Levi Knowlton was born December 4, 1768 in Templeton, Massachusetts, the fifth child of Captain Ezekiel Knowlton and Ann Miles. The town had been incorporated only a few years prior in 1762. Ezekiel Knowlton moved to Templeton from Shrewbury shortly after marrying Ann Miles in 1759 with their first son Joseph born in Templeton in 1760. When the Revolutionary War broke out, Levi was too young to accompany his father and older brothers (Joseph, Stephen, and Ezekiel, who was only fourteen years old) when they enlisted in the American army. 

According to the 1790 census, Captain Ezekiel Knowlton’s household contained: four males over sixteen years of age (likely Capt Ezekiel, Ezekiel younger born in 1764, Levi, and Lyman born in 1774), one male under fifteen (likely Asaph born in 1780) and four females (likely wife Ann, Jemina born in 1768, Lucy born in 1776, and Anna born in 1778). August 8, 1790, Ezekiel writes from Templeton, Mass., to his brother Stephen in Newfane Vermont relaying his good health and asking about the “prospect for turning beef for salt in Wardboro this season”.  On Aug 8, 1790, Levi (Templeton) likewise wrote to his brother Stepen informing him of his own good health and soliciting communication from Stephen. On Feb 4, 1792, Levi wrote from Templeton to his brother Ezekiel who had removed to Newfane entreating him for news “The great distance and long absence of me from you makes me very solicitous concerning your welfare.”

In 1791, Levi’s eldest brother Joseph married Elizabeth Sprague. In 1795, Lyman had married Relief (Leafy) Whitcomb and established his household in Templeton, according to the 1800 census. Stephen married Comfort White in 1795 and remained in Worcester County. Miles had married Typhena Sprague in 1789 and lived in Templeton but later removed to Wardsboro, Windham County, Vermont. The younger Ezekiel had moved to Newfane, Windham County, Vermont as early as 1792, but it is unclear whether he owned land or worked for his uncle, Judge Luke Knowlton Sr. (1738-1810) upon his arrival. Newfane had become a focal point for the Knowlton family in Vermont following the arrival of Judge Luke Knowlton Sr, brother of Captain Ezekiel Knowlton, after the Revolutionary war in 1773. He was a prominent member of Newfane and represented the town at the General Assembly of the state of Vermont for several years.

In 1798, Ezekiel bought half an acre within lot ten in the first division of Newfane “with pearl ash works and pottery standing there on” from Edward Fullerton. Ezekiel obtained from the Windham County office a license to sell wine and distilled spirits for a year beginning Sept 30, 1799.  Ezekiel was the sole resident of his household on the 1800 census. Ezekiel reacquired the land from John Morse through a Sheriff’s sale on April 10, 1802. The deed of purchase lists Ezekiel’s residence as Stukely, Lower Canada. He later sold this half acre property to his cousin Luke Knowlton Jr in Sept. 8, 1807. Ezekiel “personally appeared” and signed the document.

It was not long before Levi moved to Newfane himself. On Nov 23, 1791, Levi purchased 46 acres consisting of lot thirty-four in the fourth division Newfane (also known as Pondsville and currently South Newfane) from Samuel William. Levi’s name also appears on several Newfane, Vermont, road and bridge petitions in 1794 and 1797, alongside his brother Ezekiel in the later petition. The brothers would have had much family in the area as During Levi’s tenure in Newfane, he would have heard about the availability of grants in Quebec from his uncle and cousins. In 1796, Silas traveled to Canada to take the oath to the Crown and begin working the land. He would later bring his family to Quebec and settled on land in Stukely, Quebec, instead of his aged father Judge Luke Knowlton Sr. The establishment of settlements in the previously known as Wastelands was a difficult endeavor and many adventurous young men had perished during the process or given up on their granted lands. Silas’ wife had died in childbirth in 1800 prompting Silas to send his young sons, Luke and Paul Holland, back to Newfane to live with his brother Luke Knowlton Jr. Levi does not appear on the 1800 census as head of his own household. It is tempting to speculate that he may have journeyed north to help clear land in Stukely with his cousin Silas.

