In 1836 Thomas Stubbs, a musician and auctioneer, bought 18 acres at the southern end of Tarban Creek where he built a single storey sandstone farmhouse.  Stubbs and his wife lived with two servants and a gardener at ‘Longwood’ and established fruit trees and grape vines.  The property was sold to the Marist Fathers, French missionaries to the South Pacific  for £1,100 in 1847.

In 1857 the architect William Weaver was commissioned by the Marists to construct a Georgian building incorporating Stubbs’ cottage.  The named the site Villa Maria.  Thomas Salter purchased the property in 1874 for £2,000 and renamed it The Priory.  The site included shed, latrines, out house, tennis court, stables, poultry yard, cultivation paddock and coach houses.

The Priory was sold to the NSW government and became part of the Tarban Asylum in 1888. The surrounding land was farmed by the patients and provided fruit and vegetables for the use of the hospital.  During the Second World War an air raid shelter was cut into the terrace.

The Priory was restored in the mid 1980s for the use of the NSW  Mental Health Review Tribunal.  Hunters Hill Council now has responsibility for the Priory.