Gardner's Beacon, Vol. III, No. 4

Two days ago, December 29th, was the passing date of Thomas Gardner of Salem. We need to have a yearly reminder set up for that day.

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Thomas and Margaret had nine children who grew up in Salem, MA. The early boys were born in England. John was born on Cape Ann in a pre-Conant and pre-Endicott Massachusetts.

All the children survived Thomas, except for Miriam who died early leaving young children. After Thomas' death, several of his children left Salem. Richard and John went to Nantucket. George became a citizen of Connecticut though he continued to own land in Massachusetts.

Thomas' last wife, Damaris, and her children were active Quakers. The Puritans did not like that belief system and responded with a heavy hand even though Charles II told the New England authorities to refrain from their persecution. Thomas' step-son, Samuel Shattuck, carried Charles II's message to Endicott who stayed his hand from awhile.

Unfortunately, Samuel's missive was too late for Mary Dyer and others.

We have only touched the surface here, only to the extent to start to see the Gardner involvement and influence. Expect that the topic will appear again.

We continue our "Annals" ways with this issue. It can be nice to see a timeline related to events. Also, we have a short list of Thomas' and Margaret's first-born grandchildren. We have two listed for Seeth since her first husband died young, during Thomas' life.

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See Vol. III, No. 4 of Gardner's Beacon for a look at the first generation of Thomas' descendants.

References:  see Sources (Current Issue)  

Remarks: Modified: 01/08/2014

Puritan entertainment

01/05/2014 -- anceSTORY Archives has a recent article on treatment of the Quakers.The image comes from an article written by Melissa Berry for the Newburyport News. One might title this, Puritan entertainment. No, they did not allow the usual pleasures; rather, inhuman (and inhumane) activities seemed to be their attraction. ... One thing that we can be strongly assured of [is this]: Thomas and his kin were not of those who tied women (in an unclad state or otherwise) to carts and dragged them through the streets (er, muddy cowpaths).

01/08/2014 -- We added Earlier Settlers of Nantucket to our Bibliography. It's interesting to see the Folger stories of the early Gardners. ... In another place, we saw both Richard and John being described as well-educated. From whence that education? The parents? If you say no, you're not very much insightful about human nature. A child's first teacher is the mother, then the father. So, if Richard and John were Quaker, well-educated, and good citizens of their community, the mother deserves a lot of credit. Now, who was she? In Hinchman's book, Margaret is noted as the mother. We'll have to look to see the source for that. If it does come down as family history, then one would think that the children would have known their mothers. In any case, Margaret, or whomever it was, needs to have recognition as being early-Quaker (definitely, before Fox made his splash upon history).