Hester Law Howard McNeill was three times a McNeill. She was born a McNeill. Her first husband was a McNeill and her second husband was Alexander McNeill MPP for North Bruce from 1881- 1901. Their home was ‘The Corran", a magnificent, seventeen-room, stone mansion perched on a bluff overlooking Colpoy’s Bay north of Wiarton.

The Lady of the Corran was a lady of culture and refinement, affable in manner and genial in disposition. She made many friends, indeed to know her was to love her. She was completely unselfish and devoted to the welfare of her husband and his career.

Hester Law Howard McNeill, was born in Clapton, near London, England in 1830 to Sir Forbes McNeill and his wife Beatrice. Sir Forbes McNeill, (1801-1845) was the youngest of six sons of John McNeill, Laird of Colonsay and his wife Hester whose maiden name also was McNeill. As well as six sons, John and Hester McNeill also had four daughters, Mary, Hester, Anne and Lucy. Hester’s grandfather, John McNeill (1767-1846), was affectionately known as ‘The Old Laird.’ Hester was educated in London where her father was a well-to-do merchant and businessman.

In 1853, Hester married her first cousin, Lieutenant John McNeill, son of Malcolm McNeill who was the fourth son of "The Old Laird." John McNeill was a Lieutenant in the Madras army and died four years after their marriage, leaving Hester a wealthy widow with a small son, John.

In 1872 at almost forty-two years of age, Hester married another first cousin, Alexander McNeill the son of Louisa ‘Lucy’ McNeill, a daughter of the ‘Old Laird.’ Alexander’s father was Malcolm McNeill of Larne in County Antrim, Ireland, a cousin of the Irish branch of the family. Alexander had grown up in Antrim and was educated in Wimbledon, England and Trinity College, Dublin. In June 1868, at the age of twenty-six, he was called to the bar and practiced law for several years in Western England.

Almost immediately after their marriage Hester and Alexander immigrated to Upper Canada to fulfill a family obligation. Earlier that year, their almost eighty-year-old, bachelor uncle, Duncan McNeill ( second son of the Old Laird) had purchased land in Elderslie Township and sent his nephew, John McNeill fresh from the battle field of India, out to oversee it. John, a cousin of both Alexander and Hester, was the son of Archibald McNeill, the fifth son of the "Old Laird.’

John McNeill was bright, energetic, well liked and was soon at home among the many other Colonsay families settled in the district. Right away he found out that Lot 32, Concession A, on the Saugeen Road (later called the Elora Road) did not need an overseer; it needed workers if it was to be productive.

Unlike in Colonsay, it was not easy to hire men in Elderslie because each of the settlers was busy clearing his own land. However he was able to find one man, John Galbraith, a bachelor, who was willing to sell his land and come to work full time. John McNeill bought a yoke of oxen, a cow, some hens and a horse to ride. He built two more rooms on to the house for his housekeeper and hired man and settled into the life of a pioneer. What a tragic loss when a few months later his life was snuffed out by an avoidable accident. He and John Galbraith were taking a load of logs to the sawmill in Paisley. Going down the long, curved hill north of the village, the load shifted, the oxen startled and John Galbraith wasn’t able to hold them. The logs tipped, throwing John Galbraith free but pinning the Laird’s grandson beneath. When help came to free him they found he was unable to move and had passed out from the pain. Mercifully death came six hours later.

Someone had to go to Canada to take care of Duncan McNeill’s land and that someone was Alexander McNeill and his bride, Hester.

In mid-September 1872, Alexander and Hester arrived in Paisley by train and were met at the station by John Galbraith. After the initial shock of being in a land only partially cleared of trees, with roads that were impassable spring and fall, and the only abode on the farm being a small, frame house, Hester and Alexander settled into the life of early pioneers.

Hester’s second husband was twelve years younger than her and he adored her. Great was their joy when on July 31, 1874, Hester gave birth to a baby boy. They named him Malcolm after Alexander’s father.

In 1881, Alexander left the operation of Lots 32, Concession A and B, Elderslie to his trusted manager, John Galbraith, and purchased land on Concession 25, Amabel Township, Bruce County. Here they built The Corran.

Alexander McNeill wished to live in the manner of the wealthy Irish gentry from which he had come, so he carefully tried to recreate his boyhood home in Ireland, which had been built high on a cliff overlooking broad waters and was also called The Corran.

