Seeth Gardner

More specifically, Seeth (Gardner) Conant Grafton, the youngest daughter. She was buried with Thomas at the Gardner burial plot and is mentioned in several post related to the question of 'Where is Thomas?' (continuing research theme). Her stone is in Harmony Grove Cemetery. Her bones? We don't know.

Her nephew, Abel and his wife Sarah, were buried there, too. Abel was son of Samuel and progenitor of Dr. Frank.

It's about time that we looked at Seeth. Earlier, we looked at her sisters, Sarah Balch and Miriam Hill. This is an introduction; there will be more as we fill in her WikiTree Profile (Gardner-592) of her children. We just started to update the Profile for Seeth (Grafton) Andrew Hicks.

Turns out that a descendant of Seeth wrote for The American Genealogist about her. See TAG, Vol 71, pg 26. Craig Partridge, the researcher, was a professor at Stanford.

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Seeth married 1) Joshua Conant. He died. She married 2) John Grafton. One descendant is John Albion Andrew who was the 25th Governor of Massachusetts (1861-1866). The Essex Inst Hist  Coll (Vols 27-28) has part of his pedigree. See WikiTree (John Albion Andrew). We will be looking further at the collateral families (John Andrew, Nathaniel Andrew and Mary Higginson, and John Higginson and Hannah Gardner) which show a lot of inter-marriage.

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Children (according to the NEHGS and the Great Migration Project - as represented by WikiTree): Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah, Samuel, Joseph, Miriam, Seeth.

List of descendants of Seeth. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/13/2020

12/09/2019 -- Seeth featured this week at the portal to truth. Plus, we want to go out five generations.

12/13/2020 -- Added link to list of descendants. 

Descendants of Seeth

 Descendants of:

Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah (Gardner) Balch,
Samuel, **, Miriam (Gardner) Hill, Seeth (Gardner) Grafton 
** Joseph (had no descendants)

This series will go through all of the children and identify some descendants. The list originally was on Wikipedia's page about Thomas Gardner (Planter). We'll put a header into each so that these can be linked, easily.

For these lists, we will be adding more names. Chronological order:

• Joshua Conant (ca 1650s) -- he married (1) Christian More who was a daughter of Richard More considered the 'bastard' of the Mayflower. (2) Sarah Newcomb.  
• Sarah (Ropes) Peirce (ca 1752) -- grandmother of Benjamin Peirce (WikiTree) father of C.S. Peirce. 
• Seeth (Grafton) Andrew Hicks (ca 1810s) -- she is mentioned in Torrey's list of New England marriages prior to 1700. 
• John Albion Andrew (ca 1810s) -- 25th Governor of Massachusetts
• Charles Sanders Peirce (c. 1830s) – philosopher and mathematician. He is also a descendant of son, Thomas. 
•  ...

John Albion Andrew

We looked at Seeth, briefly, last year and need to dig deeper into her life and progeny.  

We will do Miriam next. 

    

Remarks: Modified: 04/12/2022

10/24/2020 -- Added a notice for CSP as descendant of  Thomas as well as of Seeth. 

04/12/2022 -- Updated information about Joshua who married the daughter, Christian, of Richard More.  

Joseph and Seeth

TL;DR -- As we fill in descendant trees for all of the families that interlocked in the early times via marriage, we want to remember those who had no progeny. Joseph and Ann (Downing) Gardner are an example. He was killed in the early troubles with the American Indians. She married an old governor after that while getting Bradstreet to sign a pre-nup. Joseph's sister, Seeth, had children and grandchildren. One Conant line ended early. There are many more to add to the list as we find them and remember to do the recording.  

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Of late, we have been looking at the wide expanse of people related to Thomas and Margaret. For a time, we were looking at the interior which was carved up under the guise of Manifest Destiny. Before that, and now in a more balanced mode, we had the nautical focus. After all, Salem was a port. 

Many heritage society communities focus on descendants. How else can they keep their membership? But, we have kept an interest in those who had no progeny. While reviewing the portal today which pops up some random text, we got this page. The text showed two of the children: Joseph and Seeth. 

Joseph Gardner and Ann Downing did not have children. Seeth? She did with her later husband. Her son, Joshua Conant, who married a daughter of Richard More, did not have grandchildren. That got us to a recent post of someone with no progeny: JB Conant. 

We get sensitive to this while looking at pedigrees related to application to heritage societies. Of the children in a family, many times only a few are in the database due to no application being submitted for the others. To us, that would be something that the heritage society ought to look at. Why? Many claim biblical leanings. If so, transitive 'honoring of the parents' might suggest that. In any case, we intend to keep with the focus on those who are lost in history. 

BTW, in our look at the frontier, we see many who are lost just due to genealogists being obtuse in so many ways. We are ready to discuss those issues, as required.  

Remarks: Modified: 09/03/2021

09/03/2021 -- 

Where isThomas? III

Context is:

Where was he and is he?

