New not old planter

TL;DR -- When we found the marriage record of Thomas and Margaret back in 2014, we also noted that records were being digitized. Of late, a researcher has gone through these records and found out that most of the children of Thomas and Margaret were registered in the records of the parish in Sherborne, Dorset, UK. There last child born that was in 1633. Seeth was born here in 1636. Shocker that this is, there are lots of open questions. So, we have research pending with regard to these. 

---

The title catches the eye. Consider, it might (ought to) read: Old, and new, planter. The below sets the stage for discussing the future work .

---

In 2014, researchers found a marriage record of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer, in church records in a parish in Sherborne, Dorset, UK. At the same time, there were birth records found for the first three sons plus. Too, Margaret's family seemed to have been found. 

After letting the information sit in, we finally updated the profiles for Thomas (Gardner-159) and Margaret (Fryer-892) on WikiTree. That was prompted, too, with discussions about removing Margaret as the mother of the children. 

This is a list of what are known as G2G studies where people discuss issues and make determinations about how to update WikiTree. Then, they do the edit. These can be accessed from the WikiTree Profile of Thomas Gardner. 

Now, coming forward, this year a study was finished that went through the parish records. What was noted was that most of the children of Thomas and Margaret are listed in the parish records. How could that been if the family was in New England? The last child in England was 1633. Seeth was born here.

 

After some discussion, the Profile was rewritten in Feb of 2023 to remove associations of Thomas with the Dorchester Company. Too, it is assumed that the family came over around 1635 so that puts them in the Great Migration. 

So, look at Thomas' Profile to see what has been accepted as the genealogical record until we know otherwise. There are questions to answer. A main one is who was the Thomas Gardner who was here, before Roger Conant arrived at Cape Ann? 

We will get back to that. In the meantime, we will update material after we figure out a good approach to handling the change. His Profile is Gardner-924. 

Note: Bob Dunlap did the digging and reported on WikiTree. Joe Cochoit edited the profiles. 

Now, we titled this post "New not old planter" to point to continued work and discussion. We had two types of "old planters" with respect to Essex county. 

• Old Planters, Beverly -- were the group with Roger Conant when he moved from Cape Ann to Naumkeag. Gardner's name was not on that list. They got land. That always raised questions, some of which we will discuss, later. 
• Old Planters Society -- this group was started by Dr. Frank and Col. T.W. Higginson. They had regular meetings and reported via The Massachusetts Magazine. One way to characterize them to differentiate from the other group was by using Old Planters Of Massachusetts. This group was of those who were here prior to Winthrop's arrival in 1630 while not being associated with the Plymouth colony. 

One task will be to reorganize our information in order to ask the right questions for research. Some things will be known. Seeth was born here to Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer. Her record in in the Salem VR. 

Recently, we wrote of Margaret as a focus for research. That is still the case. Along with questions about Thomas, we have plenty to ask about Margaret and her family, too. For instance, was her brother in Gloucester? 

We have asked the question: Were there two Thomas Gardners? 

Remarks: Modified: 04/02/2023

03/14/2023 -- Pushed this to FB: TGS, Inc. page and the New England Family Genealogical and Historical group. ... Too, we will be updating, and redoing, the research topics and the rest. Cape Ann families still apply as a theme due to 2nd generation marriage of daughters of Thomas and Margaret to sons of these families. Too, some lineages will have these families. 

03/15/2023 -- We need to let this new information sink in. There are many more questions to replace those that might be answered. The FAQ will be updated. Does the gap (three years) between the birth of John and Samuel allow time for participation in the activity of the Dorchester effort at Cape Ann? Too, could Thomas Gardner not being in the "old planter" list indicate his status of having left after being at Cape Ann? Associated with this would be: what was the status of Margaret and the kids (Thomas, George, Richard, and John) while Thomas was away from Sherborne? Did the bap record for John indicate a delayed report by Thomas after he (or even they) got back? ... There will be more questions.

03/26/2023 -- See not Square one? We will rearrange the knowns and the discussion of the unknowns and what to do. Then, proceed from that place. We' ll put more effort into the 1st generation and the connection to the families of the time. 

Marriage of Thomas and Margaret

Dr. Frank A. wrote the following over 100 years ago: Various writers, including Rev. Joseph B. Felt, have stated that her maiden name was Fryer (or Friar), but the writer has thus far failed to find the authority for this statement.

Today, we can announce that the "authority" may have been discovered. That is, Rev. Felt may have been correct; even though, we do not know how (from whom?, etc.) he got the information (early 1800s) for his assertion.

Where was this authority found? In the records of the Sherborne parish. Attached is an image from the record of April 1617 that shows Thomas Gardiner and Margaret Frier marrying on the 28th. Not only do the records show this, they have the following: the birth records of Thomas, Richard, George, and John; Wills of interest; and more, We have Margaret's parents: Walter Friar and Grace Mullins. And, there is a record that may show Thomas' parents: Thomas Gardner and Christine Saule.

All this information was discovered within the last week by a researcher, John Cook of Minneapolis, who only recently (comparatively) completed his link to Thomas Gardner through son Richard. He had written with queries about what we knew about the origins of Thomas. We had a discussion of the "whence" issues (also, what we know).

Too, we mentioned John Gardner's push to get Gov. Lovelace to allow the use of the name of Sherborne on Nantucket. Part of this tale came to us by the Folger family. There was opposition on Nantucket to the re-naming, of course.

Now, speaking of Sherborne, you can find the marriage of Thomas and Margaret on this list of marriages in the parish from 1600 to 1619.

   http://www.opcdorset.org/SherborneFiles/SherborneMars1600-1619.htm

Sherborne will be a focus of concentrated work, for awhile. Some of the records have been transcribed. OPC Dorset has a nice starting page.

   http://www.opcdorset.org/SherborneFiles/Sherborne.htm

---

To recap the issues, a little, we can start with the Two Wives. Earlier viewpoints accepted that there had been two wives following Felt and others. Recent work (NEHGS) called that notion into question. As in, the modern claim was that Margaret was not the mother of the children. Granted, the NEHGS work mainly used already existing sources.

But records are expected to settle these types of arguments. With the Internet and records being digitized and indexed, we can expect that a lot more material will be coming around that can be scrutinized to firm up what we know (or to raise more issues).

---

In this case of this marriage and the related families, expect that more information will be provided as we go along with respect to provenance of the sources, the methods used for search, the actual before and after view related to the transcription, and more.

Too, one task will be to follow what was known or thought through the years which provides us somewhat of a trace.

Finally, a closer tie needs to be made between the Thomas and Margaret of the marriage with the kids who were born shortly thereafter.

Remarks: Modified: 01/03/2026

09/25/2014 - Sherborne? Well, for one, capital of Wessex so it was the main stomping ground of Alfred the Great. ... Also, we need to get more material about John's knowledge (learned from his parents). I do remember seeing a book in Salem (at the Essex Institute) that mentioned Sherborne. It had "Captain John" in the title.

09/26/2014 Added Thomas, Jr. to the list of births. The firstborn, of course. ... About Felt, he had access to Rev. Hubbard's work and notes. Was it there that he saw this? Or, being only 150 years removed (closer than we are), perhaps, some scuttlebutt was around and about. ... The key item is that the information comes via son John.

10/03/2014 -- Comment posted to WikiTree (Thomas Gardner).

10/13/2014 -- Tabula raza, and more, will be of concern.

07/12/2015 -- Okay, turtle speed. But, we get there. Announcing a new project: Sherborne, Dorset. No doubt, it is about time. When finished with the data collection and analysis, we will present the strongest story (the prerogative of the family) that the facts, and abductive reasoning, will support. As such, we hope to demonstrate some very much needed research viewpoints.