Constructed from cut stone, the Corran was a two-storey mansion with ten foot ceilings on the first floor and nine on the second . A veranda extended across the front where the family and guests could sit and view Colpoy’s Bay, one hundred and twenty-five feet below. Hester wanted a conservatory, a fine drawing room with limed oak paneling, two dining rooms, and many sumptuous bedrooms and two little powder rooms for guests to freshen up. A beautiful stain glass window filtered light into the spacious foyer and reflected off the curved circular staircase. There was a well-arranged kitchen with plenty of shelves and workspace, a scullery in a separate building and proper servants quarters.

Alexander’s library was said to be the most extensive private library north of Toronto. Mahogany shelves held thousands of finely bound books and magazines. He also had rich collections of carvings and art works that adorned the massive stone fireplaces.

Hester was the driving force behind the building, furnishing and decorating of the Corran. She brought furnishings from Ireland and Scotland to emulate the best of English country traditions. She draped the windows with fine brocade and papered the walls with the best wallpaper. On the walls hung the finest paintings.

Shortly after moving to The Corran Alexander McNeill became a Member of Parliament for North Bruce, a position he held for twenty years. His background and social standing made him much more suited to life as a parliamentarian than to a pioneer with axe in hand clearing the land. Alexander loved to entertain his contemporaries at parties at the Corran. Hester was his charming hostess.

Politicians, and distinguished gentry and their ladies would journey from many points of Ontario to spend a day on the manicured lawns, enjoying three acres of carefully laid out gardens surrounding The Corran. The guests could amble among beds of peonies blooming brightly under branches of pear, apple and plum trees. They passed under grape vines as they followed the walkways down to the cliffs. Sweet violin music filled the air. Refreshments were abundant. As dusk fell and the mist crept up from Georgian Bay, The Corran’s delco plant sent power to the globes perched on stately lampposts lighting the walkways. Later the guests moved inside to visit and admire the McNeill’s collections of rare Oriental carvings, ancient weapons and tapestries. They gazed in awe at the book-lined walls of the library.

Hester lived for only nine years to enjoy her beautiful home. Although in delicate health for some time she put her husband’s needs first and frequently accompanied him to Ottawa so that she might be at his side for social functions there. After returning from one of these trips at the end of May 1890, she was confined to her room. In the weeks that followed she made valiant attempts to continue her duties as the Lady of the Corran but was unable to rally to any great extent. She sank gradually and on August 23, 1890 Hester McNeill passed calmly and peacefully away in her fifty-ninth year.

The Lady of the Corran was remembered by many for her kindly nature and unselfish spirit. Her son Malcolm , who was only sixteen when his mother died was bereft of a loving mother, confidant and friend. Her husband deeply mourned the lost of a most devoted and affectionate wife.

Hester’s dreams and plans for the completion of The Corran died with her but Alexander continued to build the finest country estate in the County of Bruce if not all of Ontario. He brought Alfred Lewis and his wife from Ireland to manage the estate. With Alexander’s taste and money Alfred completed Alexander’s dream of recreating the first Corran.

After the death of his beautiful and talented wife Alexander turned his attention to his farmlands ,his livestock,his breeding barns and his gardens.. He imported a herd of thirty Durham Shorthorn cattle from England and by careful breeding, his herd grew to be the best in Bruce County. To house the cattle he built stone barns with plastered walls and hand finished wood inside.

The grounds around the mansion were Alexander’s pride. The gardener, James Eyre, whom Alexander had brought from Ireland planned and oversaw the planting of five hundred rose bushes of all types. Among them were black roses from Ireland as well as black roses cut and transplanted from a bush under which Mary Queen of Scots slept the night before her execution

After Alexander’s death in 1932 at the age of 90, the beauty of the Corran began to fade away. The responsibility of the estate overwhelmed Malcolm. Following his return from captain of the reserve unit of the Royal Irish Rifles during the first world war , he had developed an interest in lawn bowling , breeding game birds and walking. When he died in 1956 in his eighty-third year he willed the decaying estate to Sally Simmons who had been his faithful housekeeper for over twenty years. Five years later she sold it to a couple from Willowdale who had great plans for its complete restoration but they could not protect the grand mansion from vandals or the fire which took its final toll. In 1976 the Sauble Valley Conservation Authority purchased the land.

The estate and magnificent house that grew from the ambitions of Alexander McNeill and the creativity of Hester, the Lady of the Corran, today lie in ruin. History and romance and memories of an early era lie buried in a jungle of weeds, wildflowers, dying trees and crumbled stone walls.

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Only the memory of the beautiful, kind, gentle, devoted Lady of the Corran remains untarnished and untouched through the years.