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Title: The Manor House of Lacolle

Author: W. D. Lighthall

Release date: January 31, 2005 [eBook #14843]
                Most recently updated: December 19, 2020

Language: English

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The
Manor House of Lacolle


A Description and Historical Sketch of
the Manoir of the Seigniory of de Beaujeu
or Lacolle


BY
W.D. LIGHTHALL, K.C.
PRESIDENT
of the Antiquarian and Numismatic Society of Montreal.



PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY
C.A. MARCHAND, Printer.
MONTREAL.




THE MANOR HOUSE OF LACOLLE.

BY W.D. LIGHTHALL, K.C.


The Manor House of the Seigniory of Lacolle or De Beaujeu is situated in
a retired neighborhood, on the New York State border-line about four
miles south-west of Lacolle Village, and one mile north of the village
of Champlain, N.Y. and about forty miles from Montreal. The highway from
Lacolle to Champlain runs through the property. The traveller from the
north finds himself entering well-wooded lands and at length passes the
heavy low stone-walls and large, white gate of the grounds and sees the
home nearby on a slight elevation to the right. A sloping lawn and old
trees extend in front, the gardens are at the north-side, and a hundred
yards further, a wooded park of about a hundred acres. On the-opposite,
or west, side of the road, the tall old elm grove forms part of a
hillside farm. The Manorhouse itself is large, constructed of wood, and
having an extensive stone gabled wing, the whole ornamented with vines.
In front, six tall, slender, fluted pillars with Ionic capitals give
Colonial character to the verandah and meet the roof above the second
story. The massive oak front door is divided into an upper and lower
half, with large brass knocker. The interior is mostly finished in
polished hard woods, with broad fire-places and colonial mantels in most
of the rooms. The main part of the house was built in 1825 by Mrs. Henry
Hoyle, formerly Mrs. Major Henry Ten Eyck Schuyler, of Troy, N.Y., under
the following circumstances:

As Sarah Visscher she had inherited a large fortune from her grand-uncle
Lieutenant-General Garret Fisher (Visscher), a Loyalist officer of Sir
Adolphus Oughton's regiment, the 55th, which was present at the taking
of Montreal, and who died at Manchester Square, London, in 1808, after a
distinguished career. This fortune arrived at the beginning of the war
of 1812, just before the death of her first husband Major Schuyler,
nephew of General Philip Schuyler, and descendant of the well-known
colonial military family of that name. He left three daughters and a
son. They possessed other very valuable property in Troy, including a
handsome farm and mansion at the South end, shown in old pictures of the
city, on which about a fourth of Troy was afterwards built. In 1816,
Henry Hoyle, who was a Lancashire man, married her for her fortune,
which he soon found belonged to the children by strict law. He
therefore, making great pretensions of fatherly kindness, and religion,
set himself to defeat their title. By falsifying the facts, he managed
to obtain a snap judgment against their guardian in favor of himself,
but feeling his tenure insecure, sold the mansion and farm in Troy, and
persuaded his wife to move to the property in Lacolle, just on the
frontier line. It was only after his death in 1849, that the widow and
orphans discovered his fraud, and that he had obtained the placing of
the entire property in his own name in order to possess it. There
followed a furious family quarrel between the Schuyler and Hoyle heirs,
in which the old lady took the side of the former, and in fact sued her
Hoyle sons to right the injury. At her death in 1851, she refused to be
buried beside Hoyle and stipulated in her will that she be taken back to
Troy and interred with her first husband, and that the burial lot be
surrounded with stone posts, each carrying the name "_Schuyler_". Henry
Hoyle had previously possessed from 1816, the actual land on which the
Manorhouse is built. After their arrival in 1825, he employed the
fortune of which he had thus obtained control, and regarding which he
represented himself to his wife as only acting for her, in adding to
this land and in many investments along a wide range of the border
counties. Her suit estimates the properties at £38,000. The home
property was made a prize stock farm--one of the first if not the actual
first of the kind in Canada. Cattle-breeding on shares was made by him a
large enterprise among the settlers, and every year his share of
increase was collected and driven to Montreal for sale. The farm-book is
a parchment-covered ledger previously used by Sarah Visscher's uncle,
Leonard Van Buren in 1782 (who was also uncle of President Martin Van
Buren). Water-powers at various points were bought and developed with
her money, and mills erected, including those at Lacolle, Huntingdon and
Athelstan; and several thousands of acres were acquired at Huntingdon,
Lacolle, Irish Ridge, and other localities. He was almost at once
appointed a magistrate, his brother Colonel Robert Hoyle of Lacolle, was
the member of Parliament, later on her son-in-law Merrit Hotchkiss was
member and another son-in-law was Registrar of Huntingdon. At that
period several of the wealthy men of Montreal were acquiring large
tracts, apparently to form estates like the seigniories. With some of
these, Mr. Hoyle made common cause. One was a prosperous merchant,
Thomas Woolrych, who had very large holdings in what is now Huntingdon
county, and their intimacy was so close that Woolrych presented him
with his own oil portrait, in late eighteenth century costume, which is
now in the Château de Ramezay. Woolrych was closely related to the
Christies and to their relatives, the Tunstall family, who ultimately
followed them as _Seigneurs propriétaires_ of Lacolle. The Seigniory,
granted in 1727 to Sieur Louis Denis de la Ronde, and anew in 1743 to
Daniel Lienard de Beaujeu, had been bought, totally undeveloped, along
with seven others, shortly after the Conquest by General Gabriel
Christie, an officer of Wolfe, who became Commander-in-Chief in Canada,
and died in 1799. His handsome stone Manorhouse and mill are to be seen
at Chambly. He was a connection of the Schuylers by marriage. On his
death his properties fell to his son General Napier Burton Christie, who
had married the daughter of General Burton, to whom the dying Wolfe sent
his last order--to cut off the French retreat at Beauport. Napier Burton
Christie having died without issue, the eight seigniories de Bleury,
Repentigny, de Lery, de Beaujeu, Chambly, Noyan, Sabrevois and Chazy
passed to William Plenderleath, a natural son of Gabriel, under his
will, which is discussed in the case of _King_ vs _Tunstall_.

