KINGSLAND MANOR

PART of the original Kingsland grant of 1668, according to Whitehead’s “East Jersey under the Proprietors,” the land of this historic house descends from Major Nathaniel Kingsland who was a resident of Barbadoes, West Indies. A large land owner and trader, Nathaniel sent his nephew Isaac to settle on his grant of 1668, on the east side of the Passaic. A younger son of Isaac, in 1796 came from New York City and built the present stone house on the west bank. Joseph Kingsland in this same year built the grist mill near the house which he occupied.

Slave labor cut the timber which was shipped to New York City by sloop from the dock at the mouth of the Third River for use as wooden curbs for the city streets. In the records of the Rutgers family, in 1813 Joseph Kingsland is listed as a neighbor together with Joseph Riker, owner of what later was known as the Van Zandt property.

Within the memory of several present day residents of Nutley the last members of the Kingsland family to occupy the house were two elderly ladies who during their lives were cared for by their brothers, Joseph and Richard Kingsland.

The names of these two brothers are of historical interest because it was at their paper mill that the first safety paper was made under contract with Thomas La Monte. La Monte, a school teacher from Virginia concerned with the large amount of currency forgeries of the time, conceived the idea of a safety paper and came to the Kingsland brothers in 1871 to have the paper produced. The La Monte paper mill on Kingsland Road, built in 1871, continued the making of the safety paper upon the failure of the Kingsland brothers.

The property facing Kingsland Pond, now known as Yantacaw Pond and bordering Lakeside Drive, has changed owners several times since 1902 when the last of the Kingslands left the house. According to records in the Nutley tax office, dated 1918, Catherine Agnes McGinnity and Bernard McGinnity were the owners until 1939· In this year Ralph H. Smith and his wife made their home there. Upon the death of Mr. Smith, the property was acquired by L. John Denney.

While interested in obtaining the history of the Kingsland property, Mr. Denney inherited many traditions of the past. These, while making the house glamorous, have not all been recorded as facts. The house with walls two to three feet thick has been described as containing “17 rooms, two kitchens, ball room, slave prison, slaughter house, smoke house, underground Indian raid cellar, 125 foot tunnel leading to the stone barn fort, solitary confinement torture pen with manacle leg irons, neck yokes, and double ball and chain captors.”

During the occupancy by the McGinnity family, the house was visited by Bob Fitzsimmons, the boxing champion of the world. Mr. McGinnity, Sr. was known nationally as a sports promoter, theatre and hotel man.

Upon the sale of the property by Mr. Denney in 1955, the house has become the private residence of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Schepps, antique dealers of Passaic.