The Portland Daily Press

The first clue to the fate of George H. Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen, discovered by his friends was obtained from Capt. J. P. Wilbur, of Mystic, Conn, with whom he served as mate during one voyage, leaving him to embark upon the vessel from which, when a few days out, he was swept overboard and drowned.

Capt. Wilbur recently arrived at Bristol, England, in command of the new bark Sappho, and found a letter from the present Earl of Aberdeen, cordially inviting him to visit Haddo House, the country seat of Lady Aberdeen, in Aberdeenshire. The house is situated in the centre of a park of a thousand acres beautifully laid out, and is arranged with regard to comfort and luxury that a refined and elegant taste could desire.

Yet for the last few years it has been a house of sorrow. The father of Lady Aberdeen, who was Premier before Lord Palmerston, died in 1860, and her husband in 1864. In 1868 a son was accidently killed at Cambridge, and a year ago George Gordon was drowned at sea. There are 1,100 farms on the estate, and the other property of the family is immense.

Capt. Wilbur was warmly received and hospitably entertained, and was able to comfort the mother with the words, "I believe he was a good young man and religious." The family are Scotch Presbyterians, and Lady Aberdeen said that "the day George left home he read the eighty-fourth psalm at morning prayer."

Capt. Wilbur remained in Aberdeenshire several days, and was overpowered with kind attentions while there. "All," he says, "because I was enabled some time since to show a very little kindness to a stranger who proved to be Lord Aberdeen."