![]() ![]() The thickness of the walls retain heat in the winter while keeping it cooler in the summer. The orientation of the house creates a cooling breeze. It is a three-story stone house constructed on an exceptional site. Lancelot Abbotts is best known in Fayette County for the house that he built. He told Bryan that he would have done so the following spring had his wife not died. In an 1874 letter to his old friend, Moses Austin Bryan, Abbotts states that he "has not willingly left Texas." He also states that he gave away his land in Fayette County to his nephew's family and that he gave away his other land to the relatives of his wife because he felt bound to give something to her family because he could not give it to her as she "has left me to weep." Abbotts never returned to Texas. There were several rumors as to why Abbotts left Texas including one of the more colorful ones that speculated that he had inherited land and a title in England which required him to give up his land holdings in Texas. His cousins, the Thomas Carter family were occupying the Abbotts home in 1870. Sometime between 18 Abbotts returned to his native England. ![]() In 1860 his flock of sheep yielded 620 pounds of wool. It was a profitable if unusual business for this area. Abbotts and his wife, Elizabeth, built a large home on his league of land about 1857 and raised sheep. Abbotts was also listed as being married on that census but it is unclear when he was actually married. According to the July 1850 Federal Census of Fayette County Abbotts was now employed as a printer by the newspaper in La Grange known as the Texas Monument. In March 1849 Abbotts bought the William Toy League of land in present southwestern Fayette County. For this service he was awarded a donation certificate for 640 acres of land in 1841.This land was located in Austin County. Abbotts served as a camp guard during the Battle of San Jacinto. He worked as a printer and a clerk at San Felipe until he joined the Texas army in February 1836. Lancelot Abbotts was born in England in 1812 and emigrated to Texas in January 1835. Lancelot Abbotts by the Fayette Heritage Archives Staff They first appeared in the weekly column, "Footprints of Fayette," which is published in local newspapers. Footprints of Fayette A-E Footprints of Fayette These histories were written by members of the Fayette County Historical Commission.
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