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Richmond County History and Information

Richmond County was created in 1683 and formed as an Original County. Richmond County was named for King James II of England, who also was Duke of Richmond and the County Seat is Staten Island. See also Extended History for more historical details.

The Richmond County Courthouse is located at City Hall, New York, NY 10007; 212-788-3000 and the Official County Website is located at http://www.nyc.gov/. Most county functions for the five counties that comprise the City of New York (New York, Kings, Richmond, Bronx and Queens) are performed by the NY City government.

Richmond County Borders Hudson County, New Jersey (North), Union County, New Jersey (West), Middlesex County, New Jersey (West), Kings County (Northeast) .

Neighborhoods in the New York City Borough of Staten Island: Annadale, Arden Heights, Arrochar, Bay Terrace, Bloomfield, Brighton Heights, Bulls Head, Castleton, Castleton Corners, Charleston, Clifton, Concord, Dongan Hills, East Shore, Egbertville, Elm Park, Eltingville, Emerson Hill, Farm Colony, Fort Wadsworth, Fox Hills, Fresh Kills, Graniteville, Grant City, Grasmere, Great Kills, Greenridge, Grymes Hill, Heartland Village, Hoffman Island, Howland Hook, Huguenot, Isle of Meadow, Lighthouse Hill, Livingston, Manor Heights, Mariners Harbor, Meiers Corners, Mid-Island, Midland Beach, New Brighton, New Dorp, New Dorp Beach, New Springville, North Shore, Oakwood, Ocean Breeze, Pleasant Plains, Port Ivory, Port Richmond, Prall's Island, Prince's Bay, Randall Manor, Richmondtown, Richmond Valley, Rosebank, Rossville, St. George, Shooters Island, Shore Acres, Silver Lake, Snug Harbor, South Beach, South Shore, Stapleton, Stapleton Heights, Sunnyside, Swinburne Island, Todt Hill, Tompkinsville, Tottenville, Tottenville Beach, Travis, Ward Hill, Westerleigh, West New Brighton, West Shore, Willowbrook, Woodrow

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Richmond County, New York Family Books at Amazon.com

Extended History

The bedrock of the island is a diabase formed during the volcanic eruptions that created much of the bedrock of northern New Jersey, including the New Jersey Palisades, approximately 200 million years ago. As an island, Staten Island was formed in the wake of the last ice age. In the late Pleistocene between 20,000 and 14,000 years ago, the ice sheet that covered northeastern North America reached to as far south as present day New York City, to a depth of approximately the same height as the Empire State Building. At one point, during its maximum reach, the ice sheet precisely ended at the center of present day Staten Island, forming a terminal moraine on the existing diabase sill. The central moraine of the island is sometimes called the Serpentine ridge because it contains large amounts of that particular mineral.

At the retreat of the ice sheet, Staten Island was connected by land to Long Island because The Narrows had not yet formed. Geologists' reckonings of the course of the Hudson River have placed it alternatively through the present course of the Raritan River, south of the island, or through present-day Flushing Bay and Jamaica Bay.

As in much of North America, human habitation appeared in the island fairly rapidly after the retreat of the ice sheet. Archaeologists have recovered tool evidence of Clovis culture activity dating from approximately 14,000 years ago. The island was probably abandoned later, possibly because of the extinction of large mammals on the island. Evidence of the first permanent American Indians settlements and agriculture date from about 5,000 years ago (Jackson, 1995).

In the Sixteenth Century, the island was part of a larger area known as Lenapehoking that was inhabited by the Lenape, an Algonquian American Indians people also called the Delaware. The band that occupied the southern part of the island was called the Raritan. To the Lenape, the island was called Aquehonga Manacknong and Eghquaons (Jackson, 1995). The island was laced with foot trails, one of which followed the south side of the ridge near the course of present day Richmond Road and Amboy Road. The Lenape did not live in fixed encampments, but moved seasonally, using slash and burn agriculture. The staples of their diet included shellfish, including the oysters that are native to both Upper New York Bay and Lower New York Bay.

The first recorded European contact with the island was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, who sailed through The Narrows. In 1609, Henry Hudson established Dutch trade in the area and named the island Staaten Eylandt after the Staten-Generaal, the Dutch parliament.

Although the first Dutch settlement of the New Netherlands colony was made on nearby Manhattan in 1620, Staaten Eylandt remained uncolonized by the Dutch for many decades. From 1639 to 1655, the Dutch made three separate attempts to establish a permanent settlement on the island, but each time the settlement was destroyed in the conflicts between the Dutch and the local tribes.

In 1661, the first permanent Dutch settlement was established at Oude Dorp (Dutch for "Old Town"), just south of the Narrows near South Beach, by a small group of Dutch Walloon and Huguenot families.

