The curious correspondence of Sarah and Paul Holland Knowlton
How would you react if you received a letter from someone claiming to be a long lost relative? I am willing to bet that your first reaction would be to assume that someone was trying to pull the wool over your eyes. In this column, we turn our attention to one of the most fascinating episodes in the life of Paul Holland Knowlton to explore why that initial defensive reaction might not be the best course of action.
In the late 1830s, Paul Holland Knowlton was just about to enter the busiest period of his life. He had left his log cabin on the shores of Brome Lake to dedicate himself to the development of what would become the heart of Knowlton and had accepted to sit on the Special Council that governed Lower Canada after the rebellions of 1837-38. The latter won him tremendous praise in British newspapers and that praise set off the most interesting sequence of events in Knowlton’s life.
Sometime in early 1838, he received a letter from a certain Sarah Knowlton of Darley House in Derbyshire, England who claimed to be related to him. She was not wrong but erroneously considered Paul Holland Knowlton a descendant of her grandfather’s brother when in fact their shared ancestor was further removed. While the Brome County Historical Society archives, that hold most of Paul Holland Knowlton’s correspondence, do not contain Paul Holland’s replies to Sarah, we know he wrote back many times. Sarah Knowlton is herself an intriguing historical figure, but a full biography is beyond the scope of this column. Suffice to say here that although she was known for her tremendous beauty, she never married and spent the later years of her life with her brother Thomas—who was incidentally the only man to successfully cultivate pineapples in England according to one biographer—and her many cats.
The tone of their correspondence is difficult to pin down. Sarah repeatedly lamented that Paul Holland’s letters were “few and far between” and threatened to end their correspondence but never followed through on her threat. Similarly, while she constantly warned he would be terribly disappointed in her looks, she regularly pressed him to come and visit her—something he seemingly did around 1844. Regardless, their relationship lasted until Sarah’s death in March 1845 at which point one of Sarah’s confidants wrote to Paul Holland informing him that she had left him Darley House and all her “moveable property”. It is unclear whether Paul Holland knew prior to her death he had been named her primary heir, but Sarah had declared him a “true Knowlton” in 1843 and informed him in another letter written after his visit to her that she had rewritten her will and that she was “comparatively happy but would be more if I had you nearer to me”.
Paul Holland returned to Derbyshire to settle her estate as reveals a list, written in his own hand, detailing all the items shipped to Lower Canada from Darley House. Although the fate of Darley House is unclear, one can only assume Paul Holland sold it. All told, he left England with just over £3,800 (approximately $700,000 in today’s money) and another £1,000 worth of china, furniture, books, natural history specimens, and other assorted objects including a beautiful portrait of Sarah Knowlton by Ramsay Richard Reinagle. In Canada, the portrait hung for many years at Darley Place, the house built by Paul Holland for HIS adopted daughter and named after the Derbyshire estate.
The Reinagle portrait of Sarah Knowlton had since passed into the care of the Brome County Historical Society where it remains on display in the Old County Courthouse. The next time you walk by, consider stopping in and asking Sarah Knowlton to send you a wealthy long-lost relative. If it worked for Paul Holland Knowlton, it could work for you!