"Richard was a man of very good abilities, he was called long-headed by his brother John, from his sense of the profoundness of his Judgement. He held a prominent place among the people of the island, was at one time Chief Magistrate. His residence was about half way between the house of our present worthy Sheriff, (1862) and Eliphalet Paddack house. It has been taken down many years, and the locality is very much altered in its appearance.
The Gardners owned formerly much of the land adjacent to and surrounding the Lily pond, extending beyond Gardner's Burial Ground, and around the swamp on the North Shore Hill, also extending through Egypt (so called) to the present Town Hall, embracing some of the best meadows and grass lots on the island. A part of this territory was called Crooked Records, from the lines of the survey not coming together . . . . . The Gardner family although not the first family to settle here, have always been reckoned among the First Families of the Island . . . . . Richard Gardner Sen's and his brother Capt. John, exercised much influence in the community here while they lived, and they died respected.
