John Bethune Abbott (1852-1930)

He was born at Montreal and graduated in law from McGill University (1874). He became a partner in his father's pre-eminent law firm (Badgley & Abbott) but retired early to devote himself to art. He painted in watercolours and was Curator of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. He kept an art gallery at 23 Phillips Square and lived between 299 Pine Avenue in Montreal and "Hillcote" (163 Chemin de Senneville), his country home on what had been part of his father's estate overlooking the Lac des Deux-Montagnes. His father died in 1893 and his country home Boisbriant was neglected and fell into disrepair. In 1899, the family sold the house to Sir Edward Clouston who enlarged Boisbriant from a Victorian villa into a sprawling Gilded Age pile, before it was shrunk back years later to its original modest proportions as it appears today. In 1900, Abbott used the proceeds of the sale of Boisbriant to build a new home for himself and his unmarried sisters in the American Colonial-Revival style. He also died unmarried.