It should be noted that the ten acres sold to Cooper was not the same as the ten acres that Isaiah Quinby bought from Marmaduke Leet in 1745, although it seems to have included a little of that property. The shape of the mill lot has been drawn based on later deeds, with help from a map drawn by Carter Litchfield, whose book on New Jersey Oil Mills should be published before the end of the year.<\/p>\n Since the fishing lease established that Cooper and Curry were already operating a mill in 1794, and later deeds make it clear that this ten-acre lot was the location of their mill, we must assume that Isaiah Quinby had leased the lot to the millers for a period of several years before finally selling it to Cooper. I have no insight into what prompted Quinby to sell in 1799, unless it was failing health that inspired him to begin settling his estate.<\/p>\n Probably as a continuation of his plans to dispose of his property, Isaiah Quinby carved out a tract of 75 acres adjoining Bull\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Island and sold it and most of the island to the most important man on the Pennsylvania side of the river, George Wall Esq., generally credited with being the founder of the town of Lumberville. The original name for the town was Wall\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Landing.<\/p>\n Addendum, April 22, 2013: After all my articles were published here concerning the village of Raven Rock, I found a missing piece of evidence, or I should say that Dennis Bertland gave me a piece of evidence. It is an advertisement in the newspaper, The True American, dated March 10, 1801, and reads:<\/em><\/p>\n \u201a\u00c4\u00faFOR SALE. Two Plantations, one on which the subscriber now lives, situated in Hunterdon county, on the river Delaware, containing one hundred and forty acres, part of which is Bulls Island, containing 70 acres, the remainder, adjoining lands of Joseph Reading, Esq., Martin Johnson and others, about 60 acres of which are excellent timber land. There are on the premises a large two-story dwelling-house with a good spring of water near the door, a barn, and an orchard of grafted fruit.<\/p>\n The other FARM contains 95 acres, bounded by lands of Martin Johnson and Thomas Hankinson, dec. about 20 acres of which are good woodland, the remainder arable land and meadow. There are on the premises a stone house, barn and store-house. Any person inclining to purchase may view the premises by applying to the subscriber. An indisputable title, and immediate possession will be given. [signed] Moses Quinby, March 5, 1801.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I suspect that Moses Quinby was acting on behalf of his father Isaiah Quinby who was by this time a very old man, 85 years old in fact. It does not appear that Isaiah Quinby actually deeded this property to his son Moses; at least, later deeds make no mention of that. The \u201a\u00c4\u00faother farm\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 referred to above was not sold at this time. A later advertisement dated Dec. 4, 1801 showed that it was still unsold. In that ad it was described as \u201a\u00c4\u00faopposite Painter\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Ferry,\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 making it south and east of the Raven Rock tract sold to George Wall.<\/em><\/p>\n This transaction took place on March 24, 1801. Wall paid $4000 for the whole, excepting out the fisheries that had been leased, and the rights of Cooper and Curry to build a dam for their mill.3<\/a><\/sup> The deed identified the stream of water separating the island from the mainland of New Jersey as \u201a\u00c4\u00faBull\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Creek.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 Bordering owners of the 75-acre tract were Martin Johnson and Mahlon Cooper.<\/p>\n Only six days after this deed was signed, George Wall conveyed the 75-acre tract to Isaiah Quinby\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s son Moses Quinby of Amwell for \u00ac\u00a3700.4<\/a><\/sup>\u00ac\u2020 Why didn\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t Isaiah Quinby sell the property directly to his son Moses rather than use a middle man? The deeds do not enlighten us. Mr. Wall made a handsome profit, however. According to Revolutionary America, 1763-1800<\/em> by Thomas L. Purvis, in 1800, one pound (\u00ac\u00a3) was the equivalent of about $4.77. That would make \u00ac\u00a3700 worth $3,340.89. So, although Wall paid $4,000 for the whole tract, he got nearly that much from Moses Quinby for the 75 acres. It does make one wonder what the relationship was between Isaiah and Moses Quinby. It also makes me wonder how Moses Quinby came up with so much money.<\/p>\n Moses Quinby and his first wife, Jane Fell, had 11 children, from 1783 to 1799, the year that Jane died. On January 13, 1801, Quinby married his second wife, Hannah Good, daughter of Edward Good and Eleanor Harris of Plumstead, PA. Moses and Hannah eventually had 7 children, for a total of 18 children of Moses Quinby, almost all of whom survived to adulthood. Moses must have been very prosperous indeed to support such a large family and still have the funds to purchase land from the cagey George Wall. Given the dates of the two deeds, it seems likely that the division (Wall to get the island, Quinby to get the rest) was agreed on beforehand.<\/p>\n The lease of a fishery has shown us that Mahlon Cooper and Robert Curry were hard at work at the Raven Rock mill by 1794, and by 1799 had acquired title to the ten-acre mill lot. Although their mill was located on the mainland, they were much affected by Bull\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Island, which was divided from their lot by the relatively narrow Bull\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Creek. They must have felt that they needed more control over the waters supplying their wheel or wheels, so when Isaiah Quinby sold Bull\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Island to George Wall in 1801, they probably negotiated with Wall to acquire part of the island.<\/p>\n There is no deed recorded to describe a sale, but a mortgage dated May 1, 1801 shows that Cooper and Curry purchased the southern half of Bulls Island from George Wall, and in order to do so, they mortgaged the property to him, promising to pay $533.33 in two installments.5<\/a><\/sup>\u00ac\u2020 George Wall was primarily interested in the northern half of Bull\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Island, which was the location of his \u201a\u00c4\u00faPrime Hope\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 or \u201a\u00c4\u00faSnapjaw\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 fishery. The fishery began at the northern tip of the island and ran down the river side nearly the whole length.6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodspeedhistories.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/MillLot2-994x1024.jpg\" "\\"MillLot2\\"")
<\/a>From Quinby to Wall to Quinby: Bull\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Island and Raven Rock<\/h3>\n
Bull\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Island, the \u201a\u00c4\u00faLower Part\u201a\u00c4\u00f9<\/h3>\n