of Charles I. He was commissioned captain and made important and
adventurous voyages, in one of which he was wounded, captured by
Turkish pirates and abandoned, to be later rescued by a passing ship.
In 1667, whether by order of Charles II or on his own account it is
not known, he sailed from England in his vessel, the _Bentley_, and
came cruising in the waters of the New Netherlands. The tradition is
that the Duke of York, to determine the ownership of the islands in
the bay, decided that any island that could be circumnavigated in
twenty-four hours belonged to the province of New York, and Billop,
having proved that Staten Island was so included by sailing around it
in the required time, was presented with 1,163 acres in the southern
part of the island. On this tract he built in 1668 the stone house here
presented. The stones and lumber were obtained in the vicinity, but the
cement was brought from England and the bricks from Belgium.
In the early records his name appears as showing that he had several
public positions, but apart from that little is known about him except
that he held a military command and had a controversy with Governor
Andros to his disadvantage at first, but later he succeeded in having
the governor recalled to England.
In the year 1700 he sailed for England in the _Bentley_, but was never
heard of again. By some writers it is thought that he was ordered
back, inasmuch as a pension was assigned to his widow by the king.
Captain Billop married a Miss Farmer, sister of a Supreme Court judge
in the neighboring province of New Jersey. They had one child, a
daughter, who married her cousin, Thomas Farmer, and he, succeeding
to the manor of Bentley, changed his name to Billop. Both died young
and their tombstones are to be seen at the house to-day. Christopher
Billop, their only son, born 1735, was a prominent man in public
affairs throughout his life. In the Revolution he was intensely loyal
to the crown, and became a colonel in the British army. Twice he was
captured. The New Jersey colonists were especially bitter toward him,
and once by keeping men stationed in the steeple of St. Peter’s Church
at Perth Amboy they observed him going into his house. Immediately
they took boats, crossed the river and made him prisoner. By order of
Elisha Boudinot (Com. Pris. of New Jersey) he was thrown into jail at
Burlington, hands and feet chained to the floor and fed only on bread
and water. Here his companion in captivity was Lieutenant-Colonel
Simcoe of the Queen’s Rangers, probably the same Simcoe who was in
the engagement near the Van Cortlandt house. Billop was exchanged for
a captain who had been on the prison ship. The second time he was
taken he was released by Washington at the solicitation of Lord Howe,
commander in chief of the British forces.
After the battle of Long Island, Howe thought it an opportune time
to offer favorable terms to the colonists if they were willing to
lay down their arms. Accordingly he dispatched General Sullivan
(then a prisoner) to Congress requesting them to send a committee
to negotiate. This committee, composed of Benjamin Franklin, Edward
Rutledge, and John Adams, met Howe at the Billop house. “Along the
sloping lawn in front of the house, long lines of troops that formed
the very flower of the British army were drawn up between which the
distinguished commander escorted his no less distinguished guests.”[64]
The conference was held in the northwest room on the ground floor. It
resulted in nothing, the colonists refusing to accede to any terms not
involving their independence. About 1783–84 Billop withdrew to New
Brunswick, and joined that army of estimable persons who, despoiled
of their possessions, were driven from the land for their loyalty to
their king. There for years he held prominent offices in the Assembly
and in the Council and died at St. John, March 23, 1827, at the age of
ninety-two. At his funeral the highest honors of the town were paid to
his memory.
Billop was evidently a complete type of the country gentleman and tory
squire. According to Mr. Morris, in his “Memorial History of Staten
Island,” the following description of him was given by a friend:
“Christopher Billop was a very tall, soldierly looking man in his
prime. He was exceedingly proud and his pride led him at times to the
verge of haughtiness. Yet he was kind-hearted, not only to those he
considered his equals, but to his slaves as well as to the poor people
of the island. No one went from his door at the old manor hungry. It
was his custom to gather the people of the island once a year on the
lawn in front of his house and hold a ‘harvest home.’... Passionately
fond of horses, his stable was filled with the finest bred animals in
the land. He was a magnificent rider and was very fond of the saddle.
He was an expert shot with the pistol, which once saved his life when
he was attacked by robbers. Christopher Billop was not a man to take
advice unless it instantly met with his favor.... Lifelong friends
pleaded with him to join the cause of independence at the commencement
of the Revolution, but he chose to follow the fortunes of royalty. He
was a good citizen, a noble man!”
Before the Revolution the house was noted for its hospitality and
gayety in the Colonial society of the day. The owner entertained
lavishly and at the time of the war he received there Generals Howe,
Clinton, Knyphausen, Cleveland, Cornwallis, Burgoyne, and many others.
The interior of the house is extremely plain. Presumably in the year
1668 the house decorator had not made his appearance. The walls are
three feet thick and the woodwork as sound as on the day it was built.
