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[First Settlers of Ye Plantations of Piscataway and Woodsridge Olde East New Jersey part 3]
(N. E. HIST. GEN. REG., Vol. XIX, (p. 165), (1865), items taken from "Antill Family Records."
Giles Shelley (Godfather of Edward Antill, Jr., whose birth recorded in the next paragraph. S.) was born
July ye 30th 1664.
Edward Antill (son of Edward Antill formerly of Richmond in the County of Surry in Old England,
merchant, but late of New York, in America, attorney at Law, and Sarah his wife) was born in New York
the 17th of June, 1701.
[Whitehead]
Mrs. Antill seems to have possessed something of the Governor's whimsical obstinacy and petulance.
Mr. Whitehead says Antill was "an oddity," and as an instance thereof relates an incident to the effect that he once expressed to his wife his regret that the women of the day spent so much time in idleness or profitless pursuits, instead of "abiding in the fields with their maidents," gathering flax or grain. The next morning on coming down to breakfast Mr. Antill found the house deserted, and no signs of the matutinal repast. His wife had taken him at his word, and was out in the fields with her handmaidents, pulling flax. This is an illustration of the serious view Mr. Antill took of life.
[American Philosophical Society]
Member of both the American Society and the American Philosophical Society at the time of their union in 1769,
and resident member of the American Philosophical Society.
[Architectural History of New Brunswick NJ, 1681-1900]
Antill House,, River Road, Piscataway. 1741; destroyed.
The Antill house is the only major Georgian structure in this area to retain the design of the Dutch colonial
farmhouse. Thus the Antill house is much wider than it is deep; but this width is part of the original plan rather than the result of the addition
of rooms at the side, as was the common practice in the first Dutch Colonial homes in Bergen county. Despite the portico added
on in the Greek Revival period, one can still see the flare of the gambrel roof. This was another Dutch colonial feature; the Antill
house was the only mansion to include it.
While the structure's external appears part of the local Dutch tradition, the interior indicates the influence
of the Georgian style. There are two rooms on each side of a classical hallway, and the common classical motifs are used on walls and mantels.
[Architectural History of New Brunswick NJ
Barbara Cyviner Listokin]
ANTILL HOUSE or ROSS HALL (Figs. 64, 65, 66 and 67)
River Road, Piscataway
1739
DESTROYED 1954
Antill House was the only major Georgian home in the New Brunswick area to retain aspects of the Dutch-Flemish-colonial
farmhouse. Like the Zabriski-Von Steuben House in North Hackensack, Antill House was much wider than it was
deep (56 feet by 35 feet). Both houses had flared eaves at the base
of their gambrel roofs. Both these features are indicative of the Dutch-Flemish colonial tradition. The
Antill House differed from other Dutch farmhouses in that its width was original with the construction of
the home and its interior arrangement followed the Georgian manner.
The foundations of the house were stone, the exterior walls were brick which was then stuccoed over. The portico
on the front was added in the Greek Revival period and was particularly interesting for its adaptation to a sloped
site. The portico was raised, with six Doric columns over six truncated Doric pilasters that were attached
to a rusticated basement. The portico repeated the horizontal emphasis of the original structure but hid the flared
eaves of the roof. The interior had the typical Georgian arrangement, with four rooms coming off a center hallway.
However, in the Antill House, teh front rooms were much larger than the back rooms and were much wider than they were
long. Interior walls were plastered throughout; this indicates a later renovation.
[New Brunswick in History, William H. Benedict]
p.45
In 1742 a movement to build in New Brunswick was under way and a deed from Philip French to a lot on which
the building was going up, dated Dec. 4, 1745, speaks of the building as "in great forwardness." This deed was
to Peter Kemble, Francis Costigan, James Lyne and John Kearney, and was for a lot 150 ft. square. This church
had a lottery in 1758 and obtained a charter in 1759. Its first permanent rector was Rev. William Wood, 1747.
