Fort Neck House

Photo left: Fort Neck House owned by the Jones Family of Long Island, New York. Photo taken before the house was destoyed in 1940. Click on photo for an older image.
During the Revolutionary War Captain David Hawley, from Bridgeport, Connecticut, and some volunteers raided the Fort Neck House of Long Island and kidnapped a Tory Judge, Thomas Jones, a loyalist. The house is located in Wassapequa, New York, and the property belonged to the prestigious Jones family of Long Island. There are several historical articles documenting the raid and in doing research on the story I was disappointed to find that the house was no longer standing. It is said that David Hawley, after knocking on the door several times, knocked down the door to kidnap the judge. I have also read that the Jones family retained pieces of the door frame from the incident. It would have been great to visit the house today knowing what had occurred there.

New York Times article June 1915
The article also includes the prestigious history of the Jones family from Long Island, where evidently the term, 'keeping up with the Jones', comes from. Read Article (PDF)

Excerpt from Thomas Jones: Embittered Long Island Loyalist
Although still on parole Jones was taken prisoner again and robbed of property worth £300 on 6 November 1779 by Capt. David Hawley of Connecticut. Hawley and his men landed at Stony Brook on the north shore of Long Island and marched fifty-two miles to Fort Neck, where they surprised Jones at 9:00 P.M. The captain was seeking someone suitable to exchange for Jones’s old classmate, Gold Selleck Silliman, whom loyalists had kidnapped from his home. Jones arrived in Fairfield, Connecticut on 8 November and remained there “in sullen discontent” at the Silliman home, until he was finally moved inland to Middletown, Connecticut. His ordeal ended in May 1780, when the two former classmates were exchanged. Unfortunately, toward the end of his stay in Connecticut, Jones injured himself in a sleighing accident that not only delayed his release but that also caused continuing health problems.According to his niece Elizabeth, “when taken he was in perfect health. That when he returned he was so lame, with the Rheumation as to make use of Crutches, and to use them for many months afterwards.” In ill health, restless, and afraid to return to Fort Neck, Jones stayed in New York City for a month, then moved to Jamaica, Long Island and remained there until the autumn. By the end of the year he returned to New York City.
Read full Article

Google Books: Appletons' cyclopaedia of American biography, Volume 3 edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske
They incorrectly list David Hawley as Daniel Hawley