Contact between the Newfane Knowltons and those entrepid few who settled in Stukely was maintained with Levi sending a letter to Samuel Willard (husband of Levi’s cousin Lucinda Knowlton) in regards to supplies. He requested “1 and half bushel of beans, half bushel of pease, 1 bushel of Herd’s grass seed”. On January 22, 1801, Luke Knowlton Jr. (son of Judge Luke Knowlton) officiated the marriage of Levi and Mary ‘Polly’ Morse (born Dec. 26, 1778; daughter of Jacob Morse and Sarah Mary Hawes) in Newfane, Vermont.

During this period, Levi and his siblings (Lyman, Ezekiel, Anna, Lucy and Asaph) were making preparations to depart for Quebec following their cousin Silas Knowlton. Levi sold to Samuel Kingston in February of 1801. The land was then sold to Joshua Morse then James Morse; both likely relations of Levi’s wife, Mary Morse. This lot is located just north of the South Newfane (or Branch Road) Cemetery along Auger Hole road, where Mary Morse’s parents and siblings are buried.

The exact date of departure of Levi and his siblings is not known. The ‘STUKELY-SUD Un survol de son passé’ by Jean-Paul Barrette and Jo-Ann Savage places the arrival in Stukely of brothers Levi, Lyman, Ezekiel (younger) and Asaph in 1801. Of the siblings, C. M. Day wrote: “Among the settlers who subsequently came to Stukely, were four brothers of the name of Knowlton, viz., Ezekiel, Levi, Lyman, and Asaph, cousins of Mr. Silas Knowlton, the first inhabitant of the Township. They came of an ancestry of high social standing in Southern Vermont...“

Levi and Mary had only one child, Polly Knowlton, was born March 10, 1802, in Stukely, Quebec. On October 1, 1802, Levi purchased lots 15 first range and 13 eighth range in Stukely from Samuel Willard (brother-in-law of Silas Knowlton). Levi made an additional purchase of lot 13 second range in Stukely from Jonathan Denning. Shortly thereafter, Mary Morse died on March 28, 1803. Although the Morse family history states that she died in Newfane, no legible gravestone or death record has been found (as of publication date).

It is unclear whether Levi trusted the care of his infant daughter to one of his unmarried sisters Anna (who married Captain John Brill of Bolton in 1832), Lucy (who married Amasa Elmer of Stukely in 1806), or his sister-in-law, Relief Whitcomb, who had several young children of her own, or returned to Newfane to live with her Morse grandparents. Levi did not remarry until Feb. 11, 1809 when he wed Philena Stone in Franklin, Vermont. Philena (1776-1850)  was the daughter of Ephraim Stone and Lucinda Chamberlain. Although she was born in and lived in New Hampshire, her father Captain Ephraim Stone, who fought in the French and Indian War and Revolutionary War, was among the first settlers of the township of Brome, as an associate of township founder Asa Porter. She is also known as Mrs. Butterfield. Her first marriage was to Ralph Buttersfield (1773-1802) who died leaving her with two small children. Levi and Philena’s first son, Miles Ezekiel, was born later that year on Dec. 29, 1809, in Stukely, Quebec.

Levi and Philena had two more children who died young, Ephraim Holland (June 9, 1812-March 17, 1814) and Eliza Caroline (May 23, 1816-February 8, 1827), born in Stukely. While Eliza’s grave is the oldest gravestone in the Knowlton family cemetery on Knowlton Maplehurst Farm, Potton, Quebec, Ephraim’s burial location remains unknown although the deed of sale for lot thirteen in the second range of Stukeley by Levi to his brother Lyman mentions graves located in the southeast corner of the lot.

Levi’s father, Captain Ezekiel Knowlton of Templeton, Mass, died in December of 1810. The estate was finally settled in May of 1812 by Levi’s brother Stephen with inheritances for each of his children including those residing in Lower Canada, who were represented by Leonard Stone at the settlement of the estate. Shortly after, the commencement of the war of 1812 saw restricted travel and communication across the border between British controlled Canada and the former British colony of the United States. The conflict was not resolved until 1814. It is not clear when Levi would have received his inheritance, but it may have been substantially delayed.

