# Staten Island, Richmond County, New York in the 1720s

> A rural island of farms, creeks, ferries, churches, courts, Dutch, English, French-descended families, and enslaved labor.

- Place: Staten Island, Richmond County, New York (40.562, -74.140)
- Years: 1720 to 1729
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/staten-island-richmond-county-new-york/1720s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Staten%20Island%2C%20Richmond%20County%2C%20New%20York%2C%20United%20States&at=40.5623,-74.1399&year=1725

## Looking around

You stand on an island still mostly rural, with farms raising cattle, pigs, grain, fruit, and vegetables[4]. At Richmond, roads meet: Fresh Kill Road, Richmond Road, the road to Stony Brook, and Old Mill Road[4] draw travel toward the creek and the court. The village is small; by 1730 it has ten to twelve houses and at least one tavern[4]. Nearby is St. Andrew’s stone church, completed in 1712[2], and older Dutch worship has left the voorlezer’s house, used for teaching and church meetings[1][4]. To the north, the road leads toward Port Richmond’s Dutch Reformed meeting house and burial ground[1]. Along shore and creek, people fish and gather shellfish, while farm households include enslaved people doing farm, domestic, and fishing work[4]. Across the water are Bergen Point and New York[1], reached by local boats rather than a public steam ferry.

## Work: Farms, fish, and bondage

The main work was rural: cattle, pigs, grain, fruit, and vegetables[4] on small farms, with fishing and shellfish harvesting[4] along the creeks and shore. Enslaved people were part of that economy, doing farm labor, domestic chores, and work on fishing vessels[4].

## Faith: Dutch readers, Anglican stones

Dutch Reformed worship was led between ministerial visits by a voorlezer, a teacher and lay reader[1][4]. Anglican power was visible at St. Andrew’s stone church, completed in 1712 and chartered in 1713[2].

## Law & power: Court moves to Richmond

Local authority gathered at road crossings: a county jail was built at Richmond about 1710[4], and the county court moved there in 1728[4]. In 1729 Richmond became the county seat[4].

## What people feared: Law guarded enslavement

For Black residents, danger was written into law: New York’s 1702 slave law restricted trade with enslaved people and empowered enslavers to punish them. The county’s Black population was growing, from 73 people in 1698 toward 465 by 1756.

## Home & table: Small village, mixed houses

Richmond was still tiny, with ten to twelve houses and at least one tavern[4] by 1730. Building customs differed: French and Dutch settlers commonly built stone or brick houses, while English settlers preferred frame houses[3].

## Who lived here: Dutch, English, French, African

Staten Island’s European-descended communities had Dutch, English, and French-speaking roots, since the late seventeenth-century population was divided among those groups[3]. Enslaved African-descended people were not marginal; they made up about 10 percent of Richmond County in 1698 and a larger share later.

## Roads & news: Roads and ferries carried news

News arrived by road and boat: four early roads passed through Richmond Town[4], and a ferry linked the North Shore to Bergen Point[1]. The island was tied to wider New York by the same commerce that brought enslaved people from the West Indies and Africa into New York.

## Money: Prices are hard to see

For ordinary Richmond County people in the 1720s, local wages and shop prices were not found in the online sources used here. A tavern existed by 1730, but the source names no prices for food, drink, lodging, or horse keeping[4].

## Year by year

- **1718** (here): The Dutch Reformed congregation on the North Shore completed its meeting house about this year.[1]
- **1720** (the world): The South Sea Bubble collapsed in Britain, a financial scandal that would have been known through Atlantic commercial news.
- **1721** (the country): New York records counted 76 enslaved people imported from the West Indies and 117 from Africa.
- **1722** (nearby): Elias Neau, whose New York mission educated and instructed enslaved Africans, died.
- **1725** (the country): New York records counted 54 enslaved people imported from the West Indies and 59 from Africa.
- **1728** (here): The county court at Stony Brook closed and a new court building was constructed in Richmond Town.[4]
- **1729** (here): Richmond was designated the county seat of Richmond County.[4]
- **1730** (here): Richmond Town had only ten to twelve houses and at least one tavern.[4]

