[Abernath.ged]
INDIVIDUAL_NOTE
Head of Dorchester County. Made a freeman in 1637. Captain of Train
Band. Name is French.
Husbandman. Came to America in 1624 on Zouch Phenix to Cape Ann, MA
Another researcher has wife #2 as Demaris Shattuck m. ~ 1659
Govenor
Thomas Gardner 1591-1674 Governor of Cape Ann Colony 1623 Deputy 1637, Daggett & Skiffe & Butler History of Martha's Vineyard Vol.3
Thomas Gardner and John Tilley were the chief rulers of the Cape Ann Colony during the time which preceded the appointment of Roger Conant as Governor.
Source: Thomas Gardner Planter and Some of His Descendants, compiled and arranged by Frank A Gardner, MD, 1731, Essex Institute, Salem, Mass
Thomas Gardner married twice. We know this from the fact that in his will he mentions his wife as the mother-widow of his sons. The Margaret Gardner, who united with the first Church in 1639, is supposed to have been his wife. Various writers, including Rev. Joseph B. It, have stated that her maiden name was Fryer (or Frier), but the writer has thus far failed to find the authority for this statement.
Rev. Charles Henry Pope, in his "Pioneers of Massachusetts" suggests that the Margaret who united with the Salem Church in 1639, may have been the wife of Edmund Gardner of Ipswich.
While Edmund's wife may have been named Margaret, it seems improbable that she was the one above mentioned as uniting with the Salem church, for the following reasons: Edmund is mentioned in the Ipswich Town Records as early as 1635, and very frequently thereafter. The Ipswich church was organized in 1634 and the wife of a man so prominent in local affairs would, in all probability, have united with the "home church."
His second wife was Damaris Shattuck, a widow, who was admitted to the church in Salem in 1641. She had several children by her first husband, one of whom, Sarah, married Richard Gardner son of Thomas. She, like most of her Shattuck relations, evidently favored the Friends, as she was called into court many times for being "present at a Quaker meeting," and for absence from her own church. In the 9th Mo. 1667, and the 4th Mo. In the year following, "Old Mrs. Gardner was fined 5 shillings for absence from public worship. She had no children by Thomas Gardner. The date of her death is given in the Salem Town Records, as 28, 9, 1674.
Thomas Gardner died the 29th 10th Mo. 1674, and was buried in the Gardiner burying ground, a hillock described as lot III.
The following extract from a deposition made by William Trask in 1677 is of interest in, this connection : "I never heard that Old Mr. Gardiner did hinder any from burring there dead there butt said att severall funeralls to friends & neighbours doe not burrey your dead by fuch a young tree for I doe defire to be burried there my felfe & accordingly to my knowledge he was buried there himselfe."
Thus ended his long and useful life. The writer feels that no eulogy can add to the glory of one who throughout his lifetime was so greatly honored by his fellow pioneers, and filled acceptably so many positions of trust and responsibility. Those were trying times, and Thomas Gardner well earned the high place which he has always held among the Old Planters.
Source: "Early Settlers of Nantucket , Their Associates and Descendants", compiled by Lydia S Hinchman, Pub., Ferris & Leach, 1901
WILLIAM C. FOLGER, in his notes on the Gardner family, makes the following entry: " Farmer, in his Register, says, 'Thomas Gardner came from Scotland;' a Nantucket tradition says he came from Sherborne, in the northern part of the County of Dorset, and that the former name of Nantucket (Sherburne) was given through the influence of his family. There is no question of the fact that they exercised considerable influence over the affairs of the town."
There are few natives of Nantucket who do not claim descent from Thomas Gardner.
From New England History and Genealogical Register, vol. xxv., pp. 48, 49, we learn that "Thomas Gardiner, the first of the Salem stock, came over in 1624 from Dorsetshire, England, near which the name had flourished for more than three centuries, and settled under the auspices of the Dorchester Company and Rev. John White, with thirteen others at Gloucester, Cape Ann, upon the grant of Lord Sheffield to Robert Cushman and Edward Winslow, made in January of that year.
Thomas Gardner, the common ancestor of the Salem-Nantucket Gardners, was born about 1592. He sailed from Weymouth and received an appointment from the Dorchester Company. He came to America in 1624 From Dorchester, England, landing at Stage Point in what is now Gloucester Harbor. Initially settling at Gloucester on Cape Ann, he was an overseer of a plantation. In 1626, the Dorchester Company moved from Cape Ann to the mouth of the Naumkeag River (Salem?). The Massachusetts Bay Colony admitted him as a freeman March 17, 1637. He died in Salem on Oct. 29, 1674. He was a prosperous merchant, a member of the General Court in 1637 an a holder of many town offices. he married twice, first to Margaret, the mother of all his children, and second to a Mrs. Damaris Shattuck. His son married a Shattuck likely the daughter of this woman. His name is listed in the register of the Society of colonial Wars, Connecticut Register. ("Thomas Gardner and Some of his Descendants" by Frank A. Gordon, MD., 1907: Ancestral Records and Portraits, Colonial Dames of America, Chapter 1, page 71).
According to "Passengers and Ships", a Thomas Gardner sailed on the Zouch Phenix with his wife (name not given in 1624. Also sailing on that ship were George Gardner (his son?), Richard Gardner, and Joseph Gardner.