Letters between family members indicate recurring travel between Lower Canada, Vermont and Massachusetts. In a letter dated March 10, 1816, Judge Luke wrote to Samuel Willard he had expected to have seen Levi Knowlton in Newfane. The same year was known as the ‘year without a summer’ and was followed by two more poor summers. Significant snowfall was reported in Quebec with a man from the south shore of the St. Lawrence claimed snow ‘up to the axeltrees of his carriage’ June 13, 1816. The combination of poor growing seasons and inheritance money may have been the impetus for Levi to purchase land in the township of Potton on the shores of Lake Memphremagog directly across from Georgeville. The Eastern side of the lake became a travel hub linking the United States to Montreal and Quebec city. The Georgeville to Knowlton Landing lake crossing itself also provided a more direct link between Boston and Montreal than the Lake Champlain or Quebec city routes, which was also shorter than traveling around the northern end of Lake Memphremagog.

Copps Ferry, so named for its founder (settling there in 1797) and first ferry master Moses Copps (renamed Georgeville in 1822 in honor of the first child born in the settlement George Fitch Copps) became a waypoint along the road established west of lake Memphremagog from Vermont to the northern end of the lake known as the Outlet (renamed Magog in 1890). An easterly route across the lake was promoted by Copps and others as a means for traveling to Montreal saving the miles and hours northward around the lake.

In 1817, Levi purchased lot twenty-seven and twenty-eight in the tenth range of the township of Potton from Jonathan Weare. This land was originally a part of 6000 acres granted to Major General Lauchlan Maclean of the 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants). Born in 1754 to Reverend Alexander Maclean and Christian MacLean of Boreray in Mull, Argyllshire, Scotland, Lauchlan was commissioned into the 84th regiment commanded by his maternal uncle Allan Maclean of Torloisk, known as the ‘saviour of Quebec’ for his arrival with his forces at Quebec city averting surrender to Benedict Arnold’s forces in 1775. Lauchlan’s brother, Captain John Maclean, also served in the 84th but was in the process of being transferred to Butler’s Rangers when he died in Halifax harbor during the sinking of Her Majesty’s sloop the North in 1779 following a collision with the armed ship St. Helena. John’s last will and testament bequeathed his estate to his sisters Isabelle and Mary, who married the author John Campbell. Lauchlan Maclean later joined his niece and family in Italy as he continued to rise through the ranks to Lieutenant Governor of Quebec in 1825. He died in 1829 and is buried in the English cemetery in Livorno, Provincia di Livorno, Toscana, Italy (which the British called Leghorn) along with his niece Elspeth Arbuthnot Campbell Crokat who died in 1825. It is doubtful that Lauchlan ever set foot in Potton. His land holdings in Quebec and Chatham, Ontario, were sold largely through brokers like James Green with the rest being inherited by Thomas Crokat and Anne Crokat Moberly, the husband and daughter of Maclean’s niece. EA Campbell Crokat's husband, Thomas Crokat, and their daughter Anne along with her husband George Moberly inherited Lauchlan Maclean's unsold Potton holdings and leased/sold them to the families that settled the north east corner of Potton (including George Davis, Samuel Drew, James Archiles, Hiram Haskins, Hugh Smith, Burnham George, Nehemiah Sweat, Harvey Woodbury, William King, Ivory Sweat, Amasa Perkins, Coffin Otis Wadley, Chauncey Woodbury, John Hussey, and David Taylor) some of whom occupied the land as early as 1825 according to census records with or without permission from the Maclean, Crokat, and Moberly families with early deeds dated 1847 through 1851.