Finally, by William Plenderleath Christie's will of 1842 and death in
1845, the Seigniory of Lacolle passed to the two sons and the grandson
Gabriel, of the Reverend James Tunstall, of Montreal. Portraits of
General Christie, his wife, his son Napier, two of his brothers, and two
of his children, are in the Château. The good old Tunstall family,
representatives of the Christies, remained the _Seigneurs propriétaires_
of Lacolle until its sale in 1902 to the Credit Foncier. Mrs. Hoyle,
represented by her husband, early entered into dealings about the
Seigniory affairs, they being residents within its limits. One of their
Terrier books begins in 1843. After the Tunstalls became
_Seigneurs-propriétaires_, they found it convenient to continue the
arrangement, since they lived in Montreal. The arrangement consisted in
one of the singular transactions of which the old feudal laws present
examples. There were various kinds of _Seigneurs_. In this case the
_Seigneurs-propriétaires_, for a large cash sum advanced to them, gave
up to Mr. Hoyle (who as we saw really acted for his wife) the entire
possession of the seigniorial rights, with even the honors, _avec les
droits honorifiques_, as _Seigneur usufruitier_. A few years afterwards
one sixth of the ownership was also added, making the Hoyles
_co-Seineurs propriétaires_. (Since the moneys more strictly belonged to
the Schuyler heirs, it may be said that equitably they were the real
Seigneurs). Thus the matter continued for generations, the old house
being the annual scene of the quaint visits of the censitaires, until
the recent sale to the Credit Foncier. In the latter sale, the then
co-seigneur, Henry Hoyle III, reserved his own lands _en seigneurie_,
with the title of "Seigneur of Lacolle" and the permanent designation of
the house as "The Manor House of Lacolle", but of course these were
merely points of sentiment. The demesne estate at one time comprised
about 2500 arpents. Up to recently they still comprised about 1300, but
are now only about 600 or 700. The Manor, "Rockcliff Wood", was a
treasure house of old furniture, silver, china, and relics of the past,
now distributed among the family, and which had come down from many
historical forbears. The oldest article was a pewter "great flagon" some
fourteen inches high, bearing the date stamp of Henry VIII and having on
its cover a large embossed _fleur-de-lys_ such as pewterers were ordered
by Henry VIII in 1543 to put upon the covers of all great flagons. This
is one of the rarest existing pieces of English pewter, and has no known
duplicate. In the Manoir of Lacolle it worthily represented the
sixteenth century. The seventeenth was represented by a set of "Late
Spanish" Dutch chairs, one of which is now owned by a descendant of the
Schuylers in Montreal. The set had been inherited by old Mrs. Ten Eyck
Schuyler from her great-grand-mother, a Visscher. Of the eighteenth
century was the quaint hooded mahogany family cradle; a clawfoot
Chippendale desk of red mahogany; a Sheraton card-table, an octagonal
table, one or two shield-back chairs,--all of carved mahogany and of
different sets; a handsome spindle-legged bow-front Heppelwhite
sideboard, several old portraits, and much silver coming from General
Fisher and other relatives, and other objects, including at one time
various uniforms, a pair of pistols and a field-chest of General
Schuyler the gold watch and despatches of General Fisher, and other such
articles. (In fact the pieces mentioned were but a small remnant of
those which had been brought to the house in 1825). Of Empire period
were many fine furniture pieces, several silkwork pictures, fiddle and
grand-father clocks, etc., while naturally the early Victorian, and all
modern changes, were duly represented. In the cabinets were rare
collections of various sorts largely brought together by the late Mrs.
Mary Averill Hoyle, the last co-Seigneuresse, who died early in 1914,
and whose gracious hospitality and accomplishments seemed part of the
place. Naturally the old Manoir was a delightful spot to visit, either
in summer or winter.






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