In July, 1803, a tract of over thirty-one acres was conveyed by John B. Prevost, former Recorder of the city, to Joseph Alston, of South Carolina, planter. Alston[33] seems to have held the property about three years and then to have sold it to John Marsden Pintard. This deed conveys the tract known as “Monte Alto.” In November, 1808, a release was recorded, executed by Theodosia Burr Alston in favor of Michael Hogan, gentleman, Hogan having bought Monte Alto from Pintard.[34]
There is no record of any conveyance of Claremont, by Gulian Verplanck or his executors, to Hogan,[35] but a deed made by Robert Lenox, Jacob Stout, and John Wells, trustees, to Michael Hogan, dated July 21, 1819, reconveys to him all property not disposed of in the execution of their trust, which is referred to as having been imposed by _two_ previous deeds of assignment or conveyance dated July 25, 1811. It is here that it is generally thought a vagueness and uncertainty as to the true owner exists. It was about this time that Claremont was occupied by a rather mysterious individual, an Englishman named Courtenay, who, it is said, in after years, inherited the title of the Earl of Devon.
Mr. Haswell,[36] in his “Reminiscences of an Octogenarian,” says, page 25: “West of Broadway, between Eleventh and Twelfth avenues and One Hundred and Twenty-third Street, there was a large country residence occupied by an Englishman, a Mr. Courtenay, with but one man servant and a cook. He lived so retired as never to be seen in company with anyone outside of his household and very rarely in public.
“There was, as a consequence, many opinions given as to the occasion of such exclusiveness. The one generally and finally accepted was that he had been a gay companion of royalty in his youth, and that his leaving England was more the result of expediency with him than choice.” Lossing’s[37] account differs somewhat from this. He says: “When the War of 1812 broke out he (Courtenay) returned thither (to England) leaving his furniture and plate, which were sold at auction.... Courtenay was a great lion in New York, for he was a handsome bachelor, with title, fortune, and reputation--a combination of excellencies calculated to captivate the heart desires of the opposite sex. Claremont was the residence for a while of Joseph Bonaparte, ex-King of Spain, when he first took refuge in the United States, after the battle of Waterloo and the downfall of the Napoleon dynasty. Here too Francis James Jackson, the successor of Mr. Erskine, the British Minister at Washington, at the opening of the War of 1812, resided a short time.... He was politically and socially unpopular, and presented a strong contrast to the polished Courtenay.” Courtenay disappeared at the time of the war between this country and Great Britain, after having greatly embellished the place. It has always been a tradition in the Post family (who owned the property for nearly fifty years) that Courtenay built the present house. In March, 1812, Hogan joined with the above-named trustees in conveying the property “commonly called Claremont” to Herman Le Roy, William Bayard, and James McEvers, trustees. By some it has been supposed that while the legal title was in trustees, there may have been an unrecorded declaration of trust, by which Courtenay became the equitable owner. The grantees[38] in the last-mentioned deed first leased Claremont and several years later sold it to Joel Post, February 12, 1821. Later, Mr. Post (brother of the distinguished physician of the last century, Dr. Wright Post, who also resided at Claremont) purchased the property adjoining on the south, Monte Alto, and united the ownership of the two places, although Monte Alto was for many years occupied as a country seat by the McEvers family.[39] In 1868 the house and a portion of the place were acquired by the city from the heirs of Mr. Post.