's 1776, and Ray Raphael's A People's History of the American Revolution. See also The complete letters of Joseph and Sarah Hodgkins transcribed to easily readable English by the Ipswich MA town historian. References Continental Army officers from Massachusetts 1829 deaths People from Ipswich, Massachusetts 18th-century American people Members of the Massachusetts General Court 1743 births