## What the sources say

- The map point lies in Richmond County, which in the 1720s was the same island commonly called Staten Island. (from the sources)[4]
- European-settled Richmond Town had earlier been called Coccle’s Town or Cocklestown, probably after shellfish in the creek. (from the sources)[4]
- In 1696 the Dutch church built a house in Richmond Town for a voorlezer, a teacher and lay reader who led worship between ministers’ visits. (from the sources)[1][4]
- By the early eighteenth century four roads passed through Richmond Town: Fresh Kill Road, Richmond Road, the road to Stony Brook, and Old Mill Road. (from the sources)[4]
- A county jail was built at Richmond about 1710 because the village sat at road junctions near navigable water. (from the sources)[4]
- By 1730 Richmond Town had ten to twelve houses and at least one tavern. (from the sources)[4]
- Anglicans began the Church of St. Andrew at the head of the Fresh Kills by 1709, completed a stone church in 1712, and received Queen Anne’s charter in 1713. (from the sources)[2]
- In 1728 the county court at Stony Brook closed and a new court building was constructed in Richmond Town; in 1729 Richmond became the county seat. (from the sources)[4]
- Colonial Staten Island remained largely rural, and farms produced cattle, pigs, grain, fruit, and vegetables. (from the sources)[4]
- Fishing and shellfish harvesting were important parts of Staten Island’s colonial economy, and enslaved African-descended people performed farm labor, domestic chores, and work on fishing vessels. (from the sources)[4]
- On the North Shore, Governor Hunter licensed the Dutch Reformed congregation in 1715 to build a meeting house beside an existing burial ground; the new church was completed about 1717–1718. (inferred)[1]
- Port Richmond grew in the early eighteenth century partly because Jacob Corson established a ferry to Bergen Point in present-day Bayonne, and roads linked that ferry to the North Shore and Richmond Town. (inferred)[1]
- The island’s population was 727 in 1698, about 1,279 in 1712, and 2,073 in 1746. (from the sources)[3]
- In 1698 Richmond County’s recorded population included 654 white people and 73 Black people, making people of African descent about 10 percent of the county population. (inferred)
- By 1756 Richmond County had 1,667 white people and 465 Black people, so the Black share had risen to 21.8 percent by mid-century. (inferred)
- In the late seventeenth century Staten Island’s European-descended population was divided among French-speaking, English, and Dutch communities. (from the sources)[3]
- French and Dutch settlers on Staten Island commonly built stone or brick houses, while English settlers preferred frame houses. (from the sources)[3]
- The Treasure House near St. Andrew’s was built in 1700 by Samuel Grosset, a French Huguenot tanner who worked by the adjacent creek. (from the sources)[3]
- New York’s 1702 slave law forbade trade with an enslaved person without the enslaver’s consent and allowed enslavers to punish enslaved people short of death or maiming. (inferred)
- Between 1701 and 1726, recorded imports of enslaved people into New York included 1,573 from the West Indies and 822 from Africa. (inferred)
- Staten Island church and court records for this period survive unevenly, and no online source found here gives ordinary Richmond County wages or shop prices for the 1720s. (not known)
- No local online description found here gives a street-by-street account of Staten Island houses, barns, or interiors specifically in the 1720s. (not known)

## Sources

1. Saint Andrew’s Church #41. Historic Richmond Town. https://www.historicrichmondtown.org/historic-houses/2018/7/26/saint-andrews-church
2. Huguenot Staten Island. Wagner College. https://faculty.wagner.edu/lori-weintrob/huguenot-staten-island/
3. Richmond Town Historic District. LivingPlaces. https://www.livingplaces.com/NY/Richmond_County/Staten_Island_Borough/Richmond_Town_Historic_District.html
4. Richmond County, New York Guide. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/knowledgebase/richmond-county-new-york-guide

## The same place in other decades

- [Richmond County in the 1760s](https://yorehistory.com/place/staten-island-richmond-county-new-york/1760s/md)

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Somerset County, New Jersey in the 1740s](https://yorehistory.com/place/somerset-county-new-jersey/1740s/md) (41 km)
- [Chesterfield, Burlington County, New Jersey in the 1720s](https://yorehistory.com/place/chesterfield-burlington-county-new-jersey/1720s/md) (65 km)
- [Sussex County, New Jersey in the 1730s](https://yorehistory.com/place/sussex-county-new-jersey/1730s/md) (79 km)
- [Greenwich, Sussex County, New Jersey in the 1750s](https://yorehistory.com/place/greenwich-sussex-county-new-jersey/1750s/md) (79 km)
- [Greenwich Township, Warren County, New Jersey in the 1730s](https://yorehistory.com/place/greenwich-township-warren-county-new-jersey/1730s/md) (80 km)
- [Greenwich, Sussex/Warren County, New Jersey in the 1750s](https://yorehistory.com/place/greenwich-sussex-warren-county-new-jersey/1750s/md) (80 km)
- [Hardwick, Warren County, New Jersey in the 1750s](https://yorehistory.com/place/hardwick-warren-county-new-jersey/1750s/md) (86 km)
- [Skippack Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the 1710s](https://yorehistory.com/place/skippack-township-montgomery-county-pennsylvania/1710s/md) (113 km)

---
Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-13 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Staten Island, Richmond County, New York in the 1720s", https://yorehistory.com/place/staten-island-richmond-county-new-york/1720s