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KINGSLAND MANOR Nutley, N.J. |
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THE
NUTLEY TRACT
Kingsland Manor
Restoration Trust
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THE NUTLEY TRACT |
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The Kingsland family records that the property was in the hands of a Walls family, John and James, both of Newer, Essex County. The Walls were living on about 40 acres of land running north and west from the mouth of Stinkers Fells along the Third River to the mill dam where there was a grist mill; near the mill was a small brownstone house. The Walls seemed to have financial difficulties before and following the Revolution. The property was collateral for several loans, one with a John Robinson in 1753 and another with a William Millener of New York City in 1771. Millener in turn, released the property to a widow, Jane Knox, of New York City. The same tract, with the Walls still living on it, was brought up for foreclosure before the New Jersey Supreme Court by Mrs. Knox in 1790. After Mrs. Knox won the judgment, the property was sold to Joseph Kingsland. The deed actually states that Kingsland purchased the property at a Sheriff’s sale on November 22, 1790 for eleven pounds, five shillings. The Kingsland family moved into an enlarged house in 1796 with at least five of their nine children. John remained in York City to conduct his father's business, two daughters might have been married and Benjamin had not yet been born. We discovered evidence of a third floor sleeping loft in the main section of the house above two large rooms and one smaller room, reconciling a family of eleven with servants living in the home. The house has been described as containing “17 rooms, 2 kitchens, ballroom, slave prison, slaughter house, smoke house and underground Indian raid cellar, 125 foot tunnel leading to a stone barn fort, solitary confinement torture pen with manacle leg irons, neck yokes, a double ball and chain captors”. |
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