USA > New York > Staten Island > History of Richmond County (Staten Island), New York : from its discovery to the present time > Part 11
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New York claimed jurisdiction, and exercised it over the waters as far as low water mark on the Jersey shores, when the latter province opposed this exercise of public authority. New Jersey argued that the original grant gave that province jurisdiction to the middle of the Narrows, and therefore she owned Staten Is- land. New York, on the contrary, pleaded long possession, and the controversy produced great excitement between the two par- ties. The agitation of the question continued at intervals all through the colonial period, sometimes being revived with great bitterness, and extended for half a century into the state period.
In 1807 commissioners were appointed from both states to settle the dispute, New Jersey insisting that Staten Island was within her border. Nothing. however, was accomplished by this interview, and it terminated in angry discussion and bad feelings. For several years a border excitement was kept up, until the deputy sheriff of Richmond county, while serving a process on board of a vessel near the Jersey shore, was arrested and imprisoned for violating her territory, the state authorities, however, avowing that this was done only to test the question of jurisdiction.
In 1827 new commissioners were selected to settle the dispute,
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but they separated as before, without accomplishing anything. At length, in 1833, the dispute between the two states was amicably arranged by concession. New York obtained the ac- knowledged right to Staten Island, with the exclusive jurisdic- tion over a portion of the adjacent waters, by conceding to New Jersey a like privilege to other portions. New York thus se- cured this legal claim to most of the Lower bay, quite down to Sandy Hook ; and in return New Jersey obtained the same rights over the waters on the west side of the island, as far as Woodbridge creek, in the neighborhood of Rossville. Thus was settled in an amicable manner a subject which once threat- ened a serious disturbance of the harmony between the two sister states.
Under the Dutch and early English governors a number of land grants were issued. But very few of those issued under the former dynasty hield under the latter. The import ant ones of that class have already been noticed. Occupants of lands under Dutch patents were doubtless required to take out new patents or confirmatory grants under the English rule. All these patents were granted to individuals, and the most of them were for comparatively small parcels of land. These we cannot notice in detail. There are two, however, which, partly because of their magnitude and partly because of the historic persons and associations connected with them stand sufficiently prominent to warrant a somewhat extended notice. These are the Dongan patent and the Billop patent. The time of their issue was about the period of which we are writing, but in giving an account of them we shall be compelled to anticipate other periods and disregard the orderly progression of our general history,
To the first of these two patents then let us turn our atten- tion. Though not the first to receive a royal patent yet the first to be occupied by the proprietor for whom it was named was the Billop patent. Definite statements are wanting to fix the time when Christopher Billop first received actual possession of the tract which for a long time bore his family name. At the time when the Duke of York seemed to be wavering in opinion as to whether Staten Island belonged to the jurisdiction of New York or New Jersey, and finally decided the matter for himself by declaring that all islands lying in the river or harbor which could be circumnavigated in twenty-four hours should remain
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in the former, and others should be counted in the latter juris- diction. Christopher Billop, as has before been stated, accom- plished the task of sailing around the island within twenty-four hours, thus securing it to the duke, who bestowed upon Billop a tract of 1163 acres of land in the extreme southern part of the island. Here Billop built his manor house, which has with- stood the storms of more than two centuries, and is said to be in good condition at the present day. Another account says that Billop received the plantation as a douceur from the Duke of York for his gallantry in some naval office.
In 1674 the Duke of York, by permission of the king, organ- ized a company of infantry of one hundred men; of this com- pany Christopher Billop was commissioned second lieutenant. He had served his king before his arrival in America, but in what capacity is not known; his father, however, was not well spoken of. In 1677 Billop, while residing on his plantation on Staten Island, was appointed by Governor Andros, who had succeeded Lovelace, commander and sub-collector of New York, on Delaware bay and river. While occupied with the duties of these offices, he "misconducted " himself by making " extrava- gant speeches in public;" but of the subject of these speeches we are not informed; they were probably of a political character, and must have been peculiarly offensive, for Andros recalled him the next year, and deprived him of his military commission, This action of the governor was approved by the duke, who directed that another should be appointed to fill the vacant lieutenancy.
