| Christopher Billopp |
Christopher Billopp (or Colonel Christopher Billop) (1738March 29, 1827) was a British loyalist during the American Revolution. His command of a Tory detachment during the war earned him the sobriquet, "Tory Colonel". After the American Revolution, he emigrated to New Brunswick, Canada along with other Loyalists and became a politician. He represented Saint John in the 1st New Brunswick Legislative Assembly.
Billop was born on Staten Island in New York, the eldest of eight children born to Thomas and Sarah Farmar Billopp. His father Major Thomas Billopp was the son of Anne Billopp who married Colonel Thomas Farmar in 1705. Anne Billopp and her sister Mary were the daughters of British sea captain Christopher Billopp who was awarded 932acres of land on the southern tip of Staten Island, where he built a stone manor house he called "Bentley Manor".
Billopp served as a colonel in the Loyalist forces during the American Revolution, commanding the Billopp's Corps of Staten Island Militia formed on July 6, 1776, at a meeting of 500 men in Richmondtown led by Governor Tryon and General Howe in reaction to the announcement of the Declaration of Independence. Col. Billopp's brother, Thomas Farmar (he resumed the family name Farmar) fought as a private against the British Crown.
Billopp was captured twice by American patriots, one occasion occurred on June 23, 1779, when they rowed across the Arthur Kill from Perth Amboy, New Jersey. He was held as a prisoner of war in the Burlington County, New Jersey jail, where he was chained down to the floor and fed a diet of bread and water by order of Elias Boudinot, appointed by Congress as Commissary General of Prisoners. He was informed that his harsh treatment was in retaliation for the suffering of John Leshler and Captain Nathaniel Fitz Randolph of Woodbridge, New Jersey, being held by the British. Fitz Randolph would later be killed in the Battle of Springfield.
Another prisoner being held in the Burlington jail at the same time was John Graves Simcoe of the Queen's Rangers, who led the massacre of patriots in the William Hancock house in Salem, New Jersey, and embarked on a raid into New Jersey, dubbed "Simcoe's Raid", from "Billop's point", as Christopher Billop's land was known. It was upon this raid he was captured and imprisoned with Billopp.
Portion of letter to George Washington from John Simcoe:
It was not until after Christmas that Billopp was released in a prisoner exchange.
In October 1779 Billopp was one of 59 men branded by New York State as a Loyalist felon under the Confiscation Act, whereby he was subject to banishment and confiscation of all his property. As Staten Island was firmly under British control this carried no immediate weight; prudently Billopp in 1780 started selling off his land, often at only two-thirds of market prices.[1]
When the war ended he left the newly formed United States of America for the British colony of Nova Scotia, and later New Brunswick when it was formed as a separate colony from the northern part of Nova Scotia.
Billopp along with his Loyalist father-in-law, Benjamin Seaman (who was also labeled a Loyalist felon) moved to Parrtown in New Brunswick in 1783. Parrtown and Carleton were two communities founded by Loyalists from America in the vicinity of Fort Howe.The two communities later merged to form the city of Saint John, New Brunswick. Benedict Arnold, the American revolutionary war loyalist, lived in Saint John from 1787 to 1791.
Billopp served in the New Brunswick Assembly and in 1796 was appointed to its council by King George III. In 1823, he was asked to become administrator for New Brunswick following the death of Lieutenant-Governor George Stracey Smyth but refused to come to Fredericton to take the oath of office. Ward Chipman took on this post instead although Billopp challenged this appointment.[2]
Billopp was married twice. His first wife (licence issued November 2, 1762) was Francis Willett, born November 2, 1739, daughter of Thomas Willett and of Elizabeth Lawrence, their children;
His second wife (licence issued February 11, 1773) was Jane Seaman, born January 16, 1754, died January 21, 1802, in New Brunswick, Canada, daughter of Benjamin Seaman and Elizabeth Mott, their children;
His former New York estate, built by his great-grandfather, was the site of a failed peace conference on September 11, 1776, between the Americans, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Edward Rutledge and the British, Lord Howe representing the crown. The house is a United States National Historic Landmark, known as the Conference House.[6]
After his last release from patriot imprisonment Billopp went back to his manor house and confronted his servants. He was convinced that a 15-year-old servant girl had signaled his presence on the day of his kidnapping by holding a candle by a window on the second floor. This could be seen by the patriots perched in the steeple of St. Peter's Church in rebel controlled Perth Amboy. According to legend, Billopp caught her in the act of "signaling" to the patriots, and in a fit of rage, murdered her by throwing her down a flight of stairs. His ghost and that of the girl are said to haunt the Conference House, reenacting their deadly struggle.[7]
His gravestone reads: