new wineries. History Viticulture in the New Jersey colony and early America In 1758, the Royal Society of Arts (formally, the "Society instituted at London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce") sought to incentivize agricultural innovation and cultivation in the North American colonies by offering a "premium"—or cash award—of 100 British pounds (£100) for the planting of vineyards and the production of "five tuns of red or white wine of acceptable quality." The initial award was unclaimed by 1762, and the Society augmented the bounty to £200 if the goal were reached by a colonial farmer by 1770 adding that at least five hundred vines should be planted and the wine produced equal "those Sorts of Wines now consumed in Great Britain." In 1767, two men had been recognized by the society for their undertakings. William Alexander (1726-1783), the self-styled "Earl of Stirling," informed the society in 1767 that he had planted 2,100 vines at his estate in Basking Ridge, in central New Jersey's Somerset County. Sterling had reported that his plantings were "chiefly Burgundy, Orleans, Black, White and Red Frontiniac, Muscadine, Portugals and Tokays." Edward Antill (1701-1770) who inherited his father's estate and operated a large brewery at Raritan Landing across the Raritan River in Piscataway Township from the city of New Brunswick, advised the society that he had a vineyard of 800 vines of Madeira, Burgundy and grapes as well as a few "Sweet-water Grape vines, and of the best sort of the Native Vines of America by way of tryal." Antill had remarked in a 1765 letter that he had been "thought by some Gentlemen as well as by Farmers, very whimsical in attempting a Vineyard." and had planted his vines "on the south side of a hill facing a public road so that his experiment could be advertised to the skeptics." The society had discussed offering the £200 to both men for their achievements. However, the Society raised concerns about the legitimacy of Alexander's claim to a title of nobility. On 2 December 1767, the Society offered the cash award to Antill, and three weeks later offered Lord Stirling a gold medal "for having planted 2100 vines in North America in pursuance of the Views of the Society." Shortly after his death, Antill published an 80-page tract entitled An Essay on the cultivation of the Vine, and the making and preserving of Wine, suited