08/01/2018 -- The past few days, I have been on WikiTree. We are looking at settling issues for the profile of Thomas (and his spouses). These profiles are being set up and maintained by the Puritan Great Migration. Expect an update blog post within the next day or so. Notice the recent comments (the 'unknown' is because I juggle many email accounts and was in the wrong one - it's not that I'm old).

08/28/2018 -- After some discussion, we settled that we had Margaret's folks, her baptism record, the marriage announcement, and baptism of their kids, prior to them leaving Sherborne. So, we have the post "Margaret, anew" which updates "How many wives?" Now, the question moves to whether or not we have the right couple (Children with what wife?, Further discussion).

09/15/2018 -- Gardner Research published four articles in The Essex Genealogist. These were republished in The Gardner Annals which just released Vol. IV. Last fall, we printed TGA Vols I and II. Soon, we will print Vols III and IV. Included with the TGA were Gardner's Beacon issues. Of late, we have experimented with one approach to a database, namely WikiTree using Dr. Frank's information. As mentioned in that post, we have established that Thomas had two wives as we found information about the marriage of Thomas and Margaret in Sherborne, Dorset, UK.

01/03/2026 -- See Restart, somewhat. In 2023, research found that Thomas and Margaret had the marjority of their children in Sherborne. After some analysis, the WikiTree profile for Thomas Gardner (Cape Ann, Salem) was split into two: Thomas (Cape Ann); Thomas (Salem). We know little of the first one. The second one is the progenitor of the Gardners who were the original focus of the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. We have expanded to cover Essex County, Massachusetts, New England and in some contexts, All things Gardner, with respect to the 400 years of the culture that celebrates its 250th this year. 

Margaret, anew

From the beginning, we have used Thomas and Margaret, following Dr. Frank. An example is looking at the 'great house' that John Endicott had brought over to Salem from Cape Ann: Thomas' house. About the same time, Gardner's Beacon, Vol I, No. 3, looked at Margaret, in particular, and I used "Margaret's house" in terms of that structure.

We were newbies, back then, but I had noticed that some later genealogist actually agreed with Dr. Frank, too. However, the Great Migration Begins of R.C. Anderson suggested another wife who was the mother of the children. I got several emails pointing that out to me. So, I dug in and pulled out those things being referenced. Someone has to do this now and then, as many citations follow someone else (many times, without doing their own verification).

Gardner Research will go back to first principles, if you would.

• My first response (Sep 2012) - About Margaret - as the next bullet shows, the argument mentioned a 1639 entry in the church record. But, to me, it was Margaret; Thomas didn't align himself until 1637. Their kids were growing up, so they had to smooth the way.
• My second response (Nov 2012) - How many wives? This post puts TAG side-by-side with the Great Migration material. The conclusion was that the NEHGS was looking at 1000s of people. The Gardners would dig into one or two, with regard to this issue. And, in the meantime, we would honor good old Dr. Frank. 

Now, in 2014, John Cook came across the marriage record of Thomas and Margaret at which point we put out the blog post. Too, I went to WikiTree as there was a profile for these two (Thomas Gardner) or should I say three? As, 'unknown' was there. At that time, I did a few things and went on as I was writing several articles (The Essex Genealogist) which have given us ahnentafels for Dr. Frank (his father's side, I now have his hand-written lineage on his mother's side which I'll key in) which includes Benjamin Brown Gardner and Lucy Foster Wilson. We're first cousins, in that sense. 

Too, I got involved in getting further informed about England and that whole environment. Of late, I got back to looking at Sherborne, for several reasons (son, John; Folger; Dr. Frank, and others). Or, I ought to say Dorset. King John loved his Corfe Castle. Queen Elizabeth is shown in a painting being carried by noblemen at Sherborne Castle (the painting is there). 

I also stopped by WikiTree to see what was happening. Well, a query had been made in 2016 as to whether the kids ought to be taken from Margaret's profile and moved to that of the unknown. So, I weighed in and mentioned the marriage record from 2014. And, I mentioned the arguments for this: Sherborne, Dorset. I mentioned the Peirce family (for more than Charles Sanders Peirce) as many families have been poking around. We are trying to gather all of this stuff. Like that of the Paine sisters. This will all be documented, and we'll put a link to the material (shortly).

As well, we need to look at references to Thomas and Margaret. One known first reference is 1827 by Felt, working in Salem, who talked to a lot of people. We may find more. Too, records are being scanned in all of the time, transcribed, and indexed. So, that will help.

Margaret Friar, baptism

After seeing the discussions, I went back to look at my records and found that John Cook had sent to me a baptism record for Margaret (see image), the marriage record of her parents (close enough in time to be her parents), and the will of Margaret's father which mentions her plus a few other things. However, her father died in 1610 so the will mentions Margaret Friar not Gardner. But, we also have birth/baptism records for the first three kids with the names matching. As an aside, we will be looking further at (introducing here) Walter Friar and Grace Mullins of Sherborne. 

About WikiTree. I found out that the genealogists hang out there. Too, they are trying to stay true to the NEHGS work plus newer stuff, as the entry on Thomas dates from the 1980s. So, the Gardner Research work is considered to be after that. 

Essentially, there was an agreement that this is the Margaret and Thomas. But, there are lots of other questions to look at. I set a time frame of five years or sooner as that would match up with the 400th of the 1623 entry. A major researcher noted that first year over 100 years ago. That is, a boat arrived in 1623 with a crew that overwintered; another came in 1624. Margaret was on the later one, according to Dr. Frank. 

Still things to settle. 

But, the purpose for this post? Well, it has been decided to merge unknown and Margaret together. So, the profile for Thomas will have Margaret and Damaris as his wives.

Again, everyone. Use, please, Thomas and Margaret without worrying about being dumped on. 

That is a first step. One of many to come. So, please stay tuned. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/23/2018

09/23/2018 --  Recently, the profile changed to having only two wives. The profile is managed by the Puritan Great Migration Project which is sponsored by NEGHS. 

Where was Thomas?

The book on Paine Ancestry (published 1912) has a Chapter on Thomas whose grandson, Samuel, son of George, married Elizabeth (Brown) Grafton, as her second husband; Thomas is, then, an ancestor of the author. We earlier showed descendants of Samuel (Hardin & Hall) when we started to look at the generations.

The book has a nice arrangement. It covers the Paine genealogy up to one person; as well, the collateral families are handled. For each, there is a lineage chart and some text. The book has nice words about Thomas, calling him "practically, a governor" as an example.

Paine sisters
conjecture

It brings up an interesting point, too. Where was Thomas, and Margaret, from 1626 (when Conant and the old planters - mind you, Thomas is not on that list -- went over to Naumkeag) to his 1636 entry into the church? The next year, Thomas became a freeman.

The book suggests that perhaps the Gardners went back to England and then returned later. If that were the case, there would have been ship records, perhaps. We're talking about a ten year gap.

Earlier, we proposed that Thomas deigned to join the church and register with the state when it was of benefit to his kids. When Conant, and crew, went over to Naumkeag, they left the house. Someone had to keep it up, as later Endicott had it moved over to the Salem area.

Cape Ann and Salem are close enough that regular trips back and forth are a great possibility. There were plantings sufficient in Cape Ann to sustain the group. It was [not] producing enough to ship back to England that was the problem. So, one could figure that farming work continued in the Cape Ann area.

As said before. Thomas was self-sufficient long before Emerson characterized the trait. And, he was educated. And, as mentioned in the Mary (Gardner) Coffin post, Richard, son of Thomas and Margaret, was said to be of considerable education. That, no doubt, came via his parents.