"The Great Migration Begins"
GARDNER, THOMAS [1624, Cape Ann]
THOMAS GARDNER
ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1624
FIRST RESIDENCE: Cape Ann
REMOVES: Salem 1626
OCCUPATION: Innkeeper (Thomas Gardner, Sr., was repeatedly licensed during the 1660s to retail strong drink, but in June 1667 the license was amended to allow him to sell only to "strangers" and not to townsmen [EQC 3:339, 431, 4:36, 37, 161, 269, 397]).
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: In list of Salem church members compiled in late 1636 [SChR 5].
FREEMAN: 17 May 1637 [MBCR 1:373].
EDUCATION: Signed his name to several petitions and inventories.
OFFICES: Deputy for Salem to the General Court, 26 September 1637 [MBCR 1:204].
Essex grand jury, 25 February 1641, 27 January 1643/4, July 1644 [STR 1:120; EQC 1:33, 57, 62]. Petit jury, failed to appear and fined 29 June 1641 [EQC 1:26]; appeared 27 January 1642/3, 28 January 1646, 28 January 1647/8, 26 January 1648/9, 26 June 1649, 24 June 1651 (foreman), 29 June 1652, 28 June 1653, 6 March 1653/4, 13 June 1655, 27 November 1655, 30 June 1657, 29 June 1658 [STR 1:104, 146, 184, 186, 202, 216; EQC 1:44, 129, 153, 169, 229, 254, 283, 326, 408, 2:42, 71]. Jury, 27 August 1636, 27 June 1637 (foreman), 27 September 1639, 29 January 1640[/1] [EQC 1:3, 6, 12, 24]. Coroner's jury on Ralph Elwood, August 1644 [EQC 1:71].
Salem selectman, 1635, 1637, 1642-6, 1650, 1655-6 [STR 1:13, 50, 113, 121, 128, 136, 143, 164, 182, 190]. Salem constable, 1639 [STR 1:88]. Salem fenceviewer, 1636 [STR 1:41]. Overseer or surveyor for Salem highways 1637/8, 1639, 1642, 1643, 1649, 1655-8 [STR 1:67, 90, 117, 124, 158, 189, 191, 214]. Salem rater, 1639/40 [STR 1:97].
ESTATE: In the 1636 Salem grants Thomas Gardner had one hundred acres in the freeman's land [STR 1:20]. He was granted one acre of marsh on 25 December 1637, with a household of seven [STR 1:103].
He received a special grant by warrant, of one hundred acres in 1636 [STR 1:37]. When George Ingersoll received a ten acre lot, it was land formerly of Mr. Gardner's and others, which they had resigned to the town in favor of other land in March 1638/9 [STR 1:82]. Thomas Gardner was granted on 15 May 1639 a bank of upland near Strongwater Brook, paying 5s. an acre [STR 1:88]. He was granted half a three-quarter acre lot with Obadiah Homes, on land near the gate leading to the old mill, 20 March 1642/3 [STR 1:117]. He was granted ten acres in Salem for a house near the old mill, 8 February 1643/4 [STR 1:123]. "Mr. Gardner" was granted one acre of meadow on the north side of his farm, 31 August 1649 [STR 1:159]. "Mr. Gardner requested for himself and those that now do or hereafter shall live at those ten acre lots end or side that they may have the common land granted to them that lies at the foot of Mr. Read's hill to lie as common for their joint use; this request is granted," 27 April 1654 [STR 1:176].
On 6 December 1671 Thomas Gardner of Salem, husbandman, sold to "Josiah Sothwick," for a valuable consideration received thirteen years earlier, two acres in the North Field of Salem [ELR 4:85].
The will of "Thomas Gardner of Salem" was written 7 December 1668 and proved 29 March 1675 by witnesses Robert Pease and Samuel Goldthwaite [EQC 6:31]. "Weighing the uncertainty of man's life, I do therefore in the time of my health, make this my last will" giving to "my wife Damaris" all the estate she brought with her "according to our agreement" and œ8 a year paid by my six sons provided she give up her dower in my housing and lands; to "my daughter Sara Balch" œ15; to "my daughter Seeth Grafton" œ15; to "my daughter Mirian [sic] Hills two daughters, Miriam Hill, & Susanna Hill," to each of them œ5 at age eight~een or marriage; to "my sons George and John Gardner" salt meadow valued at œ20; to "my sons Samuel and Joseph Gardner" the other part of my salt meadow; residue divided in seven equal parts, two parts to my son Thomas, he paying "his mother in law forty six shillings by the year," the other sons to receive one part each and pay their mother-in-law twenty-three shillings a year; sons George and Samuel Gardner executors; "my loving friends Mr. Joseph Grafton and Deacon Horne" overseers [EPR 2:423-24].
The inventory of the estate of "Mr. Thomas Gardner, taken 4:11m:1674" by Hilliard Veren, Sr. and John Pickering totalled œ274 16s., including real estate valued at œ201: "an old dwelling house with about 10 acres of land adjoining with the orchard, fences &c.," œ31; ten acres of ground in the Northfield, œ27; about 100 acres of upland and meadow, œ100; about 20 acres of land lying in the woods, œ3; and about 2 3/4 acres of salt marsh lying above the mill," œ40. The inventory also included "2 old barrels of guns" valued at 5s. [EPR 2:424-5].