The two northernmost lots of the tenth range were initially sold to Peter Weare in 1806 (lot twenty-eight; which abutted Weare’s lot twenty-eight tenth range in Bolton township) and 1812 (lot twenty-seven). Peter Weare sold these lots to his son Jonathan in 1806 and 1817 in addition to the land (lot twenty-eight in the tenth range Bolton) he had received as an associate to Nicholas Austin in the founding of Bolton Township. Jonathan sold this lot to Abraham Channell. The Weare resident on the edge of Lake Memphremagog was the start of the Old Magog Road that followed the present day Chemain de la Montagne through Bolton Pass and onto points westward, eventually to Montreal. This road was an established route even for settlers (such as Rexford, Hovey, and Ives families in 1793) who traveled up Lake Champlain through St. Armand and Frelishburg on their way to their new homesteads beyond the eastern shores of Lake Memphremagog. Local residents (including Moses George, John Dimond, Richard Holland, and John Brill) made a formal appeal to improve the ‘Old Magog Road’ was made in 1818 to the Grand Voyer Louis Rene Chaussegros de Levy, Esq, via proces verbal for formal establishment of the road and a front road from the Old Magog Road to along the division of the ninth and tenth rang. The road remained a challenging one and was described in 1823 as “...without a doubt, the worst, and most difficult road in the Townships; in some periods of the year it is even hazardous running over two ridges of mountains, from which the torments of rain in Spring and Autumn,  often rendered almost impassable by carrying away the soil.” among those roads in most need of repair. Levi Knowlton along with Chauncey Bullock and others received 1000 pounds from the government for further improvements to the road “from Copp’s ferry landing in Bolton across Brome, Dunham, Farnham, Monnoir, as far as the Mountain St. Therese” in 1830.

Peter Weare was only one of many Austin associates who sold their land in Bolton to move to the east side of the lake to settle around Copps Ferry (Georgeville) and other areas in Stanstead township. While the journey to Montreal to bring goods and livestock to market was long and arduous because of a lack of good roads and difficult water crossings, Stanstead county was connected to established roads in Vermont (the Hinsman Road reached Derby, Vermont, in 1794) and later Quebec City (via the Craig Road). It may be that the commercial prospects of the eastern side of Lake Memphremagog were more attractive than those on the western shores, until the introduction of a route from Boston to Montreal via Georgeville (and Knowlton Landing) established in 1824 for winter travel.

Levi’s purchase of his Potton holdings for $1725 was paid for in instalments and funded through the sale of his Stukely homestead to his brother Major Lyman Knowlton for $1300. The deed of sale to Lyman contains access rights for Levi and his heirs to the graves of his family members, presumably son Ephraim, who died in 1814, and possibly other children, and/or his first wife Mary Morse, who died in 1803. A preliminary search of the southeast corner of lot thirteen in the second rang Stukely in 2019 failed to find any trace of these early graves.

In 1821, Levi and his family (Philena, Polly, Miles, and Eliza) arrived in Potton. Although only twelve at the time, Miles was already learning from his father the art of carpentry. The father and son built houses and barns to meet the family’s and farm’s needs. The building materials came from the resources of the area: timber for lumber and potash, slate for foundation stones, clay for bricks and limestone for mortar. Levi quickly became a respected member of the Lake Memphremagog area. He and Samuel Burnham were the named executors of the estate of Abraham Fitz Channell, owner of the Camperdown boarding house in Georgeville. In 1823, Levi Knowlton was noted as being from Potton in a listing of awards for the  Montreal Agricultural Society at which he won ‘4rth place in fat oxen’. Years later, he would serve as vice-president of Stanstead Agricultural Society.

The earliest reference to the ‘Landing’ is in a description of the pursuit and capture of the smuggler and thief  Joel Harvey  who escaped Farnham toward Stanstead via the road in Bolton to Copp’s Ferry took shelter at the Drew’ tavern 6 miles from the ferry where he was apprehended and ‘unceremoniously hurried on to the Landing on the way to this city [Montreal]. While a wharf at the current location is present in the earliest drawings of the Landing in 1856, Moses George’s original landing point may have been south of Ritchie Point at Camper’s Beach.

