Jeptha Hawley House

Bath, Ontario

Located at 531 Main Street in Bath (Township of Loyalist, County of Lennox and Addington, Eastern Ontario), Jeptha Hawley House is the oldest in the Bay of Quinte district and one of the oldest continually occupied residential structures in Ontario.

 

Hawley House pre-1926 (Young article on Langhorn OHS Anglican Diocese Ontario 2009)

 

This single-storey house was built circa 1784-85 by Captain Jeptha Hawley, a United Empire Loyalist from Arlington, Vermont. It has provincial and national significance and has been marked with a provincial plaque since 1959 as one of the oldest houses in Ontario. Its late 18th and early 19th century architecture is of as much importance to Canadian history as the structures built by puritans in New England; both tell the struggle of individuals carving a homestead out of the wilderness and laying a foundation for generations to come.

The stone wing of the building was added circa 1787 as quarters for the Rev. John Langhorn, the district’s first resident Anglican clergyman.

 

Photo 2018 by J. McKendry

 

Historically, Jeptha Hawley has significant associations with the start of settlement in this township. As a Loyalist, he served with the British as early as 1776. Hawley commanded fifty men in General Burgoyne’s ill-fated expedition into New York state by way of Lake Champlain. Hawley was paid as a lieutenant in Captain Adams Rangers 1777-1780. Captain Hawley was overseer of the refugees at Machiche, where sixteen of Loyalist Township’s original settler families were living until June 1784. This was his role when families departed Machiche and started their trip up river to the township where they would receive grants of land.

 

Kingston Whig-Standard, 27 Oct. 1937 (coll. J. McKendry)

 

After settlement, Hawley’s house was used as the place for Church of England worship. By the fall of 1787, the stone wing of the house was rented to Rev. John Langhorn until 1813. Langhorn was the Quinte region`s first resident Anglican clergyman and missionary.

 

Commemorative Plaque

 

Jeptha Hawley House commemorative plaque

 

The plaque reads as follows:

THE HAWLEY HOUSE

This house, the oldest in the Bay of Quinte district, was
built about 1785 by Captain Jeptha Hawley (1740-1813), a
Loyalist from Arlington, Vermont. The Hawleys, an old
Connecticut family, had sent several representatives, including
Jeptha’s father, to the legislature of that colony. Jeptha
joined the Royal Standard in 1776, served under General
Burgoyne, and was later in charge of Loyalist refugees at
Machiche, Quebec. In 1784 he settled here in Ernesttown
Township. The stone portion of this building was added
between 1787 and 1799 as quarters for the Rev. John
Langhorn, the district’s first resident Anglican clergyman.

Erected by the Ontario Archeological and Historic Sites Board.

 

For more information, explore these resources:

 

Original photograph by J. McKendry.

Plaque photograph sourced from [defunct] Ontario Plaques website, now accessible via the Internet Archive.