Christopher Billopp ( Royal Navy officer ) Christopher Billopp ( ca . 1638 - 1726 ) was an English officer of the Royal Navy in the seventeenth century who commanded various ships of the line including in the Battle of Bantry Bay Billopp was given a crown grant by James , Duke of York in 1676 for according to sources either or , on Staten Island in the colony of New York , where he built a stone manor house he named " Bentley Manor " , after the name of a small ship he had commanded , the " Bentley " . He received a second crown grant in 1687 . The house , inherited by his great grandson Colonel Christopher Billopp , a British Loyalist during the American Revolution , was the setting for a failed peace conference between Lord Howe and members of the Continental Congress . His house is now a United States National Historic Landmark known as the Conference House . Family . Billopp ' s father was named William Billopp from Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire , England . His grandfather was Christopher Billopp ( Mayor of Beverley ) and great grandfather Johnis . He had a brother named Joseph , who resided in New York and London , England . He was married twice and had two daughters by his first wife , Mary and Anne , his second wife was Katherine Farmar . Anne married Thomas Farmar . One of Billopp ' s descendants was the actress Jane Wyatt . Other descendant are James Michael Billopp Willis and Kenneth Christopher Stratton Thompson Naval career . Billopp served in a number of Royal Naval vessels : In New York . In 1664 , the Dutch colonies became English colonies , and all fell under the control of the Duke of York , who was the brother of King Charles II . By 1667 , a territorial dispute raged over Staten Island between New York , namesake of the duke , and New Jersey , which had possession of Staten Island under Dutch rule . To settle the dispute , the duke came up with a novel solution : he declared that all islands in New York Harbor that could be circumnavigated in 24 hours would belong to New York , and if such a voyage took longer than that , they would belong to New Jersey . At this time , Billopp was just across the waterway from Staten Island at Perth Amboy , New Jersey aboard a small two - gun vessel called the " Bentley " . Billopp was selected for the duke ' s challenge . While struggling to figure out how to complete the more than voyage within the duke ' s time frame of 24 hours , Billopp reasoned that if he packed the deck of his ship with empty barrels , the extra surface area could harness some more wind giving his ship a slight boost in speed . Thus equipped , Billopp completed the circumnavigation in just over 23 hours and secured Staten Island for New York . In recognition of his achievement , the duke awarded Billopp a total of of land located in what is now the Tottenville section of Staten Island . On this land Billopp built his house , which he named the Manor of Bentley in honor of his ship . He 1709 he gained the charter to operate the Perth Amboy Ferry , part of an important overland route between New York and Philadelphia . Billopp served for a time as a lieutenant in command of an infantry detachment under colonial governor Edmund Andros .