1 Guvrep sist) aut ZO O>A Umol UL bRul ‘wo )¥?2 OLS tH wereld ns / Svaqu kai 20< Miss Gwendolin Lazier— United Empire Loyalist Courier from Belleville to Washington. Cadet W. Allan Dempsey— United Empire Loyalist Courier from Belleville to Toronto. Reprinted from Vol. XXVII, No. 1, The Loyalist Gazette, July 1989. 116 Seventh Town Remembers o— LOOMGISYG FROM BELLEVILLE TO WASHINGTON ON HORSEBACK MRS. GWEN BRAIDWOOD By Peggy Dymond Leavey Gwen Braidwood’s love of life and her enthusiasm for all its adventures are evident in the many interesting things she’s done during her 80 plus years. Her most well publicized exploit was the time she rode a horse from Belleville, Ontario to Washington D.C. She was just 18. But more amazing was the fact that she had never been on a horse before. Gwen had always been an athletic girl, involved in various sports. She says she must have come by her ability with horses honestly enough. Her Grandmother Weller used to drive four-in-hand. “I can still see her with those four beautiful black horses,” Gwen says. The names of Gwen Lazier Braidwood’s ancestors, both the Wellers and the Laziers, are well-known in Prince Edward County’s history. Her maternal grandmother was Mary Alice Weller, one of the children of William Weller who had a stage coach service, established in 1830, between York (now Toronto) and Prescott. Her ancestors on her father’s side were the Laziers. There have been various spellings of the name over the years. Originally it was ‘LeSeuer’, and the family came from France in 1635. There is a grave of one Peter LeSeuer in the old Huguenot churchyard (1844-1845) in Charleston, South Carolina. Nicholas Lazier, Gwen’s great, great grandfather bornin 1781, builta beautiful house of cut stone between Northport and Demorestville in Prince Edward County on the lower road. Today the new road goes behind the house. The present owners are restoring the house and the huge fireplace, big enough to cook an ox, has been opened up again. The Laziers brought their slaves up with them from the States, and they are buried in the little cemetery beside the house. Mary Alice Weller married Fred Lingham, an engineer who worked with Cecil Rhodes at that time in South Africa. When the Boer War \9puan-y ‘< 2xrF7 Mre. Gatien Braidenand W7