Billop now retired to his plantation on Staten Island, there to brood over the ingratitude of princes, or perhaps over his own follies and indiscretions. We hear nothing more of him for two years, when he again appears as one of a number who pre- ferred complaints or charges against Andros, to the duke, some of which must have been of a serious nature, as the duke thought it necessary to send an agent over to investigate the matter, and on receiving his report, Andros was summoned to to appear in person in England to render his accounts. This was probably in 1680 or 1681, when Brockholst succeeded An- dros; in 1682 Dongan succeeded Brockholst. Here we lose all farther historical trace of Christopher Billop; tradition says that in the latter part of the seventeenth, or the beginning of the eighteenth century, he sailed for England in his ship, the
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
"Bentley," and was never heard of after: he left no male issue, but he had at least one daughter. While he remained on the island, however, he obtained a patent for his plantation from Governor Dongan, which bore date on or about June 6, 1687.
There was also a Joseph Billop residing on the island about this time. He was a justice of the peace in 1702-3 and a judge of the county in 1711. In 1704, April 25th, he received a con- veyance of a parcel of land from the " Right Honble. Thomas, Earle of Lymrick," the land in question being described by boundaries " beginning at a Blacke Oake by the burying place Agst. Abrah: Lackman's House." There was also a Middleton Billop living in the city of New York, who died in October, 1724. Whether these men were near relatives of Christopher or not we have not discovered.
The principal part of the original tract passed through the hands of successive generations of his descendants till the close of the revolution. In 1704 he sold a small parcelto John, Peter and James Le Counte, sons of Peter Le Counte "late of said island."
Captain Christopher Billop married a Miss Farmer, by whom he had one daughter, Eugenia, born in or about the year 1712. Mrs. Billop was probably a sister of Thomas Farmer, who was prominent on Staten Island, where he was a judge of the court of sessions in 1711. He removed hence, however, during or soon after that year, and afterward became a judge of the su- preme court of New Jersey and representative of Middlesex county in the assembly of that state. The oldest son of this Thomas Farmer, his name likewise being Thomas, married his cousin, the daughter of Christopher Billop, and succeeded to the inheritance of the manor of Bentley. In order to satisfy the ambition of the family to perpetuate its name young Farmer adopted the name of Billop.
Thomas Farmer Billop and his wife occupied the mansion and estate during the latter years of the first half of the 18th cen- tury. From them it fell to the possesion of their son Christo- pher, while they were "gathered to their fathers." The old family cemetery in which their remains were deposited was situated some three hundred yards to the east of the old manor house, in a cultivated field and beneath the shade of a few large trees which once stood there. It contained but a few graves,
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and only the graves of the two persons last mentioned were honored by headstones containing inscriptions. These inscrip- tions were as follows:
" Here Lyes ye Body of Evjenea ye Wife of Thomas Billopp. Aged 23 years Decd March ye 22d 1735."
"Here Lyes ye Body of Thomas Billopp Esqr Son of Thomas Farmar Esqr Decd August ye 2d 1750 In ye 39th year of his Age."
These stones are now lying in the barn yard near the Billop honse and are more or less broken to pieces. For more than a century they marked the graves to which they belonged. The spot is now marked by a single cedar tree. Several years since the crumbling bones were removed thence, by order of the pro- prietor of the ground, and the stones of the graves thus dese- crated, which themselves, it would seem, possessed valne as historic relics sufficient to warrant their careful preservation, were broken and ruthlessly consigned to the rubbish pile as we have seen.
Christopher Billop, the only son of the above of whom we have any knowledge, though he had a sister Sally (who married Alexander Ross of New Jersey, in 1775), was born about the year 1735, and rose to a position of great prominence in the county. We are informed that he was twice married, but who his first wife was we have been unable to learn. His second wife was Jane Seaman, daughter of Judge Benjamin Seaman, of this connty. Besides being a gentleman of character and property, he was a member of assembly, and on the eve of the revolution commanded a corps of loyal militia which was raised in the vicinity of New York city, and was during the revolutionary period actively engaged in military duty. At the outbreak of the war he was a steadfast opponent of the measures that led to a rupture with Great Britain. By the in- tensity of his loyalty to the British crown he made himself conspicuously obnoxious to the whigs of Staten Island and New Jersey. He held the commission of a colonel in the British army, and at one time. in 1782, had the title of superintendent of police of the island. Communication between the island and New Jersey had been prohibited by the British authorities, and he was very active in enforcing the prohibition. The patriots of New Jersey were exceedingly bitter in their hostility to him, and on two different occasions made him prisoner. Amboy is
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in siglit, and upon one of these occasions he was observed by some Americans, who had stationed themselves with a spy glass in the church steeple of that town. As soon as they saw him enter his abode, they ran to their boats, rapidly crossed the river, and he was soon their captive. The British, then in pos- session of New York, had confined in irons several Americans who had been made prisoners ; and to retaliate for this measure Colonel Billop was taken to Burlington jail. We have copied the mittimus, as a matter of curiosity, and as showing the method of doing such things at that eventful period.