Its lottery was managed by Edward Antill, Bernardus Lagrange, Wm. Mercer, M.D., John Berrian, Samuel Kemble,
William harrison and Peter Kemble.
p.46
A second lottery to complete the church, Dec. 4, 1758, ten years later, drawing on July 17, 1759, brings us
a new set of names - Edward Antill, Bernardus Legrange, William Mercer, Samuel Kemble, William Harrison, Francis
Brasier. Edward Antill is probably one of the best-known men connected with Christ Church, and is
referred to elsewhere.
p.91
When New Jersey was called on to assist in protecting our border from the French and Indians, who had become an
alarming menace, Gov. John Hamilton, on the recommendation of his Council, Robert H. Morris, Edward Antill, James Hude and
John Coxe, appointed and commissioned Col. Peter Schuyler to command the Regiment of Troops, the first ever raised for
service outside of the State in other Colonies, excepting troops sent to the West Indies in 1739-'40.
p.115
Edward Antill, who built Ross Hall, had one son in each army. Stephen Kemble in his "Diary" says: 'Saw his old
schoolmate, Antill, among the prisoners.' He was on one of the prison ships. John and Lewis Antill married Margaret and
Alice Colden, the same family with which Dr. Farquhar and Dr. Auchmuty were connected. Mrs. Antill, her child and her sister,
Miss Colden, obtained permission from the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to proceed from New Brunswick
to New York, after taking an oath to carry no information to the enemy.
[Raritan Millstone Heritage Alliance]
Following his battlefield success in late June of 1778 near
Freehold Court House in the Battle of Monmouth,
Washington and the Continental Army returned to New
Brunswick to give the troops rest and relaxation near
the waters of the Raritan River; but also to mark the
now important holiday of the Fourth of July.
Washington, in this visit, stayed with his staff at the
commodious (and elegant) home of the widow Sarah
Ross, wife of a medical doctor who had died three years
previously, situated in a 350-acre farm estate on the
Raritan River in Piscataway, not far from the road to
New Market.
The house was built in 1739 by Edward Antill, an
importer and gentleman farmer, who was married to
Anne Morris, the daughter of Lewis Morris, royal
governor of New Jersey and lord of the manors of
Morrisana and Tintern (in New York and New Jersey,
respectively), and one of the wealthiest men in the
colonies. The Antill house was a sister structure to the
White house, built the same year by Anthony White,
also a son-in-law of Lewis Morris, married to Morris’
daughter Elizabeth.
The White house (called Buccleuch by a later owner) still
stands in New Brunswick’s Buccleuch Park. The Antill
house, called Ross Hall by Dr. Ross and his wife, burned
down about 40 years ago, its location today marked only
by a street name, Ross Hall Boulevard.
Part of the house, however, was saved: an
elaborate paneled fireplace wall, with side cabinets, for
which no comparable structure exists at Buccleuch
Mansion. Rutgers history professor Richard P.
McCormick and other university historians, managed to
salvage the wall; and presented it to the New Jersey
Historical Society for display at its museum in Newark.
[Ross Hall, Entwined with Buccleuch, Now Centre of Extensive Development
May 24, 1925, The Sunday Times, New Brunswick NJ]
...Ross Hall has a story which goes back to the days before the Revolution, during which conflict it witnessed many
stirring scenes. At the height of its glory, it had a knee-trousered, brass-buttoned, fox-hunting owner who lived the life of
an English gentleman, driving in a "coach and four" and entertaining the entry for miles around. ...
One goes back then to the time when in 1739 the two doubtless beautiful daughters of Governor Lewis Morris
of the Province of New Jerrsey married two young men of the first families of the vicinity. Elizabeth
married Colonel Anthony White and went to live in a new house on the brow of the hill overlooking the bright waters of
the Raritan, later to be known as Buccleuch. Anne went as a bridge
to the house of Edward Antill almost directly across the river, a home as imposing as that over which her sister presided.
At this time the present Buccleuch was known simply as the White House after its owner. These were pleasant
times but mostly uneventful, nearly thirty years before the Revolution. The lives of the White and Antills in the
rambling, pretentious houses on opposite of the Raritan.
