About Richmond County NY

At the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1667, the Dutch ceded New Netherland to England in the Treaty of Breda, and the Dutch Staaten Eylandt, anglicized as “Staten Island”, became part of the new English colony of New York.

In 1670, the Native Americans ceded all claims to Staten Island to the English in a deed to Governor Francis Lovelace. In 1671, in order to encourage an expansion of the Dutch settlements, the English resurveyed Oude Dorp (which became known as ‘Old Town’) and expanded the lots along the shore to the south. These lots were settled primarily by Dutch families and became known as Nieuwe Dorp (meaning ‘New Village’), which later became anglicized as New Dorp.

Captain Christopher Billopp, after years of distinguished service in the Royal Navy, came to America in 1674 in charge of a company of infantry. The following year, he settled on Staten Island, where he was granted a patent for 932 acres (3.8 km2) of land. According to one version of an oft-repeated but apocryphal tale,[18] Captain Billopp’s seamanship secured Staten Island to New York, rather than to New Jersey: the island would belong to New York if the captain could circumnavigate it in one day, which he did. This story is most likely untrue, due to conflicting information on the time Christopher Billopp took to complete the race and whether he received a personal prize or not. Mayor Michael Bloomberg perpetuated the myth by referring to it at a news conference in Brooklyn on February 20, 2007.[18] Reliable historical documentation of the event is extremely sparse, however, and most historians conclude that it is entirely apocryphal. In 2007, The New York Times addressed the issue in a news article, which concluded that this event was heavily embellished over the years and almost certainly originated in local folklore.[19] YouTube personality CGP Grey addressed the story of the Staten Island race and its historical discrepancies in a 2019 video,[20] in which he concluded that Gabriel Disosway, a local chronicler in Staten Island, was responsible for originating the legend in the mid-1800s.[21]