Following Thomas Gardner's probate, at the November 1677 term of Essex court his sons George ("now of Hartford, Connecticut") and Samuel sued John Pudney of Salem, husbandman, over a farm let to Pudney by lease dated 1 March 1672[/3] and described as Gardner's
now dwelling house in Salem, with all his land in Northfield, about 20 acres, also his 10 acres of meadow ... for seven years from Apr. 15, 1672 at œ11 per year, and two barrels of cider, said Gardner furnishing the cask, of which œ4 were to be paid in wood at 8s. per cord, 40s. in butter and cheese, with one firkin of butter, 40s. in pork, and the remainder in corn. Said Pudney was not to remove any muck, and Gardner reserved the right to take the meadow near Needham's if he so desired [EQC 5:356].
On 2 September 1678 Lt. George Gardner, late of Salem & now of Hartford, merchant, and Samuel Gardner of Salem, mariner, joint executors of the last will of Mr. Thomas Gardner deceased, sold to John Swinnerton of Salem, physician, "all that part of the estate that said Gardner died possessed of and which the said executors have power to sell," including a dwelling house and ten acres in the North Field, another ten acres in the North Field, about an acre of upland by the Strongwater Brook, a farm containing one hundred acres of upland and meadow, and twenty acres of upland and meadow [ELR 5:3].
BIRTH: About 1592 (deposed aged about sixty-nine 26 November 1661 [EQC 2:320]).
DEATH: Salem 29 December 1674, "husband of Damaris."
MARRIAGE: (1) By about 1614 _____ _____; she probably died in Salem in 1636, perhaps at the birth of youngest child Seeth (see COMMENTS below).
(2) (prob.) By 1639 Margaret _____, who joined the church at Salem 24 March 1639/40 [SChR 8]. (See TAG 30:156 for discussion of claims she was Margaret Friar.)
(3) Damaris (_____) Shattuck. She was the "widow Shattock" when she joined the Salem Church 2 July 1641 [SChR 11]; she died Salem 28 November 1674, one month before her husband. (See TAG 30:165-68 for discussion of this woman and her many connections to the Pope and Gardner families.)
CHILDREN:
With first wife
i THOMAS, b. say 1614 (adult 1637 when he received a grant from Salem [STR 1:52]; eldest son with a double share in his father's will); m. (1) by 1643 _____ Hapscott[?] [TAG 26:108, 30:157-58]; m. (2) by an unknown date Elizabeth Horne, daughter of JOHN HORNE [TAG 26:108, 30:158-99].
ii GEORGE, b. say 1616 (adult when "bretherin" Thomas and George Gardiner were given ten acres in Salem 8 November 1637 [STR 1:59]); made free 27 December 1642 [EQC 1:48]); m. (1) by 1644 Hannah _____; m. (2) by 1654 Elizabeth (Freestone) Turner, bp. Horncastle, Lincolnshire, 17 October 1619, daughter of Richard and Margery (Freestone) Freestone, and widow of Robert Turner, shoemaker, of Boston; m. (3) after 1663 (inventory of her previous husband [Manwaring 1:242]) Elizabeth (Allen) Stone, widow of Rev. SAMUEL STONE. (For the identity of these three wives we follow the work of George E. McCracken [TAG 30:158-66].)
iii JOHN, b. about 1624 (d. Nantucket 6 July 1706, aged 82 years); m. 20 February 1653/4 Priscilla Grafton [NanVR, citing "William C. Folger genealogical records in the possession of the Nantucket Historical Association"; this marriage probably took place in Salem].
iv SARAH, b. about 1627; m. about 1650 as his first of three wives Benjamin Balch, son of JOHN BALCH.
v SAMUEL, b. about 1629 (deposed June Term, 1680, aged "about fifty years" [EQC 7:389]); m. (1) before 1658 (eldest child b. Salem 5 August 1658) Mary White, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Herbert) White [NEHGR 150:193-95]; m. (2) Salem 2 August 1680 Elizabeth _____ Paine.
vi JOSEPH, b. about 1630 (about 16 in 1645/6 when he is anticipated in the train band [EQC 1:92]; near adult in 1649 [STR 1:157]); m. Ann Downing, daughter of Emmanuel Downing. She m. (2) 6 June 1676 SIMON BRADSTREET [Hale, House 518].
vii RICHARD, b. about 1632 (d. Nantucket 1724, aged 92); m. about 1652 Sarah Shattuck, daughter of his stepmother Damaris (_____) (Shattuck) Gardner [TAG 30:168].
viii MIRIAM, b. about 1635; m. by 1657 as his first wife John Hill. He m. (2) Salem 26 August 1664 Lydia Buffum.
ix SEETH, bp. Salem 25 December 1636 [SChR 16]; m. (1) Joshua Conant, son of ROGER CONANT [TAG 30:156-57]; m. (2) 1 December 1659 John Grafton, son of Joseph Grafton.
ASSOCIATIONS: Banks states without authority that Gardner might have come from Hurst, Martock parish, Somersetshire [Topo Dict 143], and other origins have been claimed. An origin in the West County for Thomas Gardner is certain, but the name is common and none of the suggestions made to date has a firm foundation.
