|
Webmaster's
note: I have made every attempt to keep punctuation
and spelling as in the original documents, as transcribed by Dorothy
Gaylord Weeks Goodale.
929.2 RG25 6 State Library
THE GAYLORDS
A Typical Abandoned Farm
Two Ruins--A Family with a History--A Glimpse at By-gone Days-One of Bristol's Old Houses and its Builder--From Normandy to New England.
by MiloLeon Norton
Bristol, Connecticut
ruin of Jesse Gaylord house on Fall Mountain, once the last house in Bristol on the Wolcott road, east of Cedar Swamp reservoir.
The Gaylords have an interesting history, a history which few families can equal in antiquity. The first mention of the family in English history is of Gaillard d' Arce, a knight of the time of Louis IX, of France, who accompanied that monarch on the crusade of 1248. But the family were well known long before that time, as the Chateau Gaillard, named from the commune of Gaillard
d' Bois, on the river Seine, built by Richard Coer de Leon in the twelfth century, attests.
The old castle was built by Richard as a defense to his possessions in Normandy, and was deemed impregnable. It finally succumbed to a six-months siege by Philippe Auguste, king of
France, after a gallant defense by Roger de Lacy, and was ordered destroyed. It is now an interesting ruin. So thoroughly was it
constructed it was impossible to obliterate the massive structure, perching like an eyrie upon the cliff, so that the prominent features are still to be seen.
As we have seen the Gaylord family is of Norman French extraction...
|