![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodspeedhistories.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/QuinbyMoses.png\" "\\"QuinbyMoses\\"")
<\/a>Moses Quinby (1759-1824), the son of Isaiah Quinby and Rachel Warford, acquired the land next to Bull\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Island from George Wall in 1801. It amounted to 75 acres. In 1804, Quinby sold off lots from this property until he was left with about 16 acres, about which I will have more to say.<\/p>\n
Quinby acquired and sold other properties beside the 75 acres. They were located in the same general area, but it is the 75-acre tract that concerns me here, since the entire village of Raven Rock is situated there. The 75 acres included the triangular 10-acre lot sold by Marmaduke Leet to Moses Quinby\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s father Isaiah.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Longsstreath<\/h3>\n
On June 12, 1804, only three years after the 75 acres was acquired, Moses Quinby, yeoman of Amwell, and wife Hannah, sold\u00ac\u2020 19 acres and 33 perches to Benjamin Longstreath, millwright of Amwell for \u00ac\u00a3350.1<\/a><\/sup> This lot ran from Bull\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Creek back up a large hollow in the cliff to a line bordering the farm of Isaiah Quinby. Benjamin Longstreath was almost certainly a descendant of Benjamin Longstreath of Yorkshire, England, a Quaker born in 1679 who immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1698.2<\/a><\/sup>\u00ac\u2020The Benjamin Longstreath who bought land from Moses Quinby was married to Isabella Dennis on December 17, 1801 by John Lambert, Justice of the Peace in Amwell Township.3<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n Longstreath the millwright may have done some work for Cooper and Curry, the millers of Raven Rock. A millwright was a carpenter, but also a mechanic who could set up and repair the driveshafts, gears and belts needed for any kind of mill, be it a sawmill, flour mill, linseed oil mill, plaster mill or clover seed mill. In Hunterdon County, millwrights also built the huge wheels that powered those mills. It appears that Longstreath purchased the lot on Bull\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Creek as an investment, since he sold it after only two years. On May 1, 1806, Longstreath and wife Isabella of Amwell sold the lot to Jacob Hunt for $1,166.67 ($61 per acre).4<\/a><\/sup> This was about $500 less than Longstreath had paid Moses Quinby, which is hard to explain. Jacob Hunt in turn divided the 19 acres into smaller lots facing the creek.<\/p>\n On August 27, 1804, Moses Quinby, yeoman of Amwell, and wife Hannah sold a 40-acre parcel just east of the Longstreath lot and bordering the Cooper-Curry mill lot. The purchaser was Robert Naylor, also yeoman of Amwell, who paid \u00ac\u00a34000, or \u00ac\u00a3100 ($477) per acre.5<\/a><\/sup> This is an extravagant price. Naylor seems to have been doing Quinby an enormous favor.<\/p>\n Just like Benjamin Longstreath\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s lot, the Naylor lot included what is now frontage along Highway 29 as well as land up on the plateau. Access to this back land could only be from the triangular 10-acre lot that fronts on today\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Quarry Road, which may explain why Isaiah Quinby bought it in 1745.<\/p>\n Who was Robert Naylor?\u00ac\u2020 That is hard to say. I know practically nothing of his family; he may well have been an English immigrant. He bought and sold properties in the Raven Rock area from the late 1700s through 1820, and was identified as a \u201a\u00c4\u00fayeoman of Amwell.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 He wrote his will on December 20, 1827, leaving only $10 to his wife Mary, and 50 cents to each of his children, who I believe were Mary, Robert, John, David, Jane and Sarah. All his real estate was left to his son Robert Jr., who sold a ten-acre lot in Kingwood that was his father\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s to Joseph Rodman.<\/p>\n After selling 40 acres to Naylor and 19 acres to Longstreath, Quinby had only 16 acres remaining, more or less. This remaining lot was the location of the future Saxtonville Tavern, and might have been where Quinby lived and was trying to keep his store. The sales to Naylor and Longstreath suggest Quinby was running short of cash.<\/p>\n Moses and Hannah Quinby apparently divided their time between Hunterdon and Bucks Counties, for in 1807, when they sold a lot of land to George Price, they were living in Plumstead, Bucks County. But by 1809, they were once again living in Amwell Township in Hunterdon Co. It was then that\u00ac\u2020Moses Quinby was obliged to sell the last of his Amwell properties. On June 3, 1809, he signed a \u201a\u00c4\u00faMemorandum of Agreement\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 between himself and Nathaniel Saxton, in which Quinby agreed to sell to Saxton all that lot in Amwell on that part of the Delaware called Bulls Creek adjoining lands of Baker Phillips, James Quinby and Jacob Hunt of 15 to 17 acres, being the residue of lands owned by said Quinby at that place, for $400, $200 of which was to be paid on a mortgage owned by Mrs. Miriam Quinby, the remainder in two installments of $100 each, on May 1, 1810 and May 1, 1811. The memorandum was witnessed by John Beaumont and Henry Tomlinson.6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n The fact that Moses Quinby was forced to borrow $200 from his stepmother Miriam Quinby shows how desperate his finances had become. The Quinby Genealogy states that Moses Quinby had taken up storekeeping at Raven Rock, but that he was not suited for that endeavor. Fortunately, Nathaniel Saxton gave him a way out. But Saxton drove a much harder bargain than Benjamin Longstreath did, paying only about $25 per acre, while Longstreath paid the equivalent of $87 per acre (based on a value of $4.77 per pound)..<\/p>\nRobert Naylor<\/h3>\n
<\/a>Sale of the Tavern Lot, 1809-1810<\/h3>\n