The Joseph Lloyd Manor house is a historical site and Literary Landmark located in Lloyd Harbor, Suffolk County New York. The house was built between 1766 and 1767 on the Manor of Queens Village, a 3,000-acre provisioning plantation established in the late 17th century on the ancestral lands of the Matinecock Nation. The entire estate encompassed all of what is known today as Lloyd Neck. The house was built for Joseph Lloyd (1716–1780) and remained in the Lloyd family for a century before being sold in 1876. It is most significant today for being where Jupiter Hammon (1711–before 1806), the first published Black American poet, was enslaved by the Lloyd family and authored his best-known works. Today, Joseph Lloyd Manor is owned by Preservation Long Island and is used to educate the public about Long Island's colonial and early national history, the region's history of enslavement, and the legacy of Jupiter Hammon.
History of ownership
The construction of Joseph Lloyd Manor house was commissioned by Joseph Lloyd, the third son of Henry Lloyd I (1685–1763) and Rebecca Nelson Lloyd (1688–1728). Henry Lloyd was a Boston and Newport merchant and the second lord of the Manor of Queens Village. In 1711, he had the first manor house built on Lloyd Neck where Joseph Lloyd and Jupiter Hammon were born. When Henry died in 1763, the entire manorial estate was subdivided among his four surviving sons and the 1711 house passed to Henry Lloyd II (1709–1795), who encouraged Joseph to build a house suitable to his wealth and status. In the aftermath of the Battle of Long Island in 1776, British soldiers occupied the entirety of Lloyd Neck, including Joseph Lloyd Manor. While in exile in Connecticut, Joseph took his own life. Unmarried and without children, he bequeathed his entire estate to his nephew, John Lloyd II (1745–1792), who found the house and land severely damaged after the war. Following John's death in 1792, his widow, Amelia, served as administrator of the estate until the final disposition was completed in 1809 when their son, John Nelson Lloyd (1783–1841), inherited the property. John Nelson Lloyd's son, Henry Lloyd IV (1822–1892), would be the last member of the Lloyd family to own Joseph Lloyd Manor. He struggled financially, and in 1876, sold the house to James C. Townsend of Oyster Bay to pay off debts. In 1882, Anne Coleman Alden (1818–1896) purchased the house following the construction of Fort Hill House, her summer residence on Lloyd Neck. Alden's estate, including Joseph Lloyd Manor, was then sold in 1900 to William John Matheson. He occupied Fort Hill House while his daughter Anna and her husband Willis D. Wood moved into Joseph Lloyd Manor in 1905. The Woods made it their summer home until they moved to Fort Hill House after Mr. Matheson's death in 1930. Mrs. Wood subsequently rented the Joseph Lloyd Manor house to a number of tenants, among them Charles Lindbergh, who lived there with his family from February 1940 until August 1941. Finally, Mrs. Anna Matheson Wood gifted Joseph Lloyd Manor to the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities in 1968. Today, the Society is known as Preservation Long Island and continues to steward the house.
Building and architecture
Exterior
The Joseph Lloyd Manor is situated on a hill on the south side of Lloyd Neck facing what was then Horse Neck Harbor, today Lloyd Harbor. In 1765, Joseph Lloyd commissioned Abner Osborne, a Connecticut carpenter, to build the windows, shingles, interior architectural finishes, and the courtyard around the house. Lloyd Neck was dense with trees, giving the builders an unlimited amount of wood to use for the construction of the house. The structure's symmetry and balanced design reflect the simple elegance of high-style, Pre-Revolutionary architecture. The façade features five bays: a central front door with two, symmetrically spaced windows on either side. The front door is flanked by fluted pilasters with a segmental pediment above. The second floor also features a bay of five windows that correspond with the four windows and door below. When originally constructed, the house design included an uncovered wooden stoop and two symmetrical central chimneys.