George McCracken suggested that the unusual given name of the Gardner's last child, Seeth, was an indication that in previous generations there had been a marriage to someone with that surname [TAG 30:157].
Both McCracken and Moriarty take the question of the connection between the Gardners and the Popes to task, but admit that the "relationship of the Pope and Gardner and Shattuck families is certain; the mode not yet plain" [TAG 30:164-6].
In the painful June 1677 tangle over the burial of John Pudney's child on Mr. Gardner's hill, Pudney appealed a judgment of Major Hathorne's, mentioning the "kinship of Major Hathorne and said [Samuel] Gardner" [EQC 6:284]. This was probably a reference to the recent marriage of the Major's son to Samuel's daughter, and not an ancestral clue.
COMMENTS: "Mr. John Tylly and Mr. Thomas Gardener were employed as overseers of that whole business [of the plantation at Cape Anne]; the first with reference to the fishing, the other with respect to the planting on the main land, at least for one year's time" [Young's First Planters 23].
In the Salem land grant of 1637 Thomas Gardner received acreage for a household of seven. His sons Thomas and George were already old enough to receive grants of their own and be considered separate households. Seven younger children of Thomas Sr. were still under age and presumably residing at home, which would make a household of eight. One or more of the children could have been serving in another family, but this accounting raises the possibility that Thomas did not have a wife living in 1637. This hypothesis is supported by the admission to church membership of a Margaret Gardner on 24 March 1639/40; had she been with Thomas Gardner since his arrival in New England, we would expect that she would appear in the list of church members compiled in late 1636 at the reorganization of the church. Consequently, we propose that Thomas Gardner had three wives, the first of them of unknown name, who died at the birth of the youngest child, Seeth, whose baptism is one of the first recorded in late 1636.
In the February Term of court 1645/6 "Mr. Thomas Gardener discharged from training when his sixth son comes in" [EQC 1:92]. Men were required to train from the age of 16 to 60, and this implies that last son Joseph was approaching 16 in 1645/6, placing his date of birth about 1630.
"The wife of Thomas Gardner Sr." was fined for frequent absence from the public ordinances on Lord's days, along with a number of other Quakers, November Term 1660 [EQC 2:265]. This was merely the beginning of a long string of such fines and official harassment that eventually convinced several of the sons to move with their families away from Salem. Thomas Gardner Sr. is never named as having absented himself from public worship, and history is silent on his opinion of the matter.
When John Pudney's child died in 1677, he went with others to "Mr. Gardner's Hill," took down some fence bars, and dug a grave. Samuel Gardner came on horseback and ordered them off his land. Gardner had the grave filled in, but Pudney came back and succeeded in burying his child. The resulting suit at the June Term 1677 was appealed all the way to the Court of Assistants, which, after a jury trial, found for Pudney [RCA 1:110]. The case produced a deposition by William Trask, who said
that for these twenty-seven or twenty-eight years the land where John Pudney buried his child had been a usual burying place for so many as would make use of it for that purpose and he never heard that old Mr. Gardiner hindered any from burying their dead there, but he said at several funerals, `friends and neighbors, do not bury your dead by such a young tree for I do desire to be buried there myself.' According to deponent's knowledge, said Gardiner was buried there himself, and the draw bars that Pudney was sued for taking down stood on the town's land several feet, Mr. Gardiner having removed them several feet about five years since into the town's land. He further testified that for twenty-eight years the inhabitants of the town, as long as there were any great trees upon the land, cut the trees and carried away the timber without any molestation, and all the neighbors looked upon it as common land [EQC 6:284].
Thomas Gardner paid John Pickering six pounds for some indeterminate service either to the town or to himself in March of 1638/9 [STR 1:84]. Thomas Gardner's bull was set out to stud in the town herd in 1640 for a fee of 20s. [STR 1:99]. Gardner was chosen one of the commissioners to calculate damage done by cattle in Richard Ingersoll's lot 12 July 1642 [EQC 1:42]. Gardner was one of those who was to receive the corn for John Moore in 1643 [STR 1:120]. Mr. Gardner's new building is mentioned in the Salem town minutes of 30 7mo 1644 [STR 1:133].
Thomas Gardner was one of the seven influential men who advanced Hilliard Veren as the new clerk of courts, when "he that was last chosen thereunto is now removed to the eastward" [June Term, 1658, EQC 2:102].
Thomas Gardner Sr. took the inventory of William Bacon 26 September 1653 and provided the same service for Bacon's widow, Rebecca Bacon, two years later [EQC 1:323, 413]. He proved the will of Thomas Trussler at the June Term, 1654 and took his inventory 5 June 1654 [EQC 1:356-7]. He took the inventory of Henry Bullock, Jr., 10 January 1656 [EQC 2:49]. He was appointed administrator of the New England estate of his son-in-law Joshua Conant, who died intestate in England [EQC 2:190-1, November Term, 1659; 2:217]. With William Robinson, Thomas Gardner testified that John and Daniel Southwick had settled the division of their father Lawrence's estate [June Term, 1660, EQC 2:217]. Gardner also took the inventory of Lawrence Southwick's estate [November Term, 1660, EQC 2:263]. He took the inventory of William Cantlebury of Salem 25 June 1663, and probably was the Thomas Gardner who took the inventory of Ralph Tompkins of Salem 12 November 1666 [EQC 3:83, 379].