Another thing that happened in 1636 was John Tylly being killed in a conflict with the Pequot. Was that a factor? People gather in times of trouble. In 1637, after becoming a freeman, Thomas was on the General Court (Felt, pg 110) with William Hathorne.

There are many scenarios that we could offer with regard to Thomas' absence from the records for that ten year period. We could also search out anything that has already been written.

I think that this type of inquiry is legitimate for Thomas' descendants to look into. Even if it turns out to be a puzzlement, gathering all of the stories, categorized like this, would be of interest to future generations. As well, it would further Dr. Frank A.'s work which doesn't explicitly talk about the moving to Naumkeag. However, Dr. Frank does say that Thomas was mentioned in a London meeting in 1629 (Felt, pg 126).

Remarks:

03/21/2022 -- Article on John Tilley shows that he returned to England, married, and came back. As said (see 07/12/2015 below) earlier, why would Thomas and Margaret leave lovely Cape Ann?

01/12/2019 -- Add image from the book of the Paine sisters. Also, that allows a thumbnail.

01/04/2019 -- This topic will be followed more regularly this year (344th of 29 December 1674). We will initiate a discussion on WikiTree (see link in sidebar) in support of the research.

08/12/2018 -- Thomas, with others on Gardner Hill, was left where he was. Stones were moved over to Harmony Grove Cemetery. A few of those withstood the move, say that for Seeth. Most did not and are piled somewhere. At the burial site, though, the road was cut through. So, the remains? Well, moved to God only knows. Or, if the burial was away from the road, it is beneath some structure. Lots to think about. Reflect on. How to proceed into this mire?

07/12/2015 -- Of course, when Roger brought his people to Salem, Thomas was not there. Why? He and Margaret kept the Cape Ann house. Of course, when John Endicott came over, he saw Mr. Gardner in his nice house. John said, that is mine. Take it over to Salem. So, by splitting his time (Salem is not that far), Thomas had an idyllic time with his wife and kids; too, he had time to get himself and his family settled in the new realm.

03/28/2014 -- See Vol. IV, No. 1 for a discussion of the movement from Cape Ann to Salem.

09/09/2013 -- Forgot to update this earlier. But, the post related to Gardner's Beacon, Vol. II, No. 6, discusses that Thomas had no shadow over him as was feared by some old planters (would Dr. Frank, today, still want to include Thomas in the group?).

05/01/2012 -- If Thomas and Margaret had gone back to England, son John would have told the tale. Methinks that they might have shuffled back and forth, perhaps keeping the Cape Ann house in order until Endicott had it moved.

02/13/2012 -- Thomas was around here, in 1641.

02/03/2012 -- The period in question here is from the Cape Ann time to 1637 Salem. After 1656, we could answer this way, in part: Thomas was visiting Joseph and Ann in their house.

01/28/2011 -- There are several things to figure out. Dr. Frank mentions that a Margaret Gardner joined the church in Salem in 1639 (see Felt). Pope says that this Margaret was of Ipswich and married to Edmund Gardner. The Great Migration write-up says that Thomas' first wife may have died at the birth of Seeth in 1636.

01/27/2012 -- In reporting the death of Thomas' son, Thomas, the Annals (Felt, pg 246) seem to have some dates mixed up, though it does mention Margaret as the first wife. The Great Migration does not. 

Modified: 03/21/2022

400th anniversaries

It's hard to believe that the 400th is right around the corner; it's close enough that we could start counting down now with 10, ... Also, which of the 400th anniversaries will we feature?

We could start with the marriage of Thomas and Margaret, though we don't know the date. We do have the birth years (approximate?) of Thomas, George, and Richard that would be prior to the Cape Ann venture. One goal might be to get the arrival time a little more clear (I've seen quite a range of guesses) even if we can only identify the time that has the most support (to be discussed).

For starters, the below list is to be taken as cursory (see TGS site for an early start on this), for now. There is a whole lot that could be done; and, a lot needs to be done once decisions are made. The bullet order does not imply priority. Some things may need more immediate attention than do others.

1. Set up a mailing strategy for Gardner's Beacon and for e-mail interchange and discussion, perhaps using a message center for the latter. 
2. Given Dr. Frank's effort at publishing 100 years ago (we cannot thank him enough), our effort now ought to be to establish a cyber presence for Thomas and Margaret that is persistent, well cared for, and known to be the best source of information going forward. The current web-site (TGS.org) is only a minor step. There will be technical discussions, related to the approach to take, in regard to resources, trends, and best approaches. We are talking more than genealogical studies (we like that the NEHGS has both "H" and "G").  
3. Document, thoroughly, the events related to Cape Ann and Salem in so far as they pertain to Thomas and Margaret. Some of this may be reasonable conjectures based what will be known once all the material is pulled together and organized. One might say that Anderson's (et al's) Great Migration (six pages for Thomas and family) is a little peek under the covers (so to speak). 
4. Start with the first few generations (three to five) and fill in the tree for the children of Thomas and Margaret (early attempt at this for two generations).
5. The prior bullet (#3) was top-down. From the other direction, provide a means to collect information about current descendants, their stories, and tales of the sagas of their intermediate ancestors. Again, there are many ways to do this. Develop the descendants list further. 
6. In regard to the prior bullet (#4), present the coverage maps like one sees nowadays (but, with a way to control the timeline). Link this with the effort of the next bullet.  
7. Extending the idea of the first bullet (#1) and the prior (#5), develop a "game" approach (let's say, non-1st world (such as, Second Life) and educationally focused) that will allow Thomas and Margaret to be spokespersons for those times and more. This notion pertains to lessons to be learned from the experiences of those two (and, some of their cohorts) that are relevant to today (see Backbone series, as one person's opinion). One motivation might be to get the younger generations enthused about these "dead" people from their (ours') pasts. However, who knows what might flower out of new research efforts?  
8. Accomplish various tasks related to this type of organization (membership, 501(c)3, application process, research support, scholarships, etc.). 
9. Establish a regular publication schedule for Gardner's Beacon with themes determined in advance to allow for article calls. 
10. Gardners and Gardners will be of continuing interest. Associated with this, summarize the disparate information that one can find, provide an overview, and maintain the data going forward. This, somewhat, overlaps the first bullet (#1). Support other Gardner efforts (see #12, below). 
11. Organize, and maintain, a bibliography that facilitates efforts for the first (#1) and the prior (#9) bullets.  
12. Push the window backward from the Cape Ann (1623/1624) arrival in a manner that carry forward. For starters, collect everything done to date (books, family information, websites, ...) and handle much like the Gardners and Gardners effort (prior bullet - #9). 
13. DNA anyone (background, Gardner project)?
14. Provide for, and support, regular maintenance of TGS information, such as testing for missing items (and a whole lot more), on an on-going basis.
15. ...

There can, no doubt, be more items added to this list. For instance, having a place for regular discussion would be nice. Too, a common method for submitting trees ought to be facilitated, at some point. The idea, now, is to start small and to build incrementally. Hopefully, if this is done, more or less, correctly, there would be fewer false steps.

Of course, technologies will change. Bridging these types of changes over time is an open issue. Perhaps, after the bursts of knowledge of the last 100+ years, or so, settles down, there will be better effort at preserving states of knowledge.

Actually, one talent that we humans have (not yet replicated by the artificial, yet) is creativity which can span across seemingly endless states without getting lost. So, our intent will be to foster the human side of creativity going forward. Perhaps, that might be one lesson of Thomas and Margaret.

Remarks:

12/30/2018 -- The 400ths will be one theme next year.

10/26/2018 -- Review the task list (above) and general status.

Recent 400ths 

07/11/2013 -- Looking at website improvements, this date.

01/08/2013 -- Added a forum to facilitate discussion, etc.