There is of course a ghost room, with “that spot on the floor that
cannot be washed out” where murder is said to have been done. Below
there is a dungeon with massive iron gate, and the marks are still
visible where prisoners, American and then British, tried to cut their
way out through the three-foot wall and arched ceiling.[65] It is said
there was an underground passage leading to the river.
In the basement Fenimore Cooper laid one of the scenes in his novel of
the “Water Witch.”
The grounds, once laid out with parklike lawns and flower beds, are now
in the last stages of dilapidation.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Built some years before the Revolution by Captain Archibald
Kennedy, R.N. (later Earl of Casillis), who married Miss Watts. It
was the headquarters respectively of Generals Howe, Cornwallis, and
Carleton.
[2] The property of William Walton, brother of Admiral Walton, built
in 1752. It was one of the best, if not the best house in town.
The gardens extended to the river. This house was mentioned in the
debates in Parliament to indicate the ability of the colonists to pay
more taxes. What might in some respects be called the mate to this
house, the Walter Franklin house, occupied by Washington during his
Presidency, stood at the north end of the square. It was taken down in
1856, “and the only bit of it known to exist is the President’s chair
of the N. Y. Historical Society, which is made of wood taken from the
old house” (“Historic New York,” p. 298).
[3] Depau Row was an attempt to introduce the Parisian dwelling or
hotel. The houses were entered by driveways, running through them to
large interior courtyards. They were taken down to make way for the
Mills Hotel for men.
[4] It is a little remarkable that none of our multimillionaires have
added this feature to their new houses uptown.
[5] It seems rather strange that some architect has not taken this
façade or some portion of it (as, e. g., the east or west end) as a
design for the front of one of the palaces that are now springing up
throughout the land.
[6] “Old Merchants of New York City,” vol. II, p. 318.
[7] Before and after the Revolution, the Hall of Records lately removed
was used as the debtors’ prison. There were usually about one hundred
and fifty prisoners. It is said that they were allowed only bread and
water by the State and depended largely on the kindness of benevolent
people to relieve their wants.
[8] “Lamb’s History of the City of New York,” II, p. 735.
[9] “The Old Merchants of New York,” vol. II, p. 319.
[10] New York _Herald_, May 6, 1906.
[11] “Domett’s History of the Bank of New York.”
[12] Robert Emmet, member of an old English family that settled
in Ireland during Cromwell’s time, was one of the purest and most
disinterested of rebels. He is now believed by his family, and with
very good reason, to have been instigated to rebellion by a secret
emissary of Pitt in Paris, where he had resided since leaving college,
as part of an evil scheme to withdraw attention from the disordered
condition of English politics at the time. (_Vide_ “Ireland under
English Rule, or A Plea for the Plaintiff,” by Thomas Addis Emmet,
1903.)
[13] Richard Montgomery, son of Thomas Montgomery, of Convoy House,
Donegal, had been a captain in the British army in the French and
Indian War. “On his return to England he is said to have formed
friendships with Fox, Burke, and Barre, and became strongly imbued
with their ideas about the rights of the colonies, and when he was
superseded and disappointed in the purchase of a majority, he left
England forever.” When in America it had happened that on their way
to a distant post, he had come on shore with all the officers of his
company at Clermont, the Livingston place on the North River, and
there met Janet Livingston for the first time, and on his return,
with the full approbation of her parents, he married her in July,
1773. Soon after his arrival he bought a farm at Kingsbridge, near
New York, but after his marriage he arranged to build a house at
Barrytown-on-the-Hudson on the Livingston property.
The house, known as “Montgomery Place,” was built from designs of his
nephew, an architect, son of his sister, the Viscountess Ranelagh. Some
relics of the general, including his sword, etc., are still preserved
there. When war broke out, Congress appointed him a brigadier general,
and such was the confidence in him that he was given _carte blanche_
as to all the officers under him. He fell at the head of his troops in
the assault on Quebec, December 31, 1775, at the age of thirty-seven.
The estimation in which he was held by his wife’s family continued to
the time of his death. In July, 1818, when the State of New York had
his remains brought from Quebec, they were interred under the monument
now seen at the east end of St. Paul’s Chapel. Forty-three years had
elapsed since Mrs. Montgomery had parted with her husband at Saratoga.
She was notified by Governor Clinton of the day on which the steamer
_Richmond_, carrying the remains, would pass down the river. She was
left alone upon the piazza of the house. The emotions with which she
saw the pageant were told in a letter written to her niece:
“At length they came by with all that remained of a beloved husband
who left me in the bloom of manhood, a perfect being. Alas! how did he
return? However gratifying to my heart, yet to my feelings every pang
I felt was renewed. The pomp with which it was conducted added to my
woe; when the steamboat passed with slow and solemn movement, stopping
before my house, the troops under arms, the Dead March from the muffled
drums, the mournful music, the splendid coffin canopied with crepe and
crowned with plumes, you may conceive my anguish!” After the vessel had
gone by it was found she had fainted.