Govenor
Thomas Gardner 1591-1674 Governor of Cape Ann Colony 1623 Deputy 1637, Daggett & Skiffe & Butler History of Martha's Vineyard Vol.3
Thomas Gardner and John Tilley were the chief rulers of the Cape Ann Colony during the time which preceded the appointment of Roger Conant as Governor.
Source: Thomas Gardner Planter and Some of His Descendants, compiled and arranged by Frank A Gardner, MD, 1731, Essex Institute, Salem, Mass
Thomas Gardner married twice. We know this from the fact that in his will he mentions his wife as the mother-widow of his sons. The Margaret Gardner, who united with the first Church in 1639, is supposed to have been his wife. Various writers, including Rev. Joseph B. It, have stated that her maiden name was Fryer (or Frier), but the writer has thus far failed to find the authority for this statement.
Rev. Charles Henry Pope, in his "Pioneers of Massachusetts" suggests that the Margaret who united with the Salem Church in 1639, may have been the wife of Edmund Gardner of Ipswich.
While Edmund's wife may have been named Margaret, it seems improbable that she was the one above mentioned as uniting with the Salem church, for the following reasons: Edmund is mentioned in the Ipswich Town Records as early as 1635, and very frequently thereafter. The Ipswich church was organized in 1634 and the wife of a man so prominent in local affairs would, in all probability, have united with the "home church."
His second wife was Damaris Shattuck, a widow, who was admitted to the church in Salem in 1641. She had several children by her first husband, one of whom, Sarah, married Richard Gardner son of Thomas. She, like most of her Shattuck relations, evidently favored the Friends, as she was called into court many times for being "present at a Quaker meeting," and for absence from her own church. In the 9th Mo. 1667, and the 4th Mo. In the year following, "Old Mrs. Gardner was fined 5 shillings for absence from public worship. She had no children by Thomas Gardner. The date of her death is given in the Salem Town Records, as 28, 9, 1674.
Thomas Gardner died the 29th 10th Mo. 1674, and was buried in the Gardiner burying ground, a hillock described as lot III.
The following extract from a deposition made by William Trask in 1677 is of interest in, this connection : "I never heard that Old Mr. Gardiner did hinder any from burring there dead there butt said att severall funeralls to friends & neighbours doe not burrey your dead by fuch a young tree for I doe defire to be burried there my felfe & accordingly to my knowledge he was buried there himselfe."
Thus ended his long and useful life. The writer feels that no eulogy can add to the glory of one who throughout his lifetime was so greatly honored by his fellow pioneers, and filled acceptably so many positions of trust and responsibility. Those were trying times, and Thomas Gardner well earned the high place which he has always held among the Old Planters.
Source: "Early Settlers of Nantucket , Their Associates and Descendants", compiled by Lydia S Hinchman, Pub., Ferris & Leach, 1901
WILLIAM C. FOLGER, in his notes on the Gardner family, makes the following entry: " Farmer, in his Register, says, 'Thomas Gardner came from Scotland;' a Nantucket tradition says he came from Sherborne, in the northern part of the County of Dorset, and that the former name of Nantucket (Sherburne) was given through the influence of his family. There is no question of the fact that they exercised considerable influence over the affairs of the town."
There are few natives of Nantucket who do not claim descent from Thomas Gardner.
From New England History and Genealogical Register, vol. xxv., pp. 48, 49, we learn that "Thomas Gardiner, the first of the Salem stock, came over in 1624 from Dorsetshire, England, near which the name had flourished for more than three centuries, and settled under the auspices of the Dorchester Company and Rev. John White, with thirteen others at Gloucester, Cape Ann, upon the grant of Lord Sheffield to Robert Cushman and Edward Winslow, made in January of that year.
Thomas Gardner, the common ancestor of the Salem-Nantucket Gardners, was born about 1592. He sailed from Weymouth and received an appointment from the Dorchester Company. He came to America in 1624 From Dorchester, England, landing at Stage Point in what is now Gloucester Harbor. Initially settling at Gloucester on Cape Ann, he was an overseer of a plantation. In 1626, the Dorchester Company moved from Cape Ann to the mouth of the Naumkeag River (Salem?). The Massachusetts Bay Colony admitted him as a freeman March 17, 1637. He died in Salem on Oct. 29, 1674. He was a prosperous merchant, a member of the General Court in 1637 an a holder of many town offices. he married twice, first to Margaret, the mother of all his children, and second to a Mrs. Damaris Shattuck. His son married a Shattuck likely the daughter of this woman. His name is listed in the register of the Society of colonial Wars, Connecticut Register. ("Thomas Gardner and Some of his Descendants" by Frank A. Gordon, MD., 1907: Ancestral Records and Portraits, Colonial Dames of America, Chapter 1, page 71).
According to "Passengers and Ships", a Thomas Gardner sailed on the Zouch Phenix with his wife (name not given in 1624. Also sailing on that ship were George Gardner (his son?), Richard Gardner, and Joseph Gardner.