These two families lived the lives of leisurely gentleman farmers, riding about in their coaches and entertaining folk
from roundabout and the distant "towns" of New York and Philadelphia. ...
it is recorded that Anne Morris wedded Edward Antill on June 10, 1789. Antill had built or had immediately
proceeded to build a house on the three hundred and fifty acre tract shortly before
acquired by his father across the river from the present city of New Brunswicks. ...
Records of the Antill family apparently were more carefully kept thatn were those of the Whites, for it is known that the first child of the Antill union
was born in the Antill house - Ross Hall - in 1740.
[Merchants and Gentlemen at Raritan Landing]
EDWARD ANTILL, ESQ.
FROM MY HOUSE on the Road Up Raritan, Raritan Landing looked like New Amsterdam. That's what I called it when I advertised the property for sale in 1753. I had 370 acres, much of it in meadow, but there were also 70 acres of good woodland and 10 acres of orchard in its prime together with a large collection of the best fruit trees: apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums, pears, hard and soft-shell almonds, early apples and English cherries. I even had a vineyard of about 600 vines for which I received £200 sterling from the Society for Promoting Arts and Agriculture. I was mainly what you would call a gentleman farmer—after all I was married to Anne Morris, the governor's daughter, and needed to stay above the fray—but we did some brewing on the property. My brewhouse was 60 feet long and 38 feet wide with a new boiler, called a copper, and 22 barrels that were connected to a system for carrying the liquor directly from place to place. My main income came from importing. Unlike the small-time traders in the village, I ordered linens directly from London; John Watts of New York conveyed my orders to Bristol. With other members of my class, I was a charter member of the Church of England in New Brunswick, which finally opened in 1761. I served as a vestryman and am buried in the churchyard.
[Historic American Buildings Survey of New Jersey
William B. Bassett, New Jersey Historical Society, 1977]
Antill, Edward, House ("Ross Hall") (NJ-362),
NE. corner River Rd. and Ross Hall Blvd. Brick (Flemish bond), stucco, and fieldstone, 56'-4" (five-bay front)
x 39'-7", one-and-a-half stories on slope with raised fieldstone basement, gambrel roof, pent
roofs, and full-length porch. Built 1740, demolished c. 1958. Occupied from 1740 to 1763 by Edward Antill and
his wife Anna, a daughter of the Colonial Governor of New Jersey, Lewis Morris; Dr. Alexander Ross occupied the house after
the Antills until 1775. Parlor paneling in the museum of New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, NJ,
17 sheets (1937, including plans, elevations, details;) 1 ext. photo (1936), 2 int. photos including
cupboard detail (1936); 2 data pages (1937).
[Abstracts of Wills Vol X 1780-1782]
Page 342.--In the name of God, Amen. I, ANN ANTILL, at present of the City of New York, in
North America, being of sound mind but old and infirm, etc. I leave to my son Edward my
lands in the County of Bergen, in the Province of New Jersey, left to me by the last Will of
John Corbett, Esq. I desire that my money in the hands of Charles Lowndes, Esq., given to me
by the Will of my deceased sister, Euphamia Norris, be divided into five equal parts and
disposed of as follows, viz.: to my grandson, John Collins Antill, son of John Antill, Esq.; to my
granddaughter, Isabella Graham Antill, daughter of my son, Edward Antill, Esq.; to my
granddaughter, Ann Cochran, daughter of Richard Cochran, Esq.; to my granddaughter,
Sarah Morris, daughter of Lieut. Colonel John Morris; and to my granddaughter, Elizabeth
Colden Antill, daughter of my son, Lewis Antill, deceased. As to the money given to me by my
late beloved husband, Edward Antill, Esq., and any other money I may die possessed of, I
desire it may be equally divided among my children. I make my son, John Antill, Esquire, my
sole executor.
Dated March 27, 1778. Witnesses, Thomas Davies, Ann Morris, Thos. Skinner, baker. Proved,
November 20, 1781.
NOTE.--On December 3, 1781, John Antill, Esq., appeared before the Surrogate for the City
and Province of New York, and was duly sworn to the true execution and performance of said
Will.
Copyright © 2002, Mary S. Van Deusen