01/07/2013 -- There are many anniversaries to plan for. Also, to the above list, we ought to firm up the order of birth. Let's say that nine children is the agreed upon number. There will be a post on this, soon.

01/06/2013 -- Need to figure a good e-mail strategy that doesn't involve reply all.

Modified: 12/30/2018

Margaret Friar, WikiTree

TL;DR -- We are taking a closer look at Margaret's family. 

---

Note (02/02/2025): Added the OpEd category. See posts from Feb of 2023 with regard to new information and plans for altering the database and site. 

---

In this title, we used Friar as that is how it is written in Sherborne, Dorset, England records. Other spellings have been Fryer and Frier. In the below, we describe why we can identify the parents of Margaret Friar, wife of Thomas Gardner, as Walter Friar and Grace Mullins. Also, there is a current effort to learn more about Margaret's family. 

This post is along the line of  a relook at Margaret that we did a couple of years ago. This time, we are going to identify some specifics that have been collected on WikiTree in order to update Margaret's Profile there. A Great Migration project has been working to ensure that Profiles match up with the NEHGS book series (by R. C. Anderson), including recently determined material which are listed below. 

Friar records

This list is part of an effort to support coordination and discussion (Editing Margaret's past) while the changes are being done. As a reminder, in his profile of Thomas Gardner, Anderson had three wives with the first one (Unknown) being the mother of the children, a second one named Margaret Unknown there briefly, as Demaris was the last wife. What work of supporters of Gardner Research have shown is that there were two wives with Margaret being the first and the mother of the children. 

There will be more updates with respect to this work as simultaneously we are updating Thomas' profile  (Coordinating coming edits of the Thomas Gardner page) so as to have a good one going forward that is acceptable.  

There are a few things that motivate this change, beyond the necessity to close up the deal. These are listed below. The notice of the Thomas and Margaret marriage record was written in 2014. At the same time, some of the other records were noted. Since then, there has been a lot more scrutiny and discussion which was under the auspices of WikiTree. So we have records from which to report on the activity over these few years.  

• we have a marriage of a Thomas Gardner and a Margaret Friar (appropriate timeframe - Felt was the furthest back printed source that we saw)
• before that, we have a birth of a Margaret Friar, same area
• then, we have a Will of a Walter Friar mentioning his daughter Margaret (before the marriage), too, he mentions his son Thomas - there is a daughter Grace - is the wife mentioned? if not, did she die?
• then, we have a marriage of a Walter Friar and a Grace Mullins, same area, appropriate timeframe
• then, coming this way, we have births of boys (Thomas, George, Richard, John) with a father of Thomas Gardner.
• later, the family is not in the records
• then, we see that Savage has a Thomas Frier/Friar as a brother, "perhaps", of Margaret, wife of Thomas Gardner.

There's more. And, we are actively reviewing records in order to identify the births of Walter and Grace. 

Remarks: Modified: 02/02/2025

10/31/2020 -- Added images for our portal. 

02/02/2025 -- Updated with new information about Thomas and Margaret and their family with respect to Seth being born here. The others kids not. Was Thomas here more than once? 

Cape Ann, of course

First example of the American way of life?

---

While researching Cape Ann for an upcoming Gardner's Beacon, I find that my mind keeps wandering back to my first days of research about five years ago. Firstly, there was not much written about Thomas that was definitive, almost as if he had been written out of history. Oh yes, there were the Dr. Frank books. There were many family sites that quoted from different sources.

A little later, I would run into Anderson's work. He gives about Thomas six pages. Then, someone had a site based upon the Great Migration project. In essence, disparate views on the guy abound.

We only know a little about him. But, we can infer a whole lot more: no shadow, effective (raised nine kids), peaceful (married a Quaker), etc.

---

But, let's outline a look at Thomas and Margaret that will be sketched further (to answer, for one, where was Thomas?).

• They got to Cape Ann. Thomas was lead for the plantation. They built (the "Great House" is one piece of evidence), planted (Winthrop had their strawberries six years later after dining in the house that had been moved by Endicott to Salem), and lots more.
• They thrived. There was no failure. Those who look back may need to place the Dorchester Company's (from Rev John on down) unrealistic expectations in a vein like the Spaniards look for the city of gold (I am not far from where the conquistadors had the northernmost thrust - heads rolled later due to the wastes of looking after this myth). We expect to get into that backbone thing more (as the lessons still apply - offshoring, for example). 
• Thomas yielded peacefully to Conant's tramping in with his entourage. 
• When Conant figured out the problems at Cape Ann, he decided to leave. Thomas assisted in that move but also kept a footprint at Cape Ann. 
• ...
• The list can be extended but not now. 

What we want to do now is describe how Thomas and Margaret lived when the other planters (Roger, etc.) left the glories of Cape Ann (note: we're talking the period from the exodus of Conant's crew and the order by Endicott to bring the house to Salem). Also, the "they" here refers to Thomas and Margaret. 

• They lived in and kept up the house. Endicott knew Thomas from the house, for one thing. 
• They tended the plantings. No doubt, cuttings and seedlings were moved to Naumkeag. But, the mature plants continued to thrive and to produce. So, produce would have been consumed at Cape Ann and brought to Naumkeag/Salem. 
• They had game, fish, and a very pleasant environment. The Indians were friendly. 
• They raised their children. Thomas, Jr. was educated enough to lawyer. Richard and John were both noted for their knowledge. George and Samuel excelled in several areas. Joseph was of sufficient capability to do legal work and to be a military officer. The girls all married well and had admirable offspring. From when this? This? Yes, where did the kids get their knowledge, good character, and civilized mien? From their parents, of course. We know that Thomas was referred to respectfully by Endicott. As well, Margaret must have had good learning (like her daughter-in-law, Ann Downing). 

In short, that just above describes an idyllic life. Think of it. The church people went off with Conant. Thomas was not puritannical (we'll go on about that). Those who were still in the Cape Ann area respected Thomas. There would have been communications with the Salem people. Back and forth they would have gone.

Remember, the troubles (famine - we're not talking Plymouth or Virginia - the New England early folks under Thomas thrived - what they did not do was return an abundance back to the old country - false expectations, remember?) did not start until after Endicott brought in more people than the resources could handle. But, Thomas and Margaret got their kids through that, too.

And, the Cape Cod folks would have come around now and then. Too, John Tylly would have visited now and then.

---

The real question is why the lingering puritannical mindset could not see Thomas for what he was?

Good question. Thomas went to the General Court once, 1637. This was after he took the oath (notice the gap - as said, he didn't need it - he did it for his kids' sake). Methinks that he would rather not interface with such. We see this same sort of dynamic now. In fact, Thomas stands out in several discussions about what happened to the American dream. 

Remarks:  Modified: 09/28/2014

03/18/2014 - Lucy Larcom wrote about the wild roses and strawberries of Cape Ann. Strawberries were plentiful in some areas, however they were cultivated, too, prior to the arrival of the Europeans (Russell's Indian New England before the Mayflower). John Smith included strawberries in the list of plants that were managed by the Indians. That is, wild plants would have been organized into a fashion more easily cared for and harvested. Hybridization that resulted in what we now call strawberries was not accomplished for another century. Anne Bradstreet (see D.B. Kellogg) wrote of the strawberries that they feasted on after the long voyage. She also wrote of the illness brought with the folks as well as the lack of resources (such as food) to support the influx. ... The fact is that not only did Thomas' crew come prepared to "plant" and thrive, they had the wherewithal to accomplish the feat. ... What they were not properly prepared to do: become an exporter of excess product from the get-go (notwithstanding our advantage at looking back from a more enlightened - supposedly - framework, going off unprepared remains the experience of a whole lot of humans). What did Thomas think of all of those new entrants who created more demand than could anyone hope to supply, with what they were capable of then? Higginson, at least, stressed people coming prepared to support themselves for a year.