[14] By resolution of the Vestry, August 26, 1803.
[15] Removed in 1835.
[16] “Nat. Cyclo. of Am. Biog.,” vol. VI, p. 360.
[17] “King’s Handbook of New York,” p. 38.
[18] Goede Vrouw of Man-a-hata.
[19] _Magazine of American History._
[20] The British took possession of the City Hall and “they also
plundered it of all the books belonging to the subscription library,
and also of a valuable library which belonged to the corporation, the
whole consisting of not less than sixty thousand volumes. This was done
with impunity and the books publicly hawked about the town for sale by
private soldiers” (“Lamb’s History of the City of New York,” vol. II,
p. 134).
[21] Mrs. Cruger spent her summers at that quaint castellated
structure, Henderson House or Home, seven miles from Richfield Springs,
the grounds being part of twenty thousand acres received by letters
patent from the English crown.
[22] “Bulletin of Metropolitan Museum,” January, 1907.
[23] Named after the three daughters, Countess of Abingdon, Lady
Southampton (Fitzroy), and Mrs. Colonel Skinner.
[24] “Natl. Cyclo. of Amer. Biog.”
[25] “Natl. Cyclo. of Amer. Biog.”
[26] “Diary of Philip Hone,” vol. II, p. 101.
[27] “Natl. Cyclo. of Amer. Biog.”
[28] “Natl. Cyclo. of Amer. Biog.”
[29] “In Old New York,” by Thomas A. Janvier.
[30] Remembered as the writer of that popular poem, “’Twas the night
before Christmas,” etc.
[31] “Natl. Cyclo. of Amer. Biog.”
[32] “N. Y. Standard Guide,” p. 112.
[33] Joseph Alston became Governor of South Carolina. Mrs. Alston,
the daughter of Aaron Burr, met with a tragic fate. On December 30,
1812, she sailed from Charleston in a small schooner, _The Patriot_,
accompanied by Mr. Green, a friend of her father’s, her physician
and her maid. The vessel never reached its destination. Forty years
afterwards, three men, two in Virginia and one in Texas, made deathbed
confessions that they had been members of the crew, that the crew had
mutinied and murdered all the officers and passengers, Mrs. Alston
being the last to walk the plank. The expression of her face, one man
said, haunted him the rest of his life.
[34] Pintard was a very prominent man in the first part of the last
century, the founder of the New York Historical Society and many other
city institutions.
[35] The author of “The Old Merchants of New York City” gives this
account of Hogan, written in his peculiar style: “Now look back
forty-eight years ago to 1805, and there was but one Hogan in New York.
His name was Michael Hogan, and he had only landed in the city a few
months, but what attention he received from all the leading men of that
day! Robert Lenox at that time lived in good style at 157 Pearl Street.
He sent an invitation to the distinguished stranger the second day of
his arrival. He was such a man as did not arrive in the then small city
of New York every day. Michael Hogan brought with him in solid gold
sovereigns four hundred thousand pounds, equal to two million dollars,
and he had a wonderful history. What would I not give if I could write
it all out! All these 160 Hogan families alluded to above, mostly
Irish, are kith and kin of the great nabob, for such he was when he
arrived here in 1804, with his dark Indian princess wife. Michael Hogan
was born at Stone Hall, in the County of Clare, Ireland, September 26,
1766. ‘So he was thirty-eight years old when he landed in New York,
with his dark-skinned lady and his fabulous amount of gold. But what
scenes he had been through in these eventful thirty-eight years! He had
been a sailor; he had commanded ships bound to ports in every quarter
of the world--in Asia, Africa, America, and Europe; he had been to
North as well as South America; and he had voyaged to the West as well
as to the East Indies; he had made successful voyages to the almost
then unknown land of Australia. In the East Indies he had married a
lady of great wealth. This was the story that was talked about when
Captain Michael Hogan came here.”--Fourth Series, p. 115.
[36] Who lately died at the age of ninety-eight.
[37] “The Hudson from the Wilderness to the Sea,” p. 388.
[38] It has been suggested that these trustees, being relatives, held
the property in trust during the minority of Gulian C. Verplanck, who
in later life became the noted Shakespearian scholar.
[39] Miss McEvers married Sir Edward Cunard.
[40] “The Battle of Harlem Heights,” by Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D.,
_Magazine of American History_, September, 1906.
