Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Site

Location

7 Nott Rd, Guilderland, NY 12084, USA

Lat/Long

42.688301501193, -73.904961041736

Grant Recipient

Guilderland Historical Society

The land of the Norman Vale estate traces its origins to the Van Bael Land Patent. In 1716, early Normans Kill residents Johannes Symonese Veeder and Omy Le Grange purchased a large, square parcel of land along the Normans Kill creek for 250 pounds. The Veeder family settled the property and likely established a farm shortly after. While the oldest interments in the family graveyard on the property date to 1790, the farm was likely established well before then. The land passed down through generations of the Veeder family, moving from Johannes to his son Simon in 1746, and then to Simon’s son Volkert in 1785.

In 1813, John Tayler purchased the farmstead land from the estate of John V. Veeder for $13,500. Tayler was a businessman, lawyer, and politician who served in the Provincial Congress, Council of Safety, New York Assembly, and New York Senate between 1776 and 1813. He served as lieutenant governor of New York in 1811 and from 1813 to 1822. Following the resignation of Daniel D. Tompkins in 1817, Tayler served as the sixth governor of New York for five months. During his brief tenure, he signed “An Act Relative to Slaves and Servants” on March 13, 1817, initiating the abolition of slavery in New York State. In July of that year, he resumed his role as lieutenant governor under DeWitt Clinton.

Following Tayler’s death in 1829, his daughter, Margaret Tayler Cooper, inherited the farm and residence near the Normans Kill creek. An inventory of his Guilderland, New York, holdings described the home, farm, and lands acquired from the Veeder family, which totaled approximately 500 acres.

Her daughter, also named Margaret, was married to Joel Benedict Nott, and both lived at the Norman Vale Estate. Nott was a chemistry professor at Union College, an inventor holding U.S. and British patents for furnace and water wheel mechanics, a state assemblyman in 1850, and president of the New York State Agricultural Society in 1841. Detailed maps of the homestead land along the Normans Kill were commissioned in 1841, which delineated the boundaries of the former Volkert Veeder and John V. Veeder farms. Other early maps also designated the site of the residence as Norman Vale Farm and identified it as the home of Joel B. Nott.