03/20/2014 -- Perhaps not idyllic, yet successful in most reasonable senses.

03/23/2014 - Cape Ann featured in Beacon Vol. IV, No. 1.

09/28/2014 -- A week ago, the record for the marriage of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Friar was discovered in Sherborne by John Cook of Minneapolis, Dorset files. This sets a type of focus. Looks as if some transcription work might be in order.  

Margaret (Fryer) Gardner

TL;DR -- Margaret, as equal and with her family, are continuing themes. We revisit our posts so far plus the information obtained from the records of Sherbourne, Dorset, UK. 

--- 

Last time, we noted that Margaret would be an equal partner with Thomas as we also mentioned that the focus on Cape Ann will start in 2023 and continue throughout 2024. For Margaret, we have pulled together some of the posts about her.

• Margaret's family  
• Margaret, equal partner  
• Marriage of Thomas and Margaret  
• Margaret Friar, WikiTree  
• Families at Cape Ann 
• Cape Ann, retrospective
  
• ...

This graphic shows some of the new information about Margaret and Thomas that needs attention. Here is a summary: Margaret's parents, Walter and Grace, were married in 1591; Thomas Gardner was baptized in 1591; Margaret Fryer was baptized in 1598; Walter Fryer's will in 1610 mentions Grace and Margaret, as well as a son Thomas who came over; Thomas and Margaret were married in 1617; son Thomas was born in 1618; George was born in 1619; and Richard was born in 1622. 

Research: Margaret Fryer 
and family

One reason for taking this couple as the one who came over is that they do not continue to appear in the records of Sherbourne. Plus the first of the sons match up with the Cape Ann family. 

We mentioned that we have been looking at other Cape Ann families. We will try to split these into the early families (before Roger Conant's arrival) and later (before John Endicott's arrival). In the later period, there was the movement Massey's Cove and Salem. 

Remarks: Modified: 03/13/2023

03/13/2023 -- See "New not old planter" post with regard to research findings. Thomas and Margaret have children registered in England until 1633. 

 

 

How many wives?

This post continues the discussion about the wives of Thomas (see About Margaret). Were there two or three?

As mentioned in the prior post, Dr. Frank wrote that Thomas had two wives (as did Savage). Of course, he was writing 100 years ago (Savage even further back), and, surely, there has to be more information at this point about the matter. The question then becomes, given the current state, can we really know?

Or, to put it another way, was Dr. Frank wrong? That has not been shown, in our opinion.

Let's look at a couple of studies that are of interest. There are, of course, more of these which we expect to get to, in time. Too, we might add as a preface, some of the needed information is awaiting us in the old country. So, that means that we'll need to look into what genealogical studies might have been done in England about Thomas.

---

The fact is that we're dealing with events that are long past and about which we have little information, at this time, for various reasons. Many views have been expressed about the relationships between the Gardner families (or see Savage) that came here. Too, one sees various proposals that have come to fore.

The modern study, mentioned below, does not broach the subject of origins at all.

---

In regard to genealogy in general, just in the past week I've run across scores of books that have been outdated yet are being quoted. It is very easy for misinformation to be propagated via web pages. Our intent is to have material that can be considered reasonable and supportable.

---

Now, for starters, let's put two studies together, side by side, and make a few comments. Then, we'll rephrase our current position, until there is further information.

TAG 30:156 plus Great Migration material

This image brings together material from The American Genealogist and from the The Great Migration Begins. The former had an article in 1953 that was written by George E. McCracken and that was titled "The Salem Gardners: Comments and Clues."  Topics covered in the article include origin, Margaret, Seeth, the first wife of Thomas the son, the wives of George (very long), The Salem Quakers, the Flight to Connecticut, and the Salem Shattucks. The latter is a recent book in which Thomas has six pages written by Robert Charles Anderson  and published by the NEHGS.   

---

So, if we take the TAG article first, it goes a lot into areas that needed some study. The section on Margaret is small. The author, essentially, agrees with Dr. Frank about two wives. However, we don't know Margaret's family name. What I note is the author's insistence that these studies would greatly benefit from looking further into the collateral families. That being said, the work of Dr. Frank is phenomenal and greatly appreciated. 

---

Now, the Anderson study is looking, potentially, at 1000s of families and doing this with an eye to being correct. The best way to do that is to only use sourced material. Did Anderson make an exception in this case? I would like to consider further his hypothesis and proof after seeing the material that he is quoting. 

I don't buy the church reference. Thomas did not become a freeman until 1637. That is more than a decade after coming over. How could this be? Basically, we would suggest that he was able to get by using his own mode until his sons were older. And, he and Margaret could have easily done this together. Then, he would have had (deign to join) to be more of a "conformist" (to the puritanical thought and behavior) so as to not handicap their futures. From what we can see looking back, Thomas' and Margaret's children did well. 

Aside: There is no record of a first wive's death or of another marriage. We basically know about Thomas and Damaris, who was a widow in 1641, through his will. Hence, the conjectures abound.  

That Thomas married a Quaker tells us much about his character, especially in comparison to some. We'll forgo that analysis for a time. In any case, Thomas would have had to be in the church, and active, to be a freeman. He was shown on the rolls early; but, was he regular in attendance? In the case of Margaret, just picture a women dragging a bunch of kids to the Sunday service. Again, did she need that?  

There seems to be something there to look at in this regard. In fact, it's a story (or many stories) waiting to be told. 

By the way, the above is not a criticism. The Great Migration work has been really helpful and takes the right tact in the case of unknowns, or little knowns. That is, if you don't have something definitive, then just punt it down the road. But, this work does not relieve families of their duties to honor their fathers and mothers. 

---

Which then brings up the family and efforts of Thomas' descendants. I can see someone taking TAG 30:156 and the Great Migration work further. It may be that there is a lot more information available that needs to be looked at and digested. This is so especially with the booming cloud'd informational sources which cause more stuff to appear all the time. 

In the meantime, though, we say two wives. But, then, it could be three. You know it does not matter, right now. For anyone doing Gardner genealogy, the use of either has no impact on the tree unless one wants to branch out with the first (and/or second) wife. 

It is nice that the Shattuck family has their information filled in.  

Remarks:

04/04/2025 -- David T. Gardner has been exercisting Grok with prompts and reports finding documents that support his claim about Wyllym Gardynyr (see King Slayer Court blog). ... We have begun to incorporate changes into the structure and context of the blog. See Restart, somewhat. 

08/28/2018 -- After some discussion, we settled that we had Margaret's folks, her baptism record, the marriage announcement, and baptism of their kids, prior to them leaving Sherborne. So, we have the post "Margaret, anew" which updates "How many wives?" Now, the question moves to whether or not we have the right couple (Children with what wife?, Further discussion).

08/01/2018 -- The past few days, I have been on WikiTree. We are looking at settling issues for the profile of Thomas (and his spouses): Gardner-159. These profiles are being set up and maintained by the Puritan Great Migration. Expect an update blog post within the next day or so. Notice the recent comments (the 'unknown' is because I juggle many email accounts and was in the wrong one - it's not that I'm old).

07/12/2015 -- We mention abductive approaches (my career was spent in advanced computing - software and modelling, essentially). Please refer, at least, to C.S. Peirce's (we mentioned him in an earlier post - Benjamin Peirce) work in the area. [Love it: From Ugly Duckling to Swan]

07/12/2015 -- Okay, turtle speed. But, we get there. Announcing a new project: Sherborne, Dorset. No doubt, it is about time. When finished with the data collection and analysis, we will present the strongest story (the prerogative of the family) that the facts, and abductive reasoning, will support. As such, we hope to demonstrate some very much needed research viewpoints.