"To the keeper of the common jail for the county of Burling- ton greeting :- You are hereby commanded to receive into your custody the body of Col. Christopher Billopp, prisoner-of-war, herewith delivered to you, and having put irons on his hands and feet, you are to chain him down to the floor in a close room, in said jail, and there to retain him, giving him bread and water only for his food, until you receive further orders from me, or the commissary of prisoners for the state of New Jersey, for the time being. Given under my hand, at Elizabethtown, this 6th day of Nov. 1779.
ELISHA BOUDINOT, Com. Pris. New Jersey."
The commissary at the same time regretted to Billop that necessity made such treatnient necessary, "but retaliation is directed, and it will I most sincerely hope, be in your power to relieve yourself from the situation by writing to New York to procure the relaxation of the sufferings of John Leshier, and Capt'n Nathaniel Randal."
He was finally released by order of Washington. During the period of the war Billop disposed of some parts of his estate. On the 10th of May, 1780, he sold to Joseph Totten a tract of twenty acres, and another of three and a half acres in the manor of Bentley, for £235 currency, and on the 29th of the same month he sold to Benjamin Drake a tract of sixty acres from his estate, for £600 currency. On the first of May, 1781, he and his wife Jane, conveyed to Samuel Ward, of Richmond county, for £3,730 current money of the city of New York, the tract opposite Amboy, known as the manor of Bentley, "Con- taining three hundred and Seventy-three Acres of Land and salt meadow, be the same in Quantity more or Less, being Bounded Easterly by Land of said Albert Rickman Northerly
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by the river or sound at Low water mark and westerly and sontherly by the Bay at Low Water mark." In this convey- ance houses, barns, ferry-house and dock, ont-houses and stables are specified by name. From the tract is reserved for the heirs of Billop sixty feet square for a burial place, the head- stone of his father being the center of such reservation.
During the revolution the home of Colonel Billop was fre- quented by men of distinction and rank in the British army. After the war Billop with fifty-four other royalists in 1783 peti- tioned Sir Guy Carleton for extensive grants of land in Nova Scotia. Colonel Billop soon after went to New Brunswick, where for many years he bore a prominent part in the adminis- tration of the affairs of that province. He was a member of the house of assembly, and of the council, and on the death of Governor Smythe in 1823 he claimed the presidency of the government, and issued his proclamation accordingly, but the Honorable Ward Chipman was a competitor for the same sta- tion, and was sworn into office.
Colonel Billop died at St. John, N. B, in 1827, being then over 90 years of age. His wife, Jane, who was about twenty years younger than himself, died in that city in 1802, aged 48. He had a son, born on Staten Island in 1769, named John Willett, and another son by the name of Thomas. They settled in the city of New York, and had a dry goods store on Broad- way in the vicinity of Trinity church. John never married, but fell a victim of yellow fever at the time the city was scourged by that terrible disease. Thomas, who had a family, of whom, however, nothing is known, except that his wife was a Miss Moore of Newtown, L. I., survived the fever, failed in business, joined the expedition of the celebrated Miranda, in which he received the appointment as captain, and was taken prisoner by the Spaniards and afterward executed. Besides these two sons Colonel Billop had four daughters. Louisa married John Wallace, Esq., surveyor of the customs. Mary married the Rev. Archdeacon Willis, of Nova Scotia, and died at Halifax in 1834, at the age of forty-three. Jane became the wife of the Hon. William Black of St. John, and died in 1836. Ann, the youngest daughter, was a maiden lady, and was the last of the family of whom any record appears of their visiting the ancestral homestead. She visited the spot in 1824, and took some flowers of an old trumpet creeper vine that was growing
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on the house, and some nuts and wild cherries from trees that were growing in the burial plot, and on her return carried them to her father in New Brunswick, It is said that on beholding them the heart of the old colonel melted with emotion and he wept like a child.
