Person:Thomas Gardner (18)

From England in the “Charity” to Cape Ann. MA, as head of the Dorchester Company, 1624. Removed to Salem, MA, 1626. Freeman, 1637. Represented General Court, 1637. Captain of Train Band.

Wikipedia Extract

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Thomas Gardner (c. 1592 – 1674) was an Overseer of the "old planters" party of the Dorchester Company who landed in 1624 at Cape Ann to form a colony at what is now known as Gloucester. Gardner is considered by some to have been the first Governor of Massachusetts, due to his being in authority in the first settlement that became the Massachusetts Bay Colony (into which was later subsumed the Plymouth Colony).

Will

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 £8 a year paid by my six sons provided she give up her dower in my housing and lands; to "my daughter Sara Balch" £15; to "my daughter Seeth Grafton" £15; to "my daughter Mirian [sic] Hills two daughters, Miriam Hill, & Susanna Hill," to each of them £5 at age eight~een or marriage; to "my sons George and John Gardner" salt meadow valued at £20; 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]. ^S1

1.   Hinchman, Lydia Swain Mitchell, and Margaretta S Hinchman. Early settlers of Nantucket: their associates and descendants. (Baltimore [Maryland], 1926)
   79-82.

   Various origin theories related. He m. (1) Margaret Frier, mother of children, m. (2) Damaris Shattuck, widow, sons Richard and John among early settlers of Nantucket.

2. ↑ Gardner, Frank Augustine. Thomas Gardner, Planter, and Some of His Descendants. Essex Institute Historical Collections (Essex Institute Press). (Essex Institute, 1901-1904)
   37:83-85, 96.

   Thomas Gardner the common ancestor of the Salem-Nantucket family, came to America in 1624. A deposition on file in the Essex County Court Papers, v. VII, p. 3, shows that he was born about 1592, but his birthplace and early home are unknown to us. Farmer states that he came from Scotland, but he gives no authority for the statement, and nothing has since been found to confirm it. The belief held by many that his ancestral home was in Dorsetshire or one of the adjoining counties of England, is much more reasonable, as he sailed from Weymouth, received an appointment from the Dorchester Company to an office of honor and responsibility, and came hither with men who were largely from Dorsetshire or the neighboring county of Somerset.
   
   He may have been related to the Reverend John White the famous Puritan divine, and "Patriarch of Dorchester," one of the prime movers in the Cape Ann enterprise.
   
   Elizabeth White, sister of Rev. John, married for her first husband a man by the name of Thomas Gardner. John White of St. John Oxford, father of the above, in his will dated "xxxth day of September, 1616." mentions his daughter Elizabeth Gardner, and appoints his son-in-law Thomas Gardner one of the overseers of his will.
   
   Mary, another daughter of John White of St. John Oxford, married about 1590, John Terry, rector of Stockton in Wiltshire. John Terry's will was proved "5 July 1625." Mary Terry of Dorchester, widow, in her will dated the 6th of October, 1637 ((II Lee, 1638), mentions sister Elizabeth Gardner, Anne, wife of John White, etc.
   
   After the death of Thomas Gardner his widow married _____ Allen, and the Rev. John White of Dorchester in his will dated March 29, 1648, leaves twenty shillings to his sister Elizabeth Allen.
   
   This Thomas Gardner may have been the man of that name of Cherill, Wiltshire, whose will we quote: "The last will and testament of Thomas Tardner in the year of our Lord God 1629, wch is this I doe give unto my wief awl I doe make my sonne Thomas my whole executor I have in John Granters hand forty nyne shillings wch is due already and I have in William Wattons hand forty six shillings, whc he is to pay at Michaelmas next; And I have alsoe in William Pars hand seaventeene shillings and six pence wch is not to be payd untill Michaelmas next. In witness whereof I sett my hand this twenty sixth of December." …
   
   NOTE. Mention should be made of an error published many years ago, which has been copied several times, and has caused much confusion. The date of death of the first Thomas was given as 1635, and he was credited with only one son, Thomas,, who was supposed to have been father of George, Samuel, Richard, and the others of that generation. The writer has never found any documentary evidence to support the above view.

3. ↑ Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, United States. Vital Records to the End of the year 1849. (Salem, Massachusetts: Essex Institute, 1916-1925)
   5:273.

   Thomas, h. Damaris, [died] 29: 10m: 1674 CTR
   [Note: In old-styles dates, the tenth month is December. More info may be found here.]

4.   Thomas Gardner, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995).

   ORIGIN: Unknown MIGRATION: 1624 FIRST RESIDENCE: Cape Ann REMOVES: Salem 1626
   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.)

5.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   2:230.

   THOMAS, Salem, was first at Cape Ann, employ. by the project. of sett. to oversee fishery, 1624 or 5, and rem. with Conant, freem. 17 May 1637, rep. same yr. It is said, on what ground I kn. not, that he was from Scotland; but to me it seems much more likely, that he was from Sherborne in N. part of Co. Dorset. Ten other ch. he had, by his first w. Margaret Fryer, beside Seeth, bapt. 25 Dec. 1636 (wh. m. I believe, the sec. Joseph Grafton); as, Thomas, Richard, George, John, Samuel, Joseph, Sarah, Elizabeth Bethia, and Miriam, for some of wh. the prob. is stronger than for others. Only six s. with three ds. are nam. in his will of 7 Dec. 1668. Sarah was w. of Benjamin Balch, it is thot. and Miriam of a Hill; and Margaret, wh. was rec. of the ch. 1689, may have been his w. He had sec. w. Damaris Shattuck, a wid. from Eng. wh. d. 28 Nov. 1674, and d. 29 Dec. 1674.

6.   Thomas Gardner (planter), in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.