05/05/2015 -- The Winthrop Society has Margaret as second wife. They allow submittal of additions and corrections concerning early arrivals.

10/13/2014 -- Tabula raza, and more, will be of concern.

10/03/2014 -- Notice that McCracken mentions Felt, Dr. Frank A., and Moriarty and that he mentions we need to know more. Now, why was this record missed? Well, for one, it is rather smudgy. That it was found can be attributed to the digital age and people using newer tools. Too, to have found this, one would have had to page through lots of paper. Of course, indexing helps with that, assuming that those who do the transcription that led to the indexing were careful. One has to ask, though. Were researchers blind (many senses meant - to be updated)?

09/28/2014 -- A week ago, the record for the marriage of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Friar was discovered in Sherborne by John Cook of Minneapolis, Dorset files. This sets a type of focus. Looks as if some transcription work might be in order.

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).

Anderson's Great Migration

12/31/2013 -- The arguments against three continue. Anderson, in his write up of Gardner, has Richard's death as 1724 (see image). This information was picked up from TAG, yes, but the death year applies to Richard's wife. Richard died in 1688.

11/13/2013 --  Phippen would be part of the slate fill.

08/22/2013 -- The start of a look at what was what in early Salem (and New England) as far as Gardners is concerned. --- Also, added a caption to the image (which will be standard henceforth - plus edit of existing posts to make sure that images are clearly marked).

11/28/2012 -- It becomes even more curious as Lemuel Shattuck suggests, in his Memorials (via Google), that Damaris and Thomas got married after 1641 (no indication of it being long afterward). By the way, I found this book by reading TAG 30:156's other sections. McCracken mentions Lemuel who I had not run across before. Aside: the amount of digitized work has expanded almost without bounds of late which gives me hope that we can find out more about Thomas and Margaret (yes, I'm talking UK books, to boot).

11/27/2012 -- Let's itemize what we know (including use of the Great Migration sketches), re-iterate some basics, and the proceed constructively.

11/27/2012 -- One thing that I've noticed while pursuing information is that some sites assign a rating to what they have. Usually, it's a simple integer. However, we could get a little more precise. Perhaps, modern material can have a certitude of 1.0, but how could one obtain something other than the high 90s for older information? And, information from 400 years ago will be highly variable. Yet, one could classify the material and then rate within that. Complicated? The one thing that we would hope would be that later studies raise the rating rather than lower it. But, then, that is not necessarily the fact.  

Modified: 04/04/2025

Two Thomas Gardners in Salem

We are reviewing research results from the beginning, to now. This will be an iterative task over the next few months as we look at different themes. We will be making changes to our presentation material and format as we go along: Renovation, plus. Since we have a Cape Ann focus and are starting at before the arrival, the first two passes dealt with houses and sources of which there are many. So, as we go along, we will report. But, we will also built a coherent view that seems to be lacking.

Now, another theme dealt with the different Gardner families. There were several views of how many Thomas Gardners there might have been: A Thomas here and a Thomas there. Associated with that issue is this question: Whence came Thomas and [Margaret]? Too, when Roger Conant took the group to Naumkeag, we need to know this: Where was Thomas? What was the story concerning the early times? There is really no end to this.

Our intent is to be thorough, as much as we can, and build coherency as we progress. Too, we will be on the outlook for new material. Example of the latter was the 2014 find by John Cook of the marriage notice. This was taken further in 2018 such that Thomas is seen as having only two wives: Margaret anew.

There are many examples of the first part, that is being thorough. Our bibliography (History of New England) will record what we have accessed and read. We will be adding to that on a regular basis.

Today, let's look at Frances Rose-Troup's study of Rev. John White. This was published in 1930. She spent time looking at records and made some interesting finds. There are two that we summarize.

• The Thomas who was married to the sister of the Reverend went back to England. "Her husband Thomas Gardner was one of two Overseers of her fathers will and clearly close to and trusted by the family. In 1623/4 as a successful yeoman farmer he was employed by the Dorchester Co to oversee the establishment of their first settlement at Cape Ann in New England. After about a year Roger White arranged for governship of the settlement to be handed over to Roger Conant and Thomas Gardner returned to England." This is quoting Rev John White MA (1574/5-1648) which is hosted at Dorset, England. As well, this Thomas did not have a son named Thomas. Too, he died in England and left a will.  
• So, Rev. White is not the uncle of the Thomas of Salem of TGS, Inc. We know that there was the Thomas who was the father of the kids that are the focus of our work. These kids were the children of Margaret Fryer. Too, this Thomas died in Salem and was buried at Gardner's Hill (the status of his remains are unclear at this time). How did he relate to the prior Thomas that was related to the Dorchester Company? 

There were lots of tales of two Thomases. Dr. Frank said that he didn't see evidence of this. But, he didn't see the work of Frances Rose-Troup. The post (A Thomas here and a Thomas there) is a 2013 look at the issue. This needs to be brought up to date. It's early, incomplete, and indicative of why we are in the organizing mode. 

For the important themes, we will collect what we have. Also, we can point to additional work that was mentioned but not done. For one thing, the notion from the start was to be thorough and collect all that has been done. It needs to be brought to light for future researchers to not think that they have discovered some missing piece. 

Times are different than when Dr. Frank was working. It is much easier to do this type of consolidation. Too, though, there are technology aspects that will be of on-going concern. Hence, one goal is to have our work be used as an example. Many have started down this type of road, however, with regard to Thomas and Margaret, we'll cover the basis as best we can. 

So, as mentioned. I think that Thomas was related to the Thomas that married into the White family some way. If you look at the Dorchester investors, you will see Conant. So, Roger was sent to Cape Ann due to a business decision. Thomas was chosen, originally, due to family ties, I would bet. That was the norm in those days. He and Roger were not of the same class. Endicott, from what I can see from my reading, knew Thomas' background (talked to him). Called him Mr. They did several things together long before Thomas deigned (I said that before) to become a Freeman. Even in those day, the Church (of whatever variety and its people) was not all powerful. That has been a continual dynamic throughout history. 

It is significant that Thomas married a Quaker right in front of those ones, such as Endicott who put Dyer to the rope. Of course, they did some little fines with her not going to the services. Anything said about stocks, or whatever? 

Thomas seems to be tabula raza. He didn't leave writings. However, his sons spoke of him. Like, John mentioning Sherborne, Dorset. Too, they were well educated. That was due to their folks. Thomas talked to Rev. Hubbard who also talked to Conant (who bemoaned being handled improperly). We didn't see that published until almost 200 years later. Plenty of folks have reported what they saw or thought they saw. 

We'll methodically go through all of this stuff. Actually, already have. Blogs are the best was to organize this stuff. So, we'll use pages (see above (Tabs): What's new, FAQ, Page map, TMM - there are lots more). Plus, we'll write articles. That is what The Gardner Annals is for, in part. 

While working, we always look for new areas to poke into. So, the tasks build as more are pushed on the stack than are ever popped. And, we will get to (through) that (long list) by funding research. Also, there really is no limit in that all of the Cape Ann families need to be looked at. Right now, Conant, Woodbury, Trask, and Palfrey are covered. Why? Due to their being involved with the Old Planters - Beverly. In the beginning, it bothered me, a little, that these other families never mentioned Gardner. 

What was that? At least, Felt, in going through the records, brought out references to activities by Thomas. Dr. Frank wrote of some of these. So, Thomas was here. The kids are evidence of that. 

