Chapter I

The Scribe

In July 1776, one man sat alone in a sweltering room in Philadelphia. The Congress had passed the resolution. Now it had to be written — by hand — on parchment.

Timothy Matlack Jr was a Fighting Quaker, a radical, and the finest penman in the colonies. The words he inscribed would become the most consequential document in history.

His family’s land — the Ridge — sat 150 feet above the Philadelphia basin, across the river in New Jersey. It was the safe house. The fallback. The place to run if the British came.

This is that land.

Chapter II

The Shield

The Ridge wasn’t just a farm — it was a fortress of geography. Sitting 150 feet above the swamps and lowlands, it was the Crow’s Nest of the Revolution.

Washington’s scouts used this high ground to monitor every British movement between Philadelphia and the coast. If dust clouds appeared on the road from Haddonfield, the men on the Ridge saw them first.

The Sand Hills spine — the only dry road through the Jersey mud — ran right through this property. If you held the Ridge, you held the intelligence.

Chapter III

The Sword

At the Battle of Germantown, Lt. John Stafford of Washington’s elite Life Guard was struck down. Wounded and hunted, he was carried through the night to the one place the British feared to climb.

The Ridge. The Matlack family farm. Hannah Wilkins — a Matlack by blood — opened the gate with a lantern.

For months, the farm became a hospital, a sanctuary, and a secret headquarters. The Scribe, the Soldier, and the Shield — under one roof, the three pillars of the American story merged.

In 1781, Stafford married Hannah. The Scribe, the Shield, and the Sword became one family, on one piece of ground.

Chapter IV

The Return

The war ended, but the ground remained. For 250 years, the Stafford and Matlack legacy has been preserved in this dirt.

Today, Saddlehill isn’t just a vineyard. It is a monument to the high ground.

You aren’t just drinking wine — you are tasting the history of the Ridge.