Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly was born on the 23rd of December,1761 in northern Lithuania. He was the Russian Secretary of War in 1810-1812. Barclay de Tolly lead the Russian army in the Patriotic War in 1812, but the tsar dismissed him from the position of Commander-in-Chief by the influence of general public. After the death of M. Kutuzov he was nominated again as the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army in May, 1813. After retiring from military service Barclay de Tolly settled down in his Jõgeveste Manor. Barclay de Tolly died on the 26th of May, 1818 and his remains were embalmed and put into the mausoleum built after the project of a famous Russian architect Apollon Štšedrin in 1832.

The famous sculptor Vassili Demut-Malinovski has created the monument inside the mausoleum. The opening in the middle of the floor of the mausoleum leads to the basement where the sarcophagi of prince and princess Barclay de Tolly are located. Barclay de Tolly’s son Ernst Magnus (1789-1871) with his wife Leocadie (1807-1852) has been buried in the graveyard by the burial chapel