We have neglected to say in a more appropriate place that Colonel Billop had two daughters by his first wife, of whom we only know that they married sons of Benjamin Seaman, one of whom was Benjamin and the other Henry.
The large estate once belonging to Colonel Billop was confis- cated and sold by Isaac Stoutenburgh and Philip Van Cort- land, commissioners of forfeitures for the southern district of New York. The sale made July 16th, 1784, was recorded in the following memorandum :
"Sold to Thomas Mc Farren of the City of New York, Mer- chant, for the sum of four thousand six hundred and ninety- five pounds Lawfull Money of the said state-All that certain Tract or parcel of Land situate Lying and being in the County of Richmond and Manor of Bently, Bounded Southerly by the Bay or water called Princes Bay, westerly by the river that runs between the said Land and Amboy Northerly partly by the Land of Jacob Reckhow and partly by the road and Easterly partly by the road and partly by the Bay, Containing Eight hundred and fifty acres and half an acre and which said Tract is divided into the several following Farms and Lots of Land-three hundred and seventy three acres thereof in the possession of Samuel Ward-Two hundred Acres in the possession of Albert Ryck- man, Fifty acres in the possession of John Manner -- Fifty acres in the possession of Edmund Wood-Fifty acres in the posses- sion of Andrew Prior-Twenty five Acres in the possession of James Churchward, sixtyseven acres and an half acre in the possession of Benjamin Drake-Twenty three acres and an half acre in the possession of Joseph Totten-Eleven acres and an half acre in the possession of Jacob Reckhow-Together with all the Buildings and Improvements thereon Erected and made Forfeited to and Vested in the People of this state by the At- tainder of Christopher Billop Late of the County of Richmond Esquire,"
The historic house is still standing. It occupies a beautiful site overlooking the river or Staten Island sound, with Amboy
OLD BILLOP HOUSE, LOOKING TOWARD SOUTH AMBOY. As it appeared half a century ago.
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in view on the opposite shore and the Jersey landscapes fading in the distance.
The old mansion was built of stone -- its walls three feet thick- and bears the marks of former affluence and elegance. Like most buildings of the " olden time," it has its ghost and other romantic stories. "There," said the person who now occupies the house, as we entered one of the upper story front rooms, "that spot on the floor we have never been able to wash out. It is sup- posed to be blood, and a murder is said to have been perpetrated here. This, too, is the ghost room,
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THE OLD BILLOP HOUSE, TOTTENVILLE.
but I have never been disturbed by such visitors, and believe neither of these stories." A person had visited an adjoining apartment last winter, searching for hidden treasure. He had been told by some mesmerist or for- tune teller of New York that money was to be found concealed in one of the walls of this room, and absolutely picked with hammer and chisel a large opening, but finally gave over the search as hopeless. This strange credulity was here exhibited in the winter of 1844.
In the cellar of the building there is a brick vault thirty feet
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long and about thirteen wide. finely archel. and may have buen used as a place of retreat. or the receptacle for valuable articles in cases of emergency.
The interior of the house presents nothing remarkable in ap- pearance. The hall and staircase are extremely plain. In fact there is no decoration to be seen anywhere. The rooms have been nndersized in a manner approaching meanness.
As Billop was a well known " tory." and a military char- acter also, his house must have witnessed many an interview of such men as Lord Howe. General Kniphausen. Colonel Simco- and other officers of rank in the British service who had com- mand at various periods on the island. Immediately after the severe battle on Long Island. Lord Howe sent a communica- tion to congress. then assembled in Philadelphia, soliciting that a committee from that body might meet him. to confer on the lifeulties between the two nations. For this purpose. Ben- jamin Franklin. John Adams and Edward Railedge were ap- pointed. The interview took place in this house, and thes= noble. patriotic. American spirits declined every proposition for peace that would no: acknowledge the independence of their beloved country.