Did they talk of leaving? As in, what the Paine sisters wrote? You know, the stories of some going back to England or going to Virginia. Well, Thomas and Margaret and the kids were at Cape Ann. Having a good time. 

Lots to do. The 400th will have an entirely different feeling than did the prior commemorations. Oh yes. The 200th? A parade was mentioned (Chronicles of Old Salem). It coincided with the 50th of the U.S.

Remarks: Modified: 03/13/2023

07/17/2019 -- Changed to using commemoration.

09/20/2020  -- Added the Category. 

03/13/2023 -- See "New not old planter" post with regard to research findings. Thomas and Margaret have children registered in England until 1633. So, there were two Thomas Gardner, just not like we would have expected. But, the jury is still out. 

What we know

Context: Gardner Questions and Answers plus the Gardner FAQ

Note (02/27/2024): See Current status. 

Note (03/20/2023) -- See these posts for an update: Square one?; Old, and new, planter. This post will be updated along with the FAQ.

Note (06/24/2019) -- given that this is seven years old and that we know more (see Remarks, this date, below), this post ought to be updated.

--- original post ---   [see comment in bold, and square brackets]

We'll start with Dr. Frank's work and the Great Migration sketch (including a wiki counterpart) as part of the foundation. From there, we'll build a sketch that has support. From this, we'll start to fill in the pieces in a reasonable fashion. Where things are conjectural, of course, this will be noted.

Aside: All progress comes from testing hypotheses [we will look at what was assumed; and, see the alternatives, and build a new view with support] which are framed from a good basis. Too, there is always the mainstream. That off the mainstream is not, by necessity, quackery. Of course, the smell test is useful when other means don't exist for proper analysis.

We'll summarize the Dr. Frank and Great Migration material, as one task. [both of these had one Thomas; let's track how this story came to be through the centuries.] However, to set the tone of the overarching guideline, please consider the following as a list of key items.

• - [A] Thomas [Gardner] was put in charge as Overseer of the Cape Ann venture, at least, that part related to planting on the new soil. [Which Thomas Gardner?] This implies several things, such as that he was known to Rev. John White and the Dorchester Company, that he had a good character, that he capable of carrying out the plan, and a number of other things. We'll expand upon these as we go along with our efforts to describe Thomas as the quintessential American, albeit a little early for his times. 
• - [So a Thomas was here] Thomas was referred to as 'Mr' in a London meeting in 1629 which, again, suggests several things, such as that he came from a good family, that he was educated, that he had social stature (but we could bet that he had a large physical stature and a character that was bigger than life), and a lot more. We'll collect more information about this and what it might mean. 
• - Thomas brought his wife and family which means that he was committed. [At that time, there would have been three boys] Of the Cape Ann crew (old planters), he and Margaret were the exception. And, their resolve is proven by their children and their descendants. Of course, collecting information about this is an on-going effort. Another committed individual was John Balch who brought his wife. Many Balchs are descendants of Thomas through his daughter, Sarah. 
• - Thomas became a freeman later than he could have which implies several things, such as that he was effective in his own manner during the period before he signed up, that he decided to join in order to participate in a larger scope and to take care of things that needed to be done for the community, that he compromised for the well-being of his children and more. 
• - (07/12/2015) See Remarks, this date, on project exploring records found in Sherborne, Dorset regarding the marriage of Thomas Gardiner and Margaret Frier (and more). 

In short, we're talking about a story that ought to have wide interest if done properly.

That Thomas was above history is a known fact. What we want to capture is the spirit of the remarkable pair who survived troubling times and who left a definite legacy that needs to be studied and documented. Lessons from their, meaning Thomas' and Margaret's, lives are applicable in today's society in ways that we have not even begun to address.

Taking on the task of introducing history to Thomas is one task of the Thomas Gardner Society. That was one motivation behind the Backbone series.

Remarks:

02/27/2024 -- Add link at top to latest status post. 

03/20/2023 -- Put the notice about coming updates at the top. 

03/13/2023 -- See "New not old planter" post with regard to research findings. Thomas and Margaret have children registered in England until 1633. 

06/24/2019 -- We have started to update the FAQ and will be renovating our sites. With the 400th coming up, plus several years of research accomplished, it is time to pull together a cohesive view some of which will be printed. There is a very long ToDo list that will be published and updated so that others can help us with our tasks. Focus will be on content related to Thomas Gardner, Cape Ann, subsequent events, and much more; plus, we will keep configuration issues in mind which deal with the continual concerns related to technology and information presentation.

09/25/2018 -- Recently the Profile for Thomas Gardner on WikiTree changed to only have the two wives. This was due to research and discussion to which Gardner Research contributed. Earlier, there was a post that summarized the issue and accomplishment: Margaret, anew. Thanks are extended to all who made this update possible. The Profile is managed by the Puritan Great Migration Project sponsored by the NEHGS, publisher of the Great Migration books. So, Sherborne, as John said (see this page for images of documents).

07/12/2015 -- Okay, turtle speed. But, we get there. Announcing a new project: Sherborne, Dorset. No doubt, it is about time. When finished with the data collection and analysis, we will present the strongest story (the prerogative of the family) that the facts, and abductive reasoning, will support. As such, we hope to demonstrate some very much needed research viewpoints.

04/07/2015 -- We have more questions than answers (research raises both).

03/12/2015 -- What we know implies that there are things that we do not know (so, we'll cover both; albeit, unknown unknowns lurk).

03/03/2015 -- The 1933 book is on-line. See Zouch Phoenix.

09/29/2014 -- As of this past week, we know that a couple, Thomas Gardner and Margaret Friar, married in Sherborne, Dorset in 1617.

03/28/2014 -- See Vol. IV, No. 1 for a discussion of the movement from Cape Ann to Salem.

11/13/2013 --  Phippen would be part of the slate fill.

11/06/2013 -- While working on the next Beacon issue, I ran across some books. The one by Staloff was timely; imagine, I was wondering why the backbone series? Has the talented set ever allowed the lessors to have some semblance of a good life? Oh, you say yes? Winthrop, et al, were against this from the beginning. The stalwart of what could be (or could have been)? Thomas Gardner, of course.

01/24/2013 -- We know a whole lot. We ought to map the unknowns to what we know. Then, unknown unknowns will start to fall out. Sound like fun?

12/24/2012 -- Thomas, unlike Conant, was not overshadowed in the world of being. We'll spend some time characterizing this fact and what it means to reasonable folks.

11/27/2012 -- We need to tell the negative tales too, such as Rev. John's disrespect of those who put their lives and well-being on the line and more. The Maypole allusion grates several ways. Poor Thomas had to deal with three Johns: White, Endicott, and Winthrop. 

Modified: 02/17/2024

Welcome

This blog of the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. will deal with genealogical, and historical, material with a prime focus on Thomas and Margaret (Fryer) Gardner of Salem, MA. Too, it can serve many other purposes, such as to facilitate collection of material, to help organize information from disparate sources, and to promote discussion about these matters.

Here are some opening questions that are good examples.

• Who was Thomas, and Margaret, and what is their ancestry prior to the arrival on the Zouch Phenix (Great Migration Ships, via WikiTree)?
• Where was Thomas, and Margaret, between the period of 1626, when the move from Cape Ann occurred, to 1636 when he was added to the Freeman list of Salem?
• Where is Thomas? His burial was paved over. Some stones that were in the area at the time were moved to a nearby cemetery. Where are these?

There will be a running list of questions that will be maintained and researched. Blog posts will deal with the related work (see Section of process, below).

Now, we know a lot about Thomas from the work of Frank A. Gardner, MD (see TGS.org) and his progeny (see the descendants list on the Wiki page). However, this work covered the period until the early 20th century. Evidently, there needs to be work done to bring that information up to date. One of our goal is to get that accomplished.