-- Where is Thomas?: Initial question with material from Dr. Frank and from Harmony Grove Cemetery. The brochure of the HGC mentions the land modifications caused by the road work and gives some indication of who was moved (put image from their brochure).
-- Where is Thomas? II: Follow-on post with a Bing map of the area. In there, where?
-- Where was he and is he?: Finally, I used a Perley (did good work, knew Dr. Frank) map along side Google (properly aligned). Partly, it was to show that these sketches were done well given that people were not yet able to have a neighborhood view. Aside: John Gardner's work with the Merrimack mapping crew still stands.      

Saturday, last, someone, on Wikipedia (see Status of page), changed the Burial section on the Thomas Gardner page as follows ("Before edit" was the original status; "Change" was the modification that had no source added; "Correction" is the current state until edited):

Before edit: Thomas was buried on Gardner Hill near present-day Boston Street and Grove in Salem. His daughter Seeth and his grandson Abel are also buried there.[16] Abel's wife, Sarah Porter Gardner, whose mother was the sister of John Hathorne, was buried with her husband. The remains of Thomas and many others were moved from the old burial ground to Harmony Grove Cemetery in the 1840s. 

Change (in italics): Thomas was buried on Gardner Hill aka Gardner Burying Ground near present-day Boston Street and Grove in Salem. His daughter Seeth and his grandson Abel are also buried there.[16] Abel's wife, Sarah Porter Gardner, whose mother was the sister of John Hathorne, was buried with her husband. A 1692 map of the area shows that the Gardner Burying Ground was in the same location as present day Harmony Grove Cemetery, which was incorporated in the 1840s.

Correction: Thomas was buried on Gardner Hill aka Gardner Burying Ground near present-day Boston Street and Grove in Salem. His daughter Seeth and his grandson Abel are also buried there.[16] Abel's wife, Sarah Porter Gardner, whose mother was the sister of John Hathorne, was buried with her husband. The remains of Thomas and many others were moved from the old burial ground to Harmony Grove Cemetery in the 1840s.[55] A 1692 map of the area shows that the Gardner Burying Ground was in close proximity to Harmony Grove which was incorporated in the 1840s.   

One of my remarks to the "Change" was that "same" is not congruent. Of course, we are talking the same area. The bodies were not moved very far (we can have a contest to determine the actual distance).

Let's get serious. As well, this change had no supporting material. That is a no-no on Wiki. See status of the Thomas Gardner page. Someone put tags (ignore unless you want to help). After that, I did some changes (such as not reference pages done by families, etc.). Also, some "politically incorrect" sections (I know, I was spouting off as a newbie) were removed. The page now is good. I'm waiting for someone else to remove the tags.

To us, this burial issue is open and needs to be resolved before the 400th, if not sooner.

Remarks:  Modified: 05/16/2019

08/17/2015 -- We will put an image of the HGC brochure on the blog.

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?

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.

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.

02/28/2019 -- Gardner's Beacon, Vol. IX, No. 1 gives an overview of what we know after looking at the issue of missing graves. Then, there are more missing graves, we see.

05/16/2019 -- The map that compares Sidney's walk-about with Google is way off. That is because I was looking at landmarks and not paying attention to details, like distance. So, see this update: How close is close ? II. Here is the updated graphics.

Oh yes, we are now honing into the area. 

Roger Conant

TL;DR -- All along, we have intended to look deeper into the Cape Ann families. First, we have to get a good list. That may take some work. So, let's dive into the families that we know of now. This post gets us to start to become familiar with Roger Conant's family and progeny. For starters, we look at known relationships with the Gardners. 

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Children of 
Roger Conant

One of our goals is to document Cape Ann families and their descendants beyond our look at the progeny of Thomas and Margaret Gardner and their collateral families. Recently, we looked at John Tilley (Tylly, Tilly) who was a co-lead with Thomas in the early party; the post was motivated by a research article published in the latest NEHGR. A little earlier, we stopped to consider the Woodbury family, again due to the NEHGR. There are several other posts that dealt with Cape Ann as it will be a common theme for us. 

The next post will consider a member of the Conant family. In the 700-page History of the Conant family, which can be viewed via archive.org (as PDF) - as we noted a while ago with respect to researching the Cape Ann Great House, there are thirty-four references to Gardner. In Dr. Frank's 1907 book, with 365 pages, there fourteen references to Conant. 

As well, Dr. Frank noted that his grandmother, Lucy Foster Wilson, was a descendant of Conant. It is time that we look at these two families and fill in the pieces based upon material collected over the past 150 years. 

As a reminder, we had an earlier page that used the Conant book (using Google's format): James Bryant Conant. The family studies seems to have covered a lot of material which is commendable. 

Joshua Conant 
and
Seeth Gardner

The following images are from the Conant book which dates from 1887. We will also bring in the NEHGS Great Migration material, as we map out how the families related. 

Joshua Conant 
and
Christian More

With respect to Roger (WikiTree: Conant-34) and his spouse, Sarah Horton, the first list identifies his children. Then, we see that Joshua Conant married Seeth Gardner, daughter of Thomas and Margaret. They had a son.  