"The Great Migration Begins"
GARDNER, THOMAS [1624, Cape Ann]
THOMAS GARDNER
ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1624
FIRST RESIDENCE: Cape Ann
REMOVES: Salem 1626
OCCUPATION: Innkeeper (Thomas Gardner, Sr., was repeatedly licensed during the 1660s to retail strong drink, but in June 1667 the license was amended to allow him to sell only to "strangers" and not to townsmen [EQC 3:339, 431, 4:36, 37, 161, 269, 397]).
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: In list of Salem church members compiled in late 1636 [SChR 5].
FREEMAN: 17 May 1637 [MBCR 1:373].
EDUCATION: Signed his name to several petitions and inventories.
OFFICES: Deputy for Salem to the General Court, 26 September 1637 [MBCR 1:204].
Essex grand jury, 25 February 1641, 27 January 1643/4, July 1644 [STR 1:120; EQC 1:33, 57, 62]. Petit jury, failed to appear and fined 29 June 1641 [EQC 1:26]; appeared 27 January 1642/3, 28 January 1646, 28 January 1647/8, 26 January 1648/9, 26 June 1649, 24 June 1651 (foreman), 29 June 1652, 28 June 1653, 6 March 1653/4, 13 June 1655, 27 November 1655, 30 June 1657, 29 June 1658 [STR 1:104, 146, 184, 186, 202, 216; EQC 1:44, 129, 153, 169, 229, 254, 283, 326, 408, 2:42, 71]. Jury, 27 August 1636, 27 June 1637 (foreman), 27 September 1639, 29 January 1640[/1] [EQC 1:3, 6, 12, 24]. Coroner's jury on Ralph Elwood, August 1644 [EQC 1:71].
Salem selectman, 1635, 1637, 1642-6, 1650, 1655-6 [STR 1:13, 50, 113, 121, 128, 136, 143, 164, 182, 190]. Salem constable, 1639 [STR 1:88]. Salem fenceviewer, 1636 [STR 1:41]. Overseer or surveyor for Salem highways 1637/8, 1639, 1642, 1643, 1649, 1655-8 [STR 1:67, 90, 117, 124, 158, 189, 191, 214]. Salem rater, 1639/40 [STR 1:97].
ESTATE: In the 1636 Salem grants Thomas Gardner had one hundred acres in the freeman's land [STR 1:20]. He was granted one acre of marsh on 25 December 1637, with a household of seven [STR 1:103].
He received a special grant by warrant, of one hundred acres in 1636 [STR 1:37]. When George Ingersoll received a ten acre lot, it was land formerly of Mr. Gardner's and others, which they had resigned to the town in favor of other land in March 1638/9 [STR 1:82]. Thomas Gardner was granted on 15 May 1639 a bank of upland near Strongwater Brook, paying 5s. an acre [STR 1:88]. He was granted half a three-quarter acre lot with Obadiah Homes, on land near the gate leading to the old mill, 20 March 1642/3 [STR 1:117]. He was granted ten acres in Salem for a house near the old mill, 8 February 1643/4 [STR 1:123]. "Mr. Gardner" was granted one acre of meadow on the north side of his farm, 31 August 1649 [STR 1:159]. "Mr. Gardner requested for himself and those that now do or hereafter shall live at those ten acre lots end or side that they may have the common land granted to them that lies at the foot of Mr. Read's hill to lie as common for their joint use; this request is granted," 27 April 1654 [STR 1:176].
On 6 December 1671 Thomas Gardner of Salem, husbandman, sold to "Josiah Sothwick," for a valuable consideration received thirteen years earlier, two acres in the North Field of Salem [ELR 4:85].
The will of "Thomas Gardner of Salem" was written 7 December 1668 and proved 29 March 1675 by witnesses Robert Pease and Samuel Goldthwaite [EQC 6:31]. "Weighing the uncertainty of man's life, I do therefore in the time of my health, make this my last will" giving to "my wife Damaris" all the estate she brought with her "according to our agreement" and œ8 a year paid by my six sons provided she give up her dower in my housing and lands; to "my daughter Sara Balch" œ15; to "my daughter Seeth Grafton" œ15; to "my daughter Mirian [sic] Hills two daughters, Miriam Hill, & Susanna Hill," to each of them œ5 at age eight~een or marriage; to "my sons George and John Gardner" salt meadow valued at œ20; to "my sons Samuel and Joseph Gardner" the other part of my salt meadow; residue divided in seven equal parts, two parts to my son Thomas, he paying "his mother in law forty six shillings by the year," the other sons to receive one part each and pay their mother-in-law twenty-three shillings a year; sons George and Samuel Gardner executors; "my loving friends Mr. Joseph Grafton and Deacon Horne" overseers [EPR 2:423-24].
The inventory of the estate of "Mr. Thomas Gardner, taken 4:11m:1674" by Hilliard Veren, Sr. and John Pickering totalled œ274 16s., including real estate valued at œ201: "an old dwelling house with about 10 acres of land adjoining with the orchard, fences &c.," œ31; ten acres of ground in the Northfield, œ27; about 100 acres of upland and meadow, œ100; about 20 acres of land lying in the woods, œ3; and about 2 3/4 acres of salt marsh lying above the mill," œ40. The inventory also included "2 old barrels of guns" valued at 5s. [EPR 2:424-5].