This conference took place in the room at the northwest corner of the house on the main door. This momentous interview was regarded with extreme s licitude by the people of both the old world and the new. To the developments of time it rises into the grandeur of a great battle point and monument of history. The interview was brief. There was no agreement. no reconcili- ation. Independence was maintained. The result was limned by the hand of God. and is seen in the progess of a continent and the achievements of a century all over the world.
There is a beautiful lawn before the house, extending quite down to the water's edge. The views from the mansion are ex- tensive, and rich in natural beauties. Directly in front che eve rests on Amboy bay. the town itself beyond. and the Ra- ritan river, which here expanding into the general body of waters the whole soon dows onward to the mighty Atlantic. Toward the Juth. at a more remote distance, are seen the mountains of Monmouth and the bold summits of Nave Sink. upon whose lofty highlands. the beacon-dres of 1776 blazed to slarm the country upon the expected approach of the enemy.
What a blessing is peace ! How changed the scene! Upon
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these very heights now glisten nightly the cheering rays of the light-house, welcoming the traveller of every nation to our land of freedom and happiness ! Where once was heard the deafen- ing drum and clarion of war, here now the anvil rings, the merry wheel dances, and the carol of the peaceful plow-boy re- sounds, while he traces the enriching and silent furrow !
We shall now turn our attention to the Dongan patent and the persons connected with it. This brought into direct and intimate association with the island one of the most prominent of the colonial governors, and one whose acts have been more conspicuously brought before a wide range of interests, people and times than perhaps any other.
At the time of Dongan's arrival, there dwelt in the city of New York a gentleman named John Palmer, by profession a lawyer, who, at the time of the separation of Staten Island from the Long Island towns, was appointed "ranger" for Staten Island. He had formerly lived on the island of Barbadoes, and had emigrated thence to New York. In 1683 he lived on Staten Island, and was appointed by Dongan one of the two first judges of the New York court of oyer and terminer. He was also a member of the council, and generally an active and prominent man in the affairs of the province. To this man Don- gan executed a patent, known in the island history as the Palmer or Dongan i patent. The small brook which forms a part of the boundary between the towns of Castleton and Northfield, and which runs to the mill pond, is still known by the name of " Palmer's Run," because it also formed a part of the boundary of the land conveyed by the patent.
An attempt seems to have been previously made by Dongan to gain possession of this large property, but for reasons which will appear the transaction was repeated in the manner above stated. The first transaction of which we find any record is dated January 14. 1684-5, when Governor Dongan purchased of John Palmer of Staten Island and Sarah his wife, for the sum of twelve hundred pounds, " All that their Capitall Messuage or dwelling house with the Appartenances situate lyeing and being on the north side of Staten Island Aforesaid within Con- stables hooke neere the Mill Creeke late in the Occupacion and possession of the said John Palmer, And All that Certaine Par- cell or tract of Land thereunto belonging being upon the north side of Staten Island aforesaid within Constables Hooke lyeing
8
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between the two runnes att the mill creeke beginning with A narrow point And Running up wider into the Island Containing the quantity of three hundred forty and two Acres with meadow Ground to be laid out proportionably." The conveyance also includes other parcels, the title to which had been obtained as recited in their specifications in substance as follows : Ninety- six acres to the east of Mill creek, with the mill, which was granted to Palmer by Governor Andros in 1677, upon which had also been built by Palmer two windmills and a sawmill ; eighty acres which had been conveyed to Palmer by Francis Barber who had a grant from Sir Edmund Andros ; ninety acres, with eight acres of meadow, which had been granted by Andros in 1680 to Jacob Cornelis, and by him conveyed to Palmer; another like tract of ninety acres with eight acres of meadow, granted to James Gyles, by Andros, and by Gyles conveyed to Palmer; and a tract of four thousand five hundred acres of land lying in a body in the middle part of the island, with an island of meadow near Fresh kill, "All which Said Last mentioned tract or parcell of Land And Island of meadow were Granted unto the Said John Palmer," by Governor Dongan by patent dated May 2, 1684. Thus it will be seen the premises purchased by Dongan had been obtained in small parcels, through differ- ent channels and under grants of different dates. It was desir- able that they should be consolidated, and treated as a unit, and that some manorial privileges should be associated with their proprietorship.
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