Built Heritage: Montpelier
Built Heritage: Montpelier
BUILT HERITAGE: August 2021 By Linda Abend and Margie Lloyd, Bermuda National Trust
This post is part of a series of architectural articles by the Bermuda National Trust that highlight some of Bermuda’s endangered historic buildings.
Montpelier is a listed building owned by the Bermuda Government. Built in the middle to late 1700s, Montpelier is perched on the hillside and once would have enjoyed a fine view of Hamilton Harbour. During the next century there were additions and alterations that surrounded the original T-shaped cottage.
The first owner of record is Bermudian Richard Jennings Peniston who, with his wife and first cousin Rebecca Jennings, took up residence when they returned from the Dutch island of St Eustatius in 1781 after it had been captured and looted by British Admiral George Rodney. The story goes that it was Rebecca’s idea to sew their gold into the upholstered seats of the cedar chairs and so were able to escape without their fortune being detected and seized by Rodney. Richard died in 1810 and Rebecca in 1816 and Montpelier was inherited by her nephews, the sons of her sister Mary, and eventually by Mary’s grandson, Richard Jennings Peniston Darrell.