Edward Antill (1742 - 1789)

Born 11 Apr 1742 in Piscataqua, Province of New Jersey

Ancestors

Husband of Marie-Charlotte (Riverin) Antill — married 4 May 1767 in Quebec CA

Descendants

Died 21 May 1789 at age 47 in St Johns, Quebec Province

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Biography

Lt. Col. Edward Antill served with Second Canadian Regiment, Continental Army during the American Revolution.

2nd Canadian Regiment

Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed 19 May 2019), "Record of Edward Antill", Ancestor # A002892. Colonel Edward Antill and Marie-Charlotte Riverin page [1] Edward Antill, a New York merchant of the seventeenth century, and his descendents
William Nelson, 1899

Edward, first son of the said Anne [Morris], was born at the same place [Piscataqua, in the County of Middlesex, in East New Jersey], the 11th of April, 1742, at eleven of the clock in the morning, and was baptized in the same church [Christ Church, New Brunswick NJ], by the Reverend William Skinner, on Palm Sunday the 2d of May following, Peter Kemble of this Piace, merchant, and doctor Mercer, of Bound Brook, Gentn and Farmer, being his Godfathers, and Euphemia [Morris] Norris (his aunt by the mother) his Godmother, who being in England was personated by Mrs. Catherin Johnston.1

He was graduated from King's (now Columbia) College in 1762, and received the degree of A. M. in course, a fact of which he was naturally proud, sufficiently so to note it on his very neat book-plate.

Having studied law he was admitted to the bar in New York, but shortly removed to Quebec, where he remained until the Revolution began. When that city was besieged by the American troops in the Fall of 1775, he refused to respond to the call of the Governor of the city to take up arms in its defense, and was sent out to the American lines, where to his delight he was at once assigned to duty as chief engineer of the army, by General Montgomery. He was with that gallant officer when he fell, and was despatched by Gen. Wooster to relate the particulars to General Schuyler and the Continental Congress.

On January 22, 1776, he received a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel of Colonel Hazen's Second Canadian ("Congress Own") Regiment, and in May, 1776, General Benedict Arnold assigned him to duty as Adjutant General of the American Army in Canada. In the following December he was sent on a recruiting tour through New Jersey and the Southern States, with the approbation of General Washington (who wrote him a commendatory letter, Jan. 8, 1777), and Congress voted him $2,000 for his expenses.2 He was among the prisoners captured by the British, when Gen. Sullivan led his ill-fated expedition against Staten Island, August 22, 1777.3 For a time he was confined on one of the prison ships. Happily for him, his brother John, then in the British service, was one day sent to examine the condition of the prisoners, and the first person he saw among them was his own brother, whose release he soon effected.4 He and other American officers made a return, at Flat Bush on Long Island, August 15, 1778, of the officers and other prisoners on Long Island, for purposes of exchange.5 In August, 1779, he was still at large on Long Island, on parole.6 His exchange was effected Nov. 2, 1780.

On Jan. 7, 1782, he returned 77 men of his regiment belonging to the Pennsylvania line, who had not received the gratuity allowed them7 He was retired from the service Jan. 1, 1783.8

He was licensed as an attorney in New Jersey at the November Term, 1783.9 About this time (1783-4) he opened a law office in New York city, at No. 25 Water street, and later moved to No. 87 Broadway, corner of Wall street. In a letter dated "31 Golden Hill, New York City," December 16, 1785, he applied to John Jay, then Secretary for Foreign Affairs, to be appointed Translator in the Department of Foreign Affairs. Secretary Jay replied with his compliments that the office was not vacant. He then removed to Canada, joining his brother John there.

He [had] married at Quebec, May 4, 1767 (the Rev. John Brooks, chaplain of the garrison, officiating), Miss Charlotte Riverain, daughter of Joseph Riverain. She died at New York, September 3, 1785, aged thirty-two. He died at the town of St. John's, on the Richelieu river, near Montreal, in Canada, May 21, 1789, aged forty-seven years.10 (According to these dates she was but fourteen at the time of her marriage. Is there not an error here?) [Yes. She was born 29 May 1750, and married 04 May 1767, just before her 17th birthday.]

He was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Clinton County, N. Y., in 1789, but probably died before he could fill the office.

1 Antill Family Record 2 N.Y. Hist. Soc. Coll. 1880, 208, 218; Force's American Archives, 4th Series, IV., 189, 669; VI., 591, 1106; 5th Series, I., 654; III, 843, 1507, 1604, 1618; Penn. Archives, 2d Series, XI., 99; Spark's Washington, IV., 267. 3 Marshall's Washington, III., 136; Penn. Magazine of Hist. and Biog., III., 167; N.Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1883, 128. 4 Record Christ Church, 26. 5 Penn. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., XVII., 161. 6 N.Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1875, 241. 7 Penn. Archivess, IX., 476. 8 Heitman's Register, 64. 9 Antill Family Record.

From, "The History of Chazy, Clinton County, New York" by Sullivan and Martin

Edward Antill III, son of Edward Antill, Jr., and a daughter of governor Lewis Morris, was a member of a prominent New York City family. He had practiced as a lawyer in Canada for ten or twelve years when the Revolution began and, as a resident of Quebec City, refused to defend that city against the Americans in 1775. General Montgomery at once assigned him to duty of Chief Engineer, and he soon became a lieutenant colonel in Colonel Moses Hazen's Regiment of "Congress's Own." In May 1776, General Arnold appointed him Adjutant General of the American army in Canada. The following December he was sent recruiting through New Jersey and the southern states. In August 1777 he was taken prisoner at Staten Island, but was exchanged in 1780 and served to the end of the war. The balloting book assigns him lots 48 and 10 of 80 acres and 191 and 118 of 420 acres in the Refugee Tract. In August 1787 Lt. Colonel Antill was living here [Chazy, NY] alone. On October 23rd 1787, he witnessed a power of attorney for Benjamin Mooers.

On August 16th 1788, Royal Corbin wrote from Stillwater to his brother-in-law, "Pliny Moor, Esq'r, Great Chazy Fav'd by Coll'r Antle":

"Coll'r Antle Inform me you have got your mill up with Some disappointment with your Carpenter, although got another. . . Coll'r Antle informs me he is going on to Chazy with two Loads of Stores and carry the wight of 2 Hun'd. . ."

He is not listed here in 1790 census (see above article), and the 1798 assessment roll assigns 880 acres on the Lake Shore and Little Chazy River, adjoining William Douglass's Land, valued at $880, to "Edward Antil Heirs."

Sources

• http://records.ancestry.com/edward_antill_records.ashx?pid=30188247
• [2] Fold3 File #291772293, Volume 10, List of Officers and Men of Col Moses Hazen's 2d Canadian Regiment, Col Benjamin Flower's Artificer Regiment, and Col Jeduthan Baldwin's Artificer Regiment. 1776-1783. Image provided by Fold3; Image 3
• Sullivan, Nell Jane Barnett and David Kendall Martin. "A History of the Town of Chazy Clinton County, New York." George Little Press, Inc., Burlington, VT; 1970, p51
• [3] Wikipedia
• The New York Society of the Cincinnati
• Resolution, Laws and Ordinances Relating to the pay, half pay, commutation of half pay, bounty lands, and other promises made by Congress to the officers and soldiers of the Revolution; to the settlement of the accounts between the United States and the several states; and to funding the revolutionary debt. Published Washington 1838
• Canadian participants in the American Revolution, an index
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Antill_(soldier)
• Curatelle de la succession de la succession vacante de feu Edward Antill (Vacant Succession of Edward Antill: Act of Curatorship and of Tutorship to his Minor Children) https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/archives/52327/3411943