At the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1667, the Dutch ceded New Netherlands colony to England in the Treaty of Breda, and what was now 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 Gov. 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 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 of land. According to one version of an oft-repeated but inaccurate myth, Capt. 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, according to the myth. According to a story on The Associated Press (February 21, 2007), Mayor Michael Bloomberg perpetuated the myth by referring to it at a news conference in Brooklyn on February 20, 2007. The article quotes historians as pointing out that Staten Island has always been a part of New York since the Dutch ceded it to the British.

In 1683, the colony of New York was divided into ten counties. As part of this process, Staten Island, as well as several minor neighboring islands, were designated as Richmond County. The name derives from the title of an illegitimate son of King Charles II.

In 1687 and 1688, the English divided the island into four administrative divisions based on natural features: the 5100 acre (21 km²) manorial estate of colonial governor Thomas Dongan in the central hills known as the "Lordship or Manner of Cassiltown," along with the the North, South, and West divisions. These divisions would later evolve into the four townships Castleton, Northfield, Southfield, and Westfield.

The government granted land patents in rectangular blocks of eighty acres (320,000 m²), with the most desirable lands along the coastline and inland waterways. By 1708, the entire island had been divided up in this fashion, creating 166 small farms and two large manorial estates, the Dongan estate and a 1600 acre (6.5 km²) parcel on the southwestern tip of the island belonging to Christopher Billop (Jackson, 1995).

In 1729, a county seat was established at the village of Richmond Town, located at the headwaters of the Fresh Kills near the center of the island.

The island played a significant role in the American Revolutionary War. In the summer of 1776, the British forces under William Howe evacuated Boston and prepared to attack New York City. Howe used the strategic location of Staten Island as a staging ground for the attack. Howe established his headquarters in New Dorp at the Rose and Crown tavern near the junction of present New Dorp Lane and Amboy Road. It is here that the representatives of the British government reportedly received their first notification of the Declaration of Independence.

The following month, in August 1776, the British forces crossed the Narrows to Brooklyn and routed the American forces under George Washington at the Battle of Long Island, resulting in the British capture of New York. Three weeks later, on September 11, 1776, the British received a delegation of Americans consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Edward Rutledge, and John Adams at the Conference House on the southwestern tip of the island (known today as Tottenville) on the former estate of Christopher Billop. The Americans refused the peace offer from the British in exchange for the withdrawal of the Declaration of Independence, however, and the conference ended without an agreement.

On August 22, 1777, the Battle of Staten Island occurred here between the British and several companies of the 2nd Canadian Regiment fighting alongside other American companies. While the battle was inconclusive, with both sides surrendering over a hundred troops as prisoners, the Americans withdrew.

British forces remained on Staten Island throughout the war. Although local sentiment was predominantly Loyalist, the islanders found the demands of supporting the troops to be onerous. Many buildings and churches were destroyed, and the military demand for resources resulted in an extensive deforestation of the island by the end of the war. The British again used the island as a staging ground for their final evacuation of New York City on December 5, 1783. After the war, the largest Loyalist landowners fled to Canada and their estates were subdivided and sold.

On July 4, 1827, the end of slavery in New York state was celebrated at Swan Hotel, West Brighton. Rooms at the hotel were reserved months in advance as local abolitionists and prominent free blacks prepared for the festivities. Speeches, pageants, picnics, and fireworks marked the celebration, which lasted for two days.

In 1860, parts of Castleton and Southfield were made into a new town, Middletown. The Village of New Brighton in the town of Castleton was incorporated in 1866, and in 1872 the Village of New Brighton annexed all the remainder of the Town of Castleton and became coterminous with the town. New Brighton became the summer home of President Lincoln.

These towns and villages were dissolved in 1898 with the consolidation of the City of Greater New York as Richmond as one of its five boroughs.

Except for the areas along the harbor, however, the borough remained relatively underdeveloped until the building of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in 1964, which is considered the watershed event in the history of the borough, since it opened up the island to explosive suburban development by giving it direct road access to Brooklyn. The Verrazano, along with the other three major Staten Island bridges, created a new way for commuters and to travel from New Jersey to Brooklyn, Manhattan, and areas further east on Long Island. The network of highways running between the bridges has effectively carved up many of the borough's old neighborhoods. This road expansion was planned initially by Robert Moses.

Some of the island's open space and historic areas were incorporated in 1972 into Gateway National Recreation Area, part of the National Park System. The Staten Island Unit of Gateway NRA is joined by the Jamaica Bay Unit in Brooklyn and Queens and the Sandy Hook Unit in New Jersey. The Staten Island Unit is comprised of Great Kills Park, Miller Field, Fort Wadsworth, Hoffman Island, and Swinburne Island.

Richmond County History and Information

County Court Records

See Also New York Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

County Vital Records

See Also Vital Records in New York

County Census Records

See Also Research In Census Records & Statewide Records that exist for New York

County Maps & Atlases

See Also Research In State Map Collections

County Military Records

See Also Military Records in New York

County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other New York Genealogical Addresses

County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in New York

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Extended History