TuTTLeE: Earty DocuMENTS 31 
apparently on these surveys, began near the same point north of 
Mill Creek and extended along the south shore to the same point. 
Apparently it was intended to include in the 1676 survey the area 
southwest of the dash line running from the foot of Sharrott Av., 
which is more than 1600 acres,'* but the actual survey as recorded, 
932 acres, shown by weak dash lines on the map, includes only the 
area west of a line drawn from the foot of Beach Street to the 
foot of Church Street. 
The boundary of the Manor of Bentley patent, granted in 1687, 
it will be seen, begins at Richmond Valley Road and Arthur Kill. 
It then follows Arthur Kill and the south shore to the foot of 
Sharrott Avenue, then north on Sharrott Avenue to the creek just 
south of the railroad, thence in a straight line to a property corner 
at Weir Avenue west of the Mt. Loretto RR. siding, and then 
along property lines and Richmond Valley Road, as indicated, to 
Arthur Kill. 
While these documents do not prove that the present Buillop 
House dates from 1676 or earlier, they make it plain that a build- 
ing occupying substantially the same position was there. This 
building was quite likely the Billop House now standing. 
One would think that such a keen observer as Danckaerts would 
have mentioned the house in his journal, if such a substantial and 
unusual structure for those times had been built at the time of his 
visit in 1679. On the other hand the indication of the structure 
on the survey of 1676 tends to show that the house there repre- 
sented was an unusual and substantial one. 
On Oct. 9, 1677, Capt. Christopher Billop sold to his brother 
Joseph Billop a house in Beverly, England, for 600 pounds.* It 
13The area of the Billop property as shown on the survey of 1687, 
measured from a photograph of that survey, is 1775 acres. 
The area of the Manor of Bentley as.described in the patent of 1687 and 
plotted on the modern map submitted herewith is 1868 acres, and the area 
southwest of the dash line running northwest from the foot of Sharrott 
Av., as shown on this map, is 1810 acres. 
14 Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series 5: 702. 
