Antill family index [OCR source: The Antill Family by R.V. Pockley]

The Antills ...page 12

The infant boy was brought up by the former alleged pirate, Giles Shelley. In his Will dated 22 September, 1708, Shelley left all his "messuage, farm, lands, appurtenances, stock, furniture, etc'; at the Bowery to two friends, to hold during the life of one Mary Peters, and at her decease to be held in trust for Edward Antill, "whom I have adopted and bread up having no children of my own". He left Mary Peters 3 Indian slaves; he left his "loving Aunt Elizabeth Clarke" in England £20 sterling a year during her life, and "to wife 20 shillings and no more". Edward Antill received his two houses and lands in the City of New York, and all his other lands "to him and the heirs of his body". A codicil, dated 1710, stated that Mary Peters was now dead.

When young Edward reached the age of 21, Shelley1's Trustee, then a merchant in Barbadoes gave him a "true and full account" of his estate, and paid him £126.2.9, the balance due to him; Anti11 gave him a discharge dated 10 AuGust, 1723. Among the property which thus came to young Antill was a mortgage given to Shelley in 1700 on "a tract of land on the North Branch of the Raritan River, containing 912 acres English measure; also 300 acres of upland at Barnegate, beginning at the north of Manahohacky Creek, by the Bay..."; none of the money owing was paid, so the property passed to Edward. He assigned it to Samuel Bayard on 1 October, 1732. On 20 June, 1729, he gave his wife Catherine Power of Attorney, allowing her to enter into his lands, etc, the four houses in New York only excepted.

Edward Antill took up his residence at an early date at Piscataway Landing, on the Raritan River, on portion of the broad acres inherited from his father. About 1739 he built Ross Hall, one of the show places of the valley. It was Washington's headquarters from 30 June to 5 July, 1778, following the Battle of Monmouth. The building was badly damaged by fire in 1954, and razed in 1960. However, the interior of the parlour was saved and has been reconstructed in the New Jersey Historical Society Museum. The site is now Rutgers University.

Antill's wife Catherine having died, on 10 June, 1739, he re-married Anna, daughter of Judge Lewis Morris. He thus acquired a father-in-law who was the First Lord of the Manor, Chief Justice of New York and the first royal Governor of New Jersey; a brother-in-law who was Chief Justice of New Jersey and Governor of Pennsylvania; another brother-in-law who was Second Lord of the Manor and a Judge of the Court of Admiralty; a nephew who was a General and a signer of the Declaration of Independence; another nephew who was a General in the British Army; another nephew who was Chief Justice of New York, and finally another nephew, Gouveneur Morris, who was a Senator, Washington's Ambassador to the Court of France, one of the 39 Signers of the U.S. Constitution, and one of the most prominent Americans of the century.