The Townsend Cemetery is the burying ground for 31 of early English Quaker settlers to the Roslyn community including six families; Townsend, Jackson, Horsfield, Titus, Willis and Boerem.

Among the descendants of the Townsends is Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University. Another prominent person buried here is Timothy Townsend Jackson. He owned a horse farm named "Willow Glen" in Flushing Meadows raised Morgan Horses. There is a Courier & Ives lithograph (1875) featuring him entitled, The Celebrated "Four in Hand" Stallion Team. Superb and His Three Sons.

The cemetery was active for136 years. The earliest interment was November 24, 1790(Timothy H. Townsend) and the last burial was February 12, 1926 (Mary Elizabeth Horsfield.) Throughout this period it was known as the Willis Farm Cemetery, Greenvale Cemetery and now the Townsend Cemetery. Until 2012, the cemetery was abandoned with no access from its right-of-way on Northern Boulevard

On March 27, 2012, Mayor Michael Koblenz of East Hills requested Howard Kroplick, then the Town Historian of North Hempstead, to research a private abandoned cemetery behind North Flamingo Road in East Hills. Mayor Koblenz was notified of the cemetery by neighbor Hazel Silverberg and her son Howard Silverberg.

Considered an abandoned cemetery, the Townsend Cemetery and its Northern Boulevard right-of-way is managed by the Town of North Hempstead. In 2014, the right-of way and the burying ground were cleared.

In December 2021, the Roslyn Landmark Society received a $10,000 grant from the Robert D.L. Gardiner Foundation to help restore the burying ground. Working with the Town of North Hempstead, Burying Ground Preservation and Stewart Preservation Services, the first phase of the restoration was completed on July 12, 2021.

A survey of the 31 cemeteries located in the Town of North Hempstead can be found in the above Project Files.

On July 25, 2020, descendants of the Jackson family buried in the Townsend Cemetery paid their respects.