Dueling on Staten Island?

Dueling on Staten Island? Yes, it’s true. An area west of what became the historic Black Horse Tavern served as the locale for dueling between British officers during the Revolutionary War. They were settling gaming obligations. One incident involved British Army General Robertson and a French officer named Vollogne. The duel left Vollogne with a bullet in his chest. Several months later he passed away at Quebec from the injury. By today’s reckoning the Black Horse Tavern area would have been located in New Dorp, west of what is now the intersection of Amboy and Richmond Roads.

This dueling ground also saw a match “between young Hamilton and Lathrop.” The first was the son of Alexander Hamilton, who himself was famously killed in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804. Lathrop was an English lawyer. Philip Hamilton did not die from this circa 1790 Staten Island event, but he did die from an 1801 duel that took place where his father was later killed in Weehawken, New Jersey.

Ironically, Aaron Burr died alone and miserable at the Saint James Hotel, formerly the Continental Hotel, in 1836. It stood on the south side of Richmond Terrace (then the Shore Road), east of (Port) Richmond Avenue, in Port Richmond. The former Vice-President had a long time to be miserable as he was eighty-years old when he passed on. Aaron Burr is buried in Princeton Cemetery at Princeton, New Jersey.