We need to learn more about Margaret. Some even have Thomas as married to unknown. We are presuming, as did Dr Frank, that Margaret was the mother of the Gardner kids.

----

The Secretary/Treasurer of the Society is a direct Thomas descendant through Samuel as was Dr Frank. I only have an in-law association with the Gardner family. As well, I am not a genealogist but have done a lot of research in my years. My experience is applied mathematics and computing. The past year of researching my wife's tree has piqued my interest. That the NEHGS weds 'historic' and 'genealogical' really describes the proper viewpoint, in my mind. So, the blog will be wide-ranging but will keep coherency.

There are many topics that will deal with other family trees. One estimate that I saw was from a researcher who had collected 180,000+ ancestors in his work. In the case of my wife's tree, there are 200+ early entrants (pre-1670) just into the New England area with all of these families coming forward in time. That is a whole lot of people to consider. Bringing in folks from before the migration period really explodes that number.

---

Of interest to me is the whole notion of royal descent (RD). In the past, this status (for want of a better word, for now) was claimed by only a few and was used as a means to stand out. However, some estimates of those who have RD is very large indeed. But, it really does have historical significance. For one, knowing of this may really increase appreciation for those who ventured over here from a known situation to one that was unknown. Yet, things were pretty bad over there for many. Hence, the flux occurred across the waters.

There are many topics here to discuss in regard to RD (Ole's blog, example).

----

Thomas Gardner represents several things, such as the backbone of the country and economy, for various reasons. This will be a continuing topic since his life can be used to discuss current topics, themes, problems and what have you. There was not much written about Thomas and Margaret, but their offspring all lived to be contributing adults. And, some of the Gardners helped found tremendous families, such as is the case with Sarah and the Balch folks.

Too, Thomas had to be a guy who was comfortable with himself and who was very effective as he showed with his successful traversal of troubled, and hard, times such that he and his kids thrived. That is a real brief look which will be expanded upon. To look at Thomas' kids, one could not but think that the guy was a terrific human though he did not flash across the sky.

Now, having said that, not being in the radar does have its benefits. There are no records like this one (Boston martyrs) which we see related to John Endecott.

Too, for a long while, Thomas was dropped from the list of 'old planters' despite being in the early group. That is, we'll show several lists in which Gardner is not mentioned. One family of those who seemed to have pushed him out has a cemetery not far from where Thomas was buried. That cemetery is still there, prominently besides the road. Thomas is under pavement, somewhere. To me, an outsider, that little bit of reality represents a whole lot of stuff that we'll go into more deeply.

So, we'll use the cyber realm to document, permanently, where Thomas lies, or as close to it as we can identify.

----

If it was not obvious, let me state the following: the 400th anniversary of the Cape Ann landing ought to be the time for descendants of Thomas Gardner (Salem) to make sure that his name is known throughout the rest of history.

Our hope is that this little start gives a push in that direction. Some say that Conant was forgotten. The forgotten ones were actually Thomas and Margaret Gardner (and John Tilly who died in 1636 - Pequot War).

----

About process: blog posts will be labelled into groups. Too, posts will be updated with modification dates. In many cases, additional material will be included at the foot of a post as a dated remark. An example is the Fedaerated blog.

Posts are done real-time, generally without using any fancy editor. That is old-fashioned, but, hey, Joyce, Tolstoy, and many more worked similarly. What is this that people have learned to depend upon a mindless artifact in order to express thoughts in a natural language?

Hence, I usually put an ellipsis (...) at the end of a post to denote an 'in work' status which will be taken away once the first cut of the post is done. Subsequent updates will be marked with date.

The Remarks have several purposes. For one, it is a place for additional information and commentary. Too, there may be forward links to future posts that are related.

---

Comments are open, for now, without any moderation. The hope is that we can collect information that way. Pointers to material at other sights will always be of interest.

---

We are using two URLs: ThomasGardnerSociety.org, and TGSoc.org. The below image is from the later which will have a particular focus as portal. The former will be our workhorse, handling specifics related to research and findings.

Our major theme is culture, history, and technology. The first, of course, implies human society. History is a puzzle since, generally, it deals with an abstracted view of events, whereas we live with the details as individuals. Finally, technology is a thread that has been around for a long while; albeit, now we see acceleration of this phenomenon becoming problematic. In genealogy, we have all sorts of issues, including software, systems, and biology (DNA, for one example). The scope has a major thread of the 400 years from Cape Ann to now, however it have a broad theme covering the American dream is all that it might entail.

We are coordinating our work through Gardner Research which will publish, regularly. 

Remarks: Modified: 11/13/2018

09/26/2010 -- Added in Margaret. If you look at royal descents (such as the Maverick/Gye royal gateway, WA -- see above), it was the wife (Mary Gye) who brought in the royal history. So, expect that all trees developed and shown here will be balanced as much as is possible with both parents. Having said that, it's obvious that information is missing for many ancestors. But, things can show up from time to time as people keep digging.

09/27/2010 -- On the process for posts, the basic gist of a post remains the same, generally. Through a window of time, though, there may be changes to grammar and some phrasing to remove awkwardness as well as to improve the overall flow. The post will be marked with the date of modification.

09/28/2010 -- Expect that there will be a post on the old burial ground which needs to be re-recognized. From what I've read, Thomas, Seeth, and Samuel's Abel, and his wife Sarah, are there. The stones were, supposedly, moved to Harmony Grove, near the Peabody Gate, when the ground was cut through, and leveled, for the road (Grove). Has anyone seen these lately? As well, we can collect burial places, to wit the Charter Street cemetery has several Gardners. This article mentions the old burial ground (we need to locate it, setup a Google map, etc.).

09/28/2010 -- About old planters. As used above, it refers to the Cape Ann & Salem group. It can also be applied to close-by Boston (note, William Jeffrey, ostensibly of the Cape Ann group, seems to be mentioned here as being in Shawmut and Weymouth) as that is where Winthrop went on rebound from his dislike of Salem. No doubt, this subject needs some looking at. Note that John Lyford (WA, following Gary Boyd Roberts, this means wife's ancestor), who went with Conant to Cape Ann, is mentioned.

10/01/2010 -- See Where is Thomas?

10/02/2010 -- A cousin of Dr. Frank. The line is Thomas/Samuel/Abel/Abel/Simon Stacy/Jonathan/Benjamin B/Joseph D/...

10/31/2010 -- For RD example, switched from the excellent example of Ole Larson (his blog has disappeared -- evidently he died in August, 2010) to the blog of the Slovak Yankee, for now.

11/10/2010 -- Ole Larson is back. His genealogy site.

12/06/2010 -- See progeny I and progeny II.

12/21/2010 -- For completion, started a Henry Lunt of Newbury blog today to cover matrilineal ancestors.

01/10/2011 -- Added his signature. What was Thomas' background, his education, ...?

01/14/2011 -- Follow Salem on Twitter.

07/21/2011 -- From whence? Coffin, from Nantucket, said Dorset (Sherborne).

02/22/2011 -- We'll be using the Great Migration material a lot.

09/13/2012 -- About Margaret. We'll honor her as the ancestor, with Thomas, of the Gardner family.

11/13/2013 --  Phippen would be part of the slate fill.

09/28/2014 -- A week ago, the record for the marriage of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Friar was discovered in Sherborne by John Cook of Minneapolis, Dorset files. This sets a type of focus. Looks as if some transcription work might be in order.

10/11/2018 -- Changed Remarks list to be in order by time. Updated a few stale pointers.

11/13/2018 -- With a new twist, as bodies and stones were also moved to the Trask site. Add in Sidney Perley's map of Gardner Hill.