Edward Antill (June 17, 1701 – August 15, 1770) was a colonial plantation owner, attorney, and early politician in the

Province of New Jersey The Province of New Jersey was one of the Middle Colonies of Colonial America and became the U.S. state of New Jersey in 1783. The province had originally been settled by Europeans as part of New Netherland but came under English rule after the ...

. His early work in cultivating grapes and producing wine received an award of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

and makes him among the earliest winemakers in Britain's North American colonies.

Early life

Antill was born on June 17, 1701 in New York City and was the son of attorney Edward Antill (1658-). His father died when Edward was young and he would be raised by the pirate

Giles Shelley Giles Shelley (born May 1645 (?), died 1710, last name occasionally Shelly) was a pirate trader active between New York and Madagascar. History Shelley commanded the 4-gun or 6-gun vessel ''Nassau'' on supply runs between New York and the pirate ...

. Shelley had been one of his father's clients, and the elder Edward had saved Shelley from execution for piracy.The Morris Family: Edward Antill 17 Jun 1701 - 15 Aug 1770
Retrieved January 26, 2013. His father had left young Edward large tracts of land at Piscataqua (now

Piscataway Township Piscataway () is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. It is a suburb of the New York metropolitan area, in the Raritan Valley. At the 2010 United States Census, the population was 56,044, an increase of 5,562 (+11.0%) f ...

, near

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

, in

Middlesex County, New Jersey Middlesex County is located in central New Jersey, United States, extending inland from the Raritan Valley region to the northern portion of the Jersey Shore. As of the 2020 United States Census, the county's population was enumerated at 863,1 ...

. When Shelley died in 1710, Edward also inherited a large portion of his estate.

Career

Edward was "remarkable for his eccentricities." Greene, Richard H. "King's (Now Columbia) College and it Earliest Alumni" in Greene; Stiles, Henry Reed; Totten, John Reynolds; and DeForest, Louis Effingham (editors). ''The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volumes 25-26'' (New York: New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 1894), 174. He had served in the New Jersey colony's General Assembly in 1738, and was appointed by Governor Morris to the Provincial Council in 1741 and by Royal Governor

Jonathan Belcher Jonathan Belcher (8 January 1681/8231 August 1757) was a merchant, politician, and slave trader from colonial Massachusetts who served as both governor of Massachusetts Bay and governor of New Hampshire from 1730 to 1741 and governor of New J ...

in 1746. He would serve on the Provincial Council until 1762. In 1759, he was the superintendent of a

lottery A lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of ...

that intended to raise £1500 to complete Christ Church, the

Episcopal Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United State ...

church in New Brunswick. Antill served as a vestryman of Christ Church. He later gave £1800 toward founding King's College (now

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

) where his son Edward graduated in 1762.

Wine making

On December 2, 1767, the

awarded Antill a £200 prize that had been pending since 1758 challenging colonial landowners in North America to plant of vineyards and produce quality wine. The Society sought to award the first colonist who planted 500 vines of '' Vitus vinifera'' grapes and from them produced "five tuns of red or white wine of acceptable quality" that equalled "those Sorts of Wines now consumed in Great Britain." Antill had advised the society that on his estate in Piscataway he had planted 800 vines of

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Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...

and grapes as well as a few "Sweet-water Grape vines, and of the best sort of the Native Vines of America by way of tryal." In the last years of his life, Antill prepared an 80-page tract entitled "An Essay on the cultivation of the Vine, and the making and preserving of Wine, suited to the different Climates in North-America" which was published a year after his death in the ''Transactions'' of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. It was a "how-to" guide with the intention of disseminating to other colonial farmers the knowledge he had gained about cultivating grapes and producing wine. Antill was himself a member of the Society, having been elected to it in 1768.

Personal life

On June 10, 1739, Edward Antill married Anne Morris (1706-1781), the daughter of

Lewis Morris Lewis Morris (April 8, 1726 – January 22, 1798) was an American Founding Father, landowner, and developer from Morrisania, New York, presently part of Bronx County. He signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence as a delegate to the Continen ...

(1671-1746), the Royal Governor of New Jersey. There would be six children from this marriage, of which two sons who would serve as officers in

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

. Their children included: * Edward Antill (1742–1789), who married Charlotte Riverin in 1767. * John Antill (1744–1816), who married Margaret Colden (–1789), daughter of

Alexander Colden Alexander Colden (August 13, 1716 – December 12, 1784) was an American merchant and public official in Colonial New York who was the son of Cadwallader Colden. Early life Colden was born on August 13, 1716 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in what ...

. After Margaret's death, he married her younger sister, Jane Colden. Edward Antill died on August 15, 1770 and buried the following day near the southeast corner of the churchyard at Christ Church in New Brunswick.

Residence

On his 370-acre plantation at Raritan Landing, he constructed a large home in the Georgian and Dutch Colonial style in 1739. This house, also known later as

Ross Hall Ross Hall was a historic colonial farmhouse located on River Road in Piscataway, New Jersey. It was built by Edward Antill and is also known as the Edward Antill House. In 1768, it was purchased by its namesake, Dr. Alexander Ross. In early J ...

, was destroyed in 1954. The plantation consisted of an estimated 40 acres of meadow, 100 acres in timber, and a large orchard of 500 apple trees. He grew apples trees for a distillery on the site, and built a large brewhouse, 60-feet by 38 feet, with copper boiler pot holding 22 barrels.Weiss, Harry B. and Weiss, Grace M. "The Early Breweries of New Jersey" in ''Proceedings of the New Jersey Agricultural Society'' (1963).

Works

* 1771: "An Essay on the cultivation of the Vine, and the making and preserving of Wine, suited to the different Climates in North-America" (published posthumously) in ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Antill, Edward 1701 births 1770 deaths American winemakers Politicians from New York City Members of the New Jersey Provincial Council People of colonial New Jersey New Jersey wine People from Piscataway, New Jersey 18th-century American politicians