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

The Antills ...page 16

October, 1671 and became the First Lord of the Manor, and one of the most distinguished and influential men of his time, holding among other high offices those of Chief Justice of New York and Governor of New Jersey. He was brought up by his Quaker uncle Lewis Morris, who held very rigid notions of life. The lad apparently failed to conform exactly to the strict discipline demanded of him, and incurred his uncle's displeasure; in an impatient moment, he ran away. However, after somewhat extensive travels, during which he maintained himself as a scrivener, he returned and was reconciled, though his "Intractible disposition" was referred to with some severity in his uncle's Will.

Lewis Morris II was 20 years old when his uncle died in 1691. He inherited not only his uncle's entire possessions; he entered on his career with every advantage of distinguished birth, refined breeding and an abundant fortune. His personal position was enhanced still further by his marriage in the same year into one of the principal families in the country. On 3 November he married Isabella Graham, daughter of the Hon. James Graham, Attorney General of New York, and a descendant of the "Grahams of the Isles" and the Earl of Montrose. Smith, in his entertaining history of New York, refers to Isabella as a "fine lady, with whom Lewis Morris lived about 50 years, in the possession of every enjoyment which good sense and polite manners in a woman could afford".

Apart from the Bronxland estate, - now 1920 acres - Lewis also inherited 3500 acres in Monmouth County, N. J., and other New Jersey lands.

At that period it was the policy of the British Government to confer special privileges of a semivaristocratic nature on certain American families, which were sufficiently qualified for such pre-eminence by social position and landed possessions. No titles of nobility were granted, but family estates were raised by Letters Patent into Manors, on the English plan. Among the families thus honoured were the Van Rensselaers and Livingstones on the Upper Hudson, some on Long Island, and in Westchester County the Manors were Pelhan, patented to Thomas Pell; Fordham to John Archer; Philipseburgh to Frederick Philipse; Morrisania to Lewis Morris; Van Courtlandt to Stephanus Van Courtlandt and Scarsdale to Caleb Heathcote.

On 8 May, 1697, Lewis Morris II received from Governor Fletcher a Royal Patent converting his Bronxland estate into the "Lordship or Manor of Morrisania", and bestowing upon him and his successors authority to hold a court leet and court baron, to exercise jurisdiction over all waifs, estrays, wrecks, deodands, goods or felons happening and being within the Manor limits, and to enjoy the advowson and right of patronage over all churches in the Manor. The dignity of "Lord of the Manor" was enjoyed by himself, by his eldest son Lewis Morris III, and by the latter's eldest son Lewis Morris IV, "The Signer". The Manorial privilege itself disappeared with the Revolution. The law of Primogeniture did not, however, apply to the property. The estate of ...