As the community around Sargent’s bay, known as the Bay area, became a waypoint for early mail and a stage coach route, at first only in winter by ‘enterprising individuals residing at the Landing Memphremagog… same who have established Public House at the Landing’. As early as 1825, a proposed canal linking Lake Memphremagog to the Connecticut river was being researched. The 1825 census recorded six persons in Levi Knowlton’s household including: 1 person 6-14 yrs [unknown], 1 person 16 to 18 yrs [Miles], 1 married male 40-60 [Levi], 1 female under 14 [Eliza]; 1 unmarried female 14-45 yrs [Polly]; 1 married female 45 and upward [Philena].

Following the marriage of his first daughter Polly to Elliot Coolidge in 1826, the couple relocated to Bolton township having purchased lot 28 in the tenth range from Polly’s father, Levi Knowlton. The land is located on the western shore of Lake Memphremagog in present day Sargent’s Bay. This 150 acre lot had originally been granted to Peter Weare as an associate of Nicholas Austin. Peter had deeded the lot to his son Jonathan in 1798 later relocating to Stanstead on the other side of Lake Memphremagog. Jonathan sold the lot to Abraham Channel in 1810. Channel is believed to have exchanged lot 28 in the tenth range Bolton with Richard Holland for the Camperdown property in Georgeville. Richard Holland is reported to have maintained an inn on the Bolton lot before returning the property to Channel prior to moving to present day South Bolton.

On July 4, 1818, Abraham Channel sold lot 28 in the tenth range Bolton Township (also known as Channel Place) to John Dimond of Brome. John Dimond was married to Susan Stone, the sister of Levi Knowlton’s second wife Philena Stone. On a subsequent deed in 1821 for property in Brome, John Dimond of Bolton is noted as an inn holder. However, John Dimond’s stay in Bolton was short. By 1825, he sold Channel Place (then called Dimond Place) back to Abraham Channel and purchased land in Stanstead township. Abraham Channel then sold the lake side property to Levi Knowlton three months, who subsequently sold it to Elliot Coolidge (noted as farmer of Bolton) in 1826.

The 1820s brought a string of deaths among Levi’s immediate family. Levi’s brother Ezekiel died in 1823. Although problems settling Ezekiel’s estate are mentioned in an 1828 letter from brother Joseph of Massachusetts, who was in Potton likely visiting Levi, to brother Lyman Knowlton of Stukely. The next year brother Miles died of typhus fever in 1824. Their mother Ann Miles died following a severe cold in 1826. Levi’s own daughter Eliza Caroline died in February and was the first to be buried with a marked gravestone in the family cemetery at Knowlton Landing. Her life and death are memorialized by her gravestone in the family cemetery and a calligraphy of unknown date [photo?].

Beyond farming, Levi built an establishment that was among the first public houses on the eastern side of Lake Memphremagog. In 1828, he and his son finished construction of a  three story red brick building that has survived the test of time and ownership transitions (known as Tuck’s place, Pine Lodge, and l’Aubergine). The project likely took several years and came at a considerable cost to the family as Levi explained in an 1830  letter to his brother Lyman beseeching Lyman to send him money as the ‘building is much more expensive than I expected’. In addition to the barn and stable next to the house that have been torn down, Levi and Miles built a barn on the northeastern corner at the junction of present day Chemine (Ch.) Coolidge and Ch. du Lac, known to the family as the ‘small square acre’. This barn housed dual purpose shorthorn cattle used for milk, beef and oxen and was torn down by Levi’s great-grandson, Lyman Potter Knowlton in 1913. The space was used by the family for hay production and later a garden. It also served as an informal baseball field for Levi’s descendents.  

Levi served as the first postmaster of the post office in Knowlton Landing (known as North Potton) that opened possibly as early as 1830 and remained at the landing until May 6, 1839 when the post office was relocated to Dr. Gilman’s in South Potton. It would later return to Knowlton Landing from 1872 to its closure in 1932 with either Levi’s great-grandson, Lyman Potter Knowlton, as postmaster, or a member of the Tuck family, first John F. Tuck and then his daughter Martha Tuck. The post office was located in a small building that likely originally stood when Levi purchased the land and existing farm from Jonathan Weare. It or Levi’s home may have been the location where the department of the Commissioner of Lands collected rents on crown land leases.

