BRJSummer25WebReduced - Flipbook - Page 38
slow; for of all the variety of vines in Europe, we do not yet know which will suit this
climate; and until that is ascertained by experiment, our people will not plant vineyards.
Few of us are able, and a much less number willing, to make the experiment.=
London9s Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures, and
Commerce, were in agreement and had been offering incentives for grape cultivation
in the colonies since 1758, with no takers. They upped the ante in 1762, by announcing
a £200 award (over $60,000 today) for anyone who could plant the largest vineyard in
the American colonies between April 1762 and April 1767. After five years, only Lord
Stirling and New Jersey9s Edward Antill applied for the prize.
The adopted son of a notorious pirate, Edward Antill (1701-1770), was a wellheeled lawyer, politician, cider distiller, and innovative plantation owner in Raritan
Landing. Described by a family biographer as a man possessed of