[41] During the War of 1812, defenses were erected in this section as a
protection against anticipated attacks by the British. Mrs. Lamb says
(“History of the City of New York,” vol. II, p. 661): “On the bank of
the Hudson, near the residence of Viscount Courtenay, afterwards Earl
of Devon, was a strong stone tower connected by a line of intrenchments
with Fort Laight.” Fort Laight was at the north on an eminence
overlooking Manhattanville.
[42] Mrs. Hamilton was the daughter of General Philip Schuyler.
[43] Some time before this his eldest son had lost his life in a duel.
[44] This is one of the best examples of a Colonial manor house
now standing with wainscoted walls, ornamental ceilings, carved
staircase, mantels, etc. The establishment was a large one for the
time, maintaining thirty white and twenty colored servants.--“Bolton’s
History of Westchester County.”
[45] “Bolton’s History of Westchester County,” vol. II.
[46] At the outbreak of the Revolution the manorial families of
the province held various sentiments regarding the relations with
the mother country. Families like those of Philipse and De Lancey
were loyal to the crown and lost everything. Others, like those
of Livingston and Schuyler, espoused the cause of the “rebels” or
“patriots.” Again, there was a third class, embracing families like
those of Van Cortlandt and Morris, that had representatives on either
side. The Patroon, being a minor, was legally incapable of choosing and
saved his vast estate.
[47] The Government of France had certain claims against this
Government. An agreement was made to release these claims upon the
express consideration that the United States would pay _their own
citizens_ the claims that they had against France.
[48] Mrs. Lamb’s, “History of the City of New York.”
[49] This picture is from a sketch by permission of the New York
_Herald_.
[50] While living in Philadelphia during the war he was thrown from his
carriage in trying to control a pair of runaway horses. The accident
necessitated the amputation of a leg.
[51] Diary, p. 2.
[52] Commissary’s, Quartermaster’s, and Medical Departments.
[53] A laconic entry in the diary gives a hint as to the life of terror
which the ill-fated family were leading: “Go to court this morning
(August 5th). Nothing remarkable, only they were up all night expecting
to be murdered.”--Diary, p. 569.
[54] M. Esmein quotes Taine: “Quatre observateurs, écrit Hippolyte
Taine, ont dès le début, compris le caractére et la portée de la
Revolution française--Rivarol, Malouet, Gouverneur Morris et Mallet
du Pan, celui--ci plus profondement que les autres;...” but Esmein
says “contre l’auteur illustre et respecté des _Origines de la France
contemporaine_, j’oserais revendiquer pour Gouverneur Morris, la
plupart des titres qu’il reconnait a Mallet du Pan.” (“Gouverneur
Morris, un temoin American de la revolution Française,” by A. Esmein,
membre de l’Institut, Paris, 1906.)
[55] “Partout où il a porté ses pas, en Angleterre comme dans l’Europe
continentale, il etait accueilli avec une faveur marquée par les hommes
d’État les plus en vue; les ministres en charge, les ambassadeurs les
plus influents, le consultaient voluntiers et le renseignaient en meme
temps.
“Il a su recueillir partout des information abondantes et sûre, et
très souvent ses prédictions se réalisaient.... Voici le compliment
que lui adressait le 2 Juillet, 1790, M. de la Luzerne, ambassadeur de
France à Londres--‘vous dites toujours des chose extraordinaires qui se
réalisent’” (_idem_).
[56] The king: “Pray, Mr. Morris, what part of America are you from?”
Morris: “I am from near New York, sir. I have a brother who has the
honor to be a lieutenant general in your Majesty’s service.” The king:
“Eh! what! You’re a brother of General Morris? Yes, I think I see a
likeness, but you’re much younger.”
Diary, vol. II, p. 135. Some years prior to the Revolution, his elder
brother, Staats Morris, had married the Duchess of Gordon and was a
lieutenant general in the British army. He was the first lieutenant
colonel of the Eighty-ninth Regiment of Highlanders, the duke being a
captain, and his brothers, lieutenant and ensign.
[57] “Life of Morris,” vol. I, p. 477.
[58] Diary, vol. II, p. 418.
[59] “The Homes of America,” p. 119.
[60] The house was taken down in 1905 to make way for the tracks of the
New York & New Haven Railroad Company.
[61] Surrogate’s Office, New York, fol. XVIII, 62.
[62] “Bolton’s History of Westchester County,” vol. II, p. 622.
[63] Daughter of Lieutenant Robert Feake, patentee of Greenwich, Conn.,
and his wife Elizabeth, niece of John Winthrop.
[64] Morris’s “Memorial History of Staten Island.”
[65] New York _Herald_, April 15, 1906.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation
marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
unbalanced.
Inconsistent use of small-caps in the “Subjects” (Table of Contents)
has been retained here.
Misspelled French words were not corrected.
Photographs of the buildings usually are just above the chapters
referring to them, and the Table of Subjects refers to the chapters,
not to the photographs.