Levi’s fortunes must have substantially improved by 1833 as he was able to lend money to Nathaniel Holbrook of Potton, who offered lot ten in the third rang Township of Potton as collateral. The sum was not repaid until many years later.

The 1830’s were a period of political unrest in Quebec both as a whole and in the Eastern Townships with the establishment of the Parti patriotes led by Louis Joseph Papineau. Settlers who grew up in the United States during and after the Revolutionary War found common cause with Papineau in wanting freedom from British rule. Levi Knowlton, like many prominent men of Stanstead county, attended Patriot political gathering in Potton (1835) and Stanstead Plains (1836). Levi was nominated to a Committee of Vigilance tasked with ‘watching over and promoting the best interests of this Township’. Other members included Cyrus Bates, James Manson, D. Miltimore, Jr., Moses Elkins, Jr., Horace Green, Charles Woods, Heman Norris, Nathaniel Holbrook, Abraham Holbrook, Levi Moore, Buswell Gilman, Jonathan Bailey, and Daniel Griffin. Levi’s toasts from the dinners that followed the meetings were:

“By Levi Knowlton Esq. Tory Reformers - Like the troubled sea whose waters cast up mire and dirt.”

and

“Union and Strength – May this Province and her sister Provinces, like a strong band of brothers, stand firm in [defense] to their rights and the just rights of the crown.”

Although the Patriots political party was established with clear support for the British crown, they chafed under the restrictions imposed by the British government. It was not long before more radical members of the groups joined with Les Chasseurs (the Hunters) in promoting more violent means to achieve their goals. By 1837 and 1838, tensions had risen to the point of violence with anti-British rebels assembling in Vermont to organize cross border raid. At one such raid to acquire guns and ammunition from locals in Potton, one of the rebels was shot dead. In an attempt to control the rebellions in Montreal and the Eastern Townships, Sir John Colborn declared martial law five times between December 1837 and November 1838. With the later declaration, Major Head (Sir Francis Head) marched his unit to Stanstead to quell the growing unrest. Shefford dragoons were stationed at the Landing around Nov 1838 and were considered a target by Charles Wood. According to the testimony of David Miltimore, Charles Wood proposed routing the dragoons stationed at the Landing and the nearby residence of Whiting Rexford’s in Bolton. That same month a boat was sunk at Georgeville, purportedly to hamper communication from one side of the lake to the other, and Captain Alexander Kilborn was shot and wounded by rebels. While Levi Knowlton was close with several of the men charged in the Stanstead rebellion – namely Chauncey Bullock, Leon Channel (son of Abraham Chanell), George Dimond (Levi’s nephew) and Justin Ives – there is no indication that Levi was involved with the more militant members of the group who participated in the march on Stanstead Plains or the attack in Potton.

Levi Knowlton sold the remaining land he owned in Stukely and acquired lot nineteen ninth range Potton township from the clergy reserve through a crown grant. The lot was later sold by son Miles Knowlton to Moses W. Copps.

The 1842 census details Levi Knowlton’s household of four people (himself and wife Philena, with an unknown single female age 14-15, an unknown single female over 45 unknown who may have been boarders or relatives). His son Miles Knowlton lived in his own residence with his family. Levi and Miles occupied four hundred acres of which one hundred fifty acres were improved – altered from the existing forest to pasture,  field, housing lots or otherwise. Levi household production consisted of: 15 Winchester bushels of potatoes. He kept two bee hives and livestock, including: 20 cows, 1 horse, 14 sheep and 4 hogs. His household produced 16 yards of fulled cloth, 16 yards of non-fulled cloth, and 40 pounds of wool. Levi also tended a public house. The bulk of the farm’s production is attributed to Miles’s household.

Levi Knowlton’s journey came to an end on May 21, 1842 at the age of 73 yr 4 mth 17 days. He was entered beside his daughter Eliza Caroline in a family cemetery that would be the final resting place for five successive generations of Knowltons. Levi’s wife Philena survived him by nearly eight years dying at the age of 74 yr on April 8, 1850.