Death of the Fox Inn, Mount Royal New Jersey
The land upon which this tavern stands was granted to John Clarke in 1681 by Willian Penn, Gawen Lawry, Nicholas Lucas, and Edward Eylling. This John Clarke was a London Brewer, His son, also John, gentleman of Mackney County, Middlesex, England, conveyed the land to Benjamin Alford, a merchant of Boston.
The next record we havo belongs to the year 1760 when George Emlen conveyed by indenture a tract of land to Isaac Comron. Richard Price, the high sheriff, conveyed by indenture In 1765 to John Comron a son of Isaac.
In 1774 by indenture Thomas Denny, high sheriff, conveyed the tract to William Eldridge, and in 1739 Eldridge conveyed to one Daniel Smith, We know also, from the Scrap Book of the Gloucester County Historical Society, that in 1792 David Smith was the owner. There was a mortgage of 500 pounds on the property in 1765 which serves to substantiate the fact that the inn was in existence. However, the deed from George Emlen to Isaac Comron can not be located and without this it is impossible to determine the exact date of erection.
The inn is supposed to have been the headquarters of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club, The club was organised early in the eighteenth century. It was revived in 1750. It is perfectly possible that the inn was used as early as that date as a meeting place for the club.