Following Thomas Gardner's probate, at the November 1677 term of Essex court his sons George ("now of Hartford, Connecticut") and Samuel sued John Pudney of Salem, husbandman, over a farm let to Pudney by lease dated 1 March 1672[/3] and described as Gardner's
now dwelling house in Salem, with all his land in Northfield, about 20 acres, also his 10 acres of meadow ... for seven years from Apr. 15, 1672 at œ11 per year, and two barrels of cider, said Gardner furnishing the cask, of which œ4 were to be paid in wood at 8s. per cord, 40s. in butter and cheese, with one firkin of butter, 40s. in pork, and the remainder in corn. Said Pudney was not to remove any muck, and Gardner reserved the right to take the meadow near Needham's if he so desired [EQC 5:356].
On 2 September 1678 Lt. George Gardner, late of Salem & now of Hartford, merchant, and Samuel Gardner of Salem, mariner, joint executors of the last will of Mr. Thomas Gardner deceased, sold to John Swinnerton of Salem, physician, "all that part of the estate that said Gardner died possessed of and which the said executors have power to sell," including a dwelling house and ten acres in the North Field, another ten acres in the North Field, about an acre of upland by the Strongwater Brook, a farm containing one hundred acres of upland and meadow, and twenty acres of upland and meadow [ELR 5:3].
BIRTH: About 1592 (deposed aged about sixty-nine 26 November 1661 [EQC 2:320]).
DEATH: Salem 29 December 1674, "husband of Damaris."
MARRIAGE: (1) By about 1614 _____ _____; she probably died in Salem in 1636, perhaps at the birth of youngest child Seeth (see COMMENTS below).
(2) (prob.) By 1639 Margaret _____, who joined the church at Salem 24 March 1639/40 [SChR 8]. (See TAG 30:156 for discussion of claims she was Margaret Friar.)
(3) Damaris (_____) Shattuck. She was the "widow Shattock" when she joined the Salem Church 2 July 1641 [SChR 11]; she died Salem 28 November 1674, one month before her husband. (See TAG 30:165-68 for discussion of this woman and her many connections to the Pope and Gardner families.)
CHILDREN:
With first wife
i THOMAS, b. say 1614 (adult 1637 when he received a grant from Salem [STR 1:52]; eldest son with a double share in his father's will); m. (1) by 1643 _____ Hapscott[?] [TAG 26:108, 30:157-58]; m. (2) by an unknown date Elizabeth Horne, daughter of JOHN HORNE [TAG 26:108, 30:158-99].
ii GEORGE, b. say 1616 (adult when "bretherin" Thomas and George Gardiner were given ten acres in Salem 8 November 1637 [STR 1:59]); made free 27 December 1642 [EQC 1:48]); m. (1) by 1644 Hannah _____; m. (2) by 1654 Elizabeth (Freestone) Turner, bp. Horncastle, Lincolnshire, 17 October 1619, daughter of Richard and Margery (Freestone) Freestone, and widow of Robert Turner, shoemaker, of Boston; m. (3) after 1663 (inventory of her previous husband [Manwaring 1:242]) Elizabeth (Allen) Stone, widow of Rev. SAMUEL STONE. (For the identity of these three wives we follow the work of George E. McCracken [TAG 30:158-66].)
iii JOHN, b. about 1624 (d. Nantucket 6 July 1706, aged 82 years); m. 20 February 1653/4 Priscilla Grafton [NanVR, citing "William C. Folger genealogical records in the possession of the Nantucket Historical Association"; this marriage probably took place in Salem].
iv SARAH, b. about 1627; m. about 1650 as his first of three wives Benjamin Balch, son of JOHN BALCH.
v SAMUEL, b. about 1629 (deposed June Term, 1680, aged "about fifty years" [EQC 7:389]); m. (1) before 1658 (eldest child b. Salem 5 August 1658) Mary White, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Herbert) White [NEHGR 150:193-95]; m. (2) Salem 2 August 1680 Elizabeth _____ Paine.
vi JOSEPH, b. about 1630 (about 16 in 1645/6 when he is anticipated in the train band [EQC 1:92]; near adult in 1649 [STR 1:157]); m. Ann Downing, daughter of Emmanuel Downing. She m. (2) 6 June 1676 SIMON BRADSTREET [Hale, House 518].
vii RICHARD, b. about 1632 (d. Nantucket 1724, aged 92); m. about 1652 Sarah Shattuck, daughter of his stepmother Damaris (_____) (Shattuck) Gardner [TAG 30:168].
viii MIRIAM, b. about 1635; m. by 1657 as his first wife John Hill. He m. (2) Salem 26 August 1664 Lydia Buffum.
ix SEETH, bp. Salem 25 December 1636 [SChR 16]; m. (1) Joshua Conant, son of ROGER CONANT [TAG 30:156-57]; m. (2) 1 December 1659 John Grafton, son of Joseph Grafton.
ASSOCIATIONS: Banks states without authority that Gardner might have come from Hurst, Martock parish, Somersetshire [Topo Dict 143], and other origins have been claimed. An origin in the West County for Thomas Gardner is certain, but the name is common and none of the suggestions made to date has a firm foundation.
George McCracken suggested that the unusual given name of the Gardner's last child, Seeth, was an indication that in previous generations there had been a marriage to someone with that surname [TAG 30:157].
