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

The Antills ...page 17

Morrisania descended intact in the family, undergoing various subdivisions in later generations, but with few alienations to strangers, until towards the =+ddle of the 19th Century. After the extension of the Harlem Railroad into Westchester County, in 1841, its lands were bought by judicious home-seekers and investors, the population increased and progress was steadily made towards urban conditions. The whole of the original Morrisania Manor, with the adjacent portions of Westchester County, were r:-exed by the City of New York in 1874, and now constitute part of the Borough of the Bronx in the metropolis . Members of the Morris family sti11 continue as large property owners in the City territory.

Lewis Morris preferred in his early manhood to live on his New Jersey lands, from where his distinguished career began. The first iron mine in America was worked there as early as 1675. The large New Jersey land purchases made by Lewis Morris I included what became Monmouth County, Morris County, Morristown and Tintern.

In 1692, at the age of 21, Lewis Morris II was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Right in New Jersey, and became a meMber of the Counci1 of Governor Hamilton. From this time until his death he was continuously identified with public affairs. "A nativevborn American, inheriting bold and progressive principles from his ancestors, he early manifested a strong inclination to popular rights and interests, and a particular antagonism to the purely arbitrary and personal course which characterised the administration of most of the royal Governors. The circumstances of the times peculiarly called for leaders of such conscientious and inflexible character, and Morris soon became the recognised head of the popular side".

In 1698 he was a prominent member of the party which refused to recognise the authority of Governor Basse, and was expelled from the Council and fined for contempt. He returned to the eounci1 in 1700, when Hamilton was appointed Governor of New Jersey. He was a strong advocate ot the surrender of the New Jersey government to the Crown; he went to England and secured the adoption of the plan. While there he was offered the Governorship of the Province, but the offer was withdrawn when it was decided to consolidate the administration of New Jersey with that of New York, under the notorious Lord Cornbury. He became a member of Cornbury's Council in 1703, but as an honest and fearless public servant he made himself so unpopular with the corrupt Governor that he was dismissed the following year. Reinstated by order of the Queen, he persevered in the same uncompromising opposition, and was again permanently dismissed by Cornbury, However, whilst excluded from the inner councils of the government, Morris used his popularity to the full in the New Jersey Assembly. He was the author of the celebrated paper on the Cornbury administration – one of the ablest political documents of the times - which, with resolutions passed by the Assembly, was sent to England and resulted in the Governor's recall and disgrace in 1708. Governors Lovelaee and Ingoldsby followed, and they found Morris no more a ...