Both McCracken and Moriarty take the question of the connection between the Gardners and the Popes to task, but admit that the "relationship of the Pope and Gardner and Shattuck families is certain; the mode not yet plain" [TAG 30:164-6].
In the painful June 1677 tangle over the burial of John Pudney's child on Mr. Gardner's hill, Pudney appealed a judgment of Major Hathorne's, mentioning the "kinship of Major Hathorne and said [Samuel] Gardner" [EQC 6:284]. This was probably a reference to the recent marriage of the Major's son to Samuel's daughter, and not an ancestral clue.
COMMENTS: "Mr. John Tylly and Mr. Thomas Gardener were employed as overseers of that whole business [of the plantation at Cape Anne]; the first with reference to the fishing, the other with respect to the planting on the main land, at least for one year's time" [Young's First Planters 23].
In the Salem land grant of 1637 Thomas Gardner received acreage for a household of seven. His sons Thomas and George were already old enough to receive grants of their own and be considered separate households. Seven younger children of Thomas Sr. were still under age and presumably residing at home, which would make a household of eight. One or more of the children could have been serving in another family, but this accounting raises the possibility that Thomas did not have a wife living in 1637. This hypothesis is supported by the admission to church membership of a Margaret Gardner on 24 March 1639/40; had she been with Thomas Gardner since his arrival in New England, we would expect that she would appear in the list of church members compiled in late 1636 at the reorganization of the church. Consequently, we propose that Thomas Gardner had three wives, the first of them of unknown name, who died at the birth of the youngest child, Seeth, whose baptism is one of the first recorded in late 1636.
In the February Term of court 1645/6 "Mr. Thomas Gardener discharged from training when his sixth son comes in" [EQC 1:92]. Men were required to train from the age of 16 to 60, and this implies that last son Joseph was approaching 16 in 1645/6, placing his date of birth about 1630.
"The wife of Thomas Gardner Sr." was fined for frequent absence from the public ordinances on Lord's days, along with a number of other Quakers, November Term 1660 [EQC 2:265]. This was merely the beginning of a long string of such fines and official harassment that eventually convinced several of the sons to move with their families away from Salem. Thomas Gardner Sr. is never named as having absented himself from public worship, and history is silent on his opinion of the matter.
When John Pudney's child died in 1677, he went with others to "Mr. Gardner's Hill," took down some fence bars, and dug a grave. Samuel Gardner came on horseback and ordered them off his land. Gardner had the grave filled in, but Pudney came back and succeeded in burying his child. The resulting suit at the June Term 1677 was appealed all the way to the Court of Assistants, which, after a jury trial, found for Pudney [RCA 1:110]. The case produced a deposition by William Trask, who said
that for these twenty-seven or twenty-eight years the land where John Pudney buried his child had been a usual burying place for so many as would make use of it for that purpose and he never heard that old Mr. Gardiner hindered any from burying their dead there, but he said at several funerals, `friends and neighbors, do not bury your dead by such a young tree for I do desire to be buried there myself.' According to deponent's knowledge, said Gardiner was buried there himself, and the draw bars that Pudney was sued for taking down stood on the town's land several feet, Mr. Gardiner having removed them several feet about five years since into the town's land. He further testified that for twenty-eight years the inhabitants of the town, as long as there were any great trees upon the land, cut the trees and carried away the timber without any molestation, and all the neighbors looked upon it as common land [EQC 6:284].
Thomas Gardner paid John Pickering six pounds for some indeterminate service either to the town or to himself in March of 1638/9 [STR 1:84]. Thomas Gardner's bull was set out to stud in the town herd in 1640 for a fee of 20s. [STR 1:99]. Gardner was chosen one of the commissioners to calculate damage done by cattle in Richard Ingersoll's lot 12 July 1642 [EQC 1:42]. Gardner was one of those who was to receive the corn for John Moore in 1643 [STR 1:120]. Mr. Gardner's new building is mentioned in the Salem town minutes of 30 7mo 1644 [STR 1:133].
Thomas Gardner was one of the seven influential men who advanced Hilliard Veren as the new clerk of courts, when "he that was last chosen thereunto is now removed to the eastward" [June Term, 1658, EQC 2:102].
Thomas Gardner Sr. took the inventory of William Bacon 26 September 1653 and provided the same service for Bacon's widow, Rebecca Bacon, two years later [EQC 1:323, 413]. He proved the will of Thomas Trussler at the June Term, 1654 and took his inventory 5 June 1654 [EQC 1:356-7]. He took the inventory of Henry Bullock, Jr., 10 January 1656 [EQC 2:49]. He was appointed administrator of the New England estate of his son-in-law Joshua Conant, who died intestate in England [EQC 2:190-1, November Term, 1659; 2:217]. With William Robinson, Thomas Gardner testified that John and Daniel Southwick had settled the division of their father Lawrence's estate [June Term, 1660, EQC 2:217]. Gardner also took the inventory of Lawrence Southwick's estate [November Term, 1660, EQC 2:263]. He took the inventory of William Cantlebury of Salem 25 June 1663, and probably was the Thomas Gardner who took the inventory of Ralph Tompkins of Salem 12 November 1666 [EQC 3:83, 379].