Their son, Joshua (WikiTree: Conant-54), married Christian, the daughter of Richard More (WikiTree: More-108) of the Mayflower, as his first wife. Christian died young; Joshua married Sarah Newcomb.  

Just now, stopping to look at WikiTree shows that there are many descendants that have been documented for Joshua and Seeth which motivates us to take another look at Seeth and her sister Miriam. 

But, that is one purpose for having this type of focused look at the material. It can found the basis for further research; doing research can help get the material updated. Never-ending process. Technology, today, provides some interesting tools, albeit there was plenty of material available in the earlier forms. We will be looking at that on a recurrent basis, too, 

Remarks: Modified: 04/15/2022

04/12/2022 -- With respect to sourcing via the Conant book, this image shows that JB was penciled in. 

04/15/2022 -- Richard Perry Conant, the riverman, is a descendant. 

Where is Thomas?

The problem of 'Where is Thomas?' was asked earlier. Answering that question seemed to be a reasonable task to attempt to accomplish.

Dr. Frank mentioned a 'Gardner burying ground' (pg 11) that had passed through several hands over the years. One thing of interest might have been following all those transactions using the maps from several points in time.

Dr. Frank said that Thomas was buried on these grounds as was Seeth, his daughter. Too, grandson Abel, and his wife Sarah Porter, were there. It might be of interest to collect other names.

I spoke today, by phone, to the Harmony Grove Cemetery and learned a little about the graves that were in the area of Boston and Grove (in Salem). Dr Frank said Main and Grove, but we know that these types of boundaries move about.

According to Harmony Grove records, the graves were moved, sometime in the 1840s. According to Dr. Frank, this was to allow for Grove to be put in.

After the phone discussion, I remembered that there is an ongoing effort to document grave information to allow internet search. Sure, enough, Thomas is on the list along with Abel and Sarah. Gosh, isn't the Internet great? This seems to be an effort, like Wikipedia, where volunteers put in the information.

• Thomas "The Planter" Gardner -- the writeup includes links to one of the pages about Thomas plus to a 1692 map of Salem. Dr. Frank mentioned that the burial ground was near Strong Water brook which would have been the south side of the area marked Northfields.
• Lieut Abel Gardner -- son of Samuel who was son of Thomas
• Sarah Porter Gardner -- her mother was the sister of John Hathorne

We need to find out about Seeth and others who may have been there.

Remarks:

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.

10/25-26/2018 -- With a new twist, as bodies and stones were also moved to the Trask site. Add in Sidney Perley's map of Gardner Hill.

Perley on Gardner Hill

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?

08/17/2015 -- Response to Wikipedia change that questions the move(?).

06/26/2015 -- Where was and is he?

03/12/2015 -- Dr. Frank's 1933 book (pg. 22) does not mention the move.

11/16/2012 -- In preparation for the upcoming 400th, we ought to find Thomas' stone (Able's and Sarah's, too) and get it set back up in an accessible manner.

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

05/22/2011 -- Thomas is somewhere in this area.

10/01/2010 -- Too, where is Margaret? Also, we need to pinpoint the exact location within the cemetery for these graves, and stones.

Modified: 01/04/2019

More progeny

As mentioned in the earlier post, the descendants list would be very large. That earlier post used Frank A's first book (1907). A later book (1933) covered George Gardner's line. The latter book, in part, looked at the John Lowell Gardners.

Following the same approach as before, there are several families who have gathered this information. One example is the Larson tree which shows the Weld, Lowell, Pickering, and Peabody relationships. Another is the Dowling tree which we have seen several times before.

Now, in terms of RD, there are several in this tree, starting with Mary (Gye) Maverick and Percival Lowell both of whom are on the gateway list. It would be interesting to pick through the tree to find all of the possible RDs.

We might try that sort of thing when we do a post on Frank A. (see Remarks, 12/06/2010) that will provide one thread for Thomas/Samuel. Frank A. has several interesting RD nodes in his Gardner tree.

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The search will continue for more information. At some point, comments will point out missing pieces or, hopefully, will actually offer additions. One goal may be a data base that has been scrutinized, rated, and made available for reference.

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As we saw earlier, George, Thomas' second son, had eight kids. It is interesting to see this expansion of daughter Hannah's descendants (Larson family). We will be collecting more of these.

Remarks:  Modified: 10/25/2020

12/15/2010 -- Ran across the Larson tree, at this site which will be used again. Larson has descendants for these kids of Thomas (in order of the list): Sarah, Thomas (error?, note marriage to Lucy Smith), George, John, Samuel, Richard, and Seeth.

12/16/2010 -- Note that Charles Sanders Peirce (Wikipedia) is on the Seeth list. Edmund Wilson (Wikipedia) is on the George list. Both added to the descendants list.

12/16/2010 -- Conover's site is pointed to from the at wargs site and has an expansion for Seeth/Conant (Joshua). Here is another for Joshua for comparison. We'll be see trees from these two families as there is overlap with the Dr Frank A tree.

02/01/2013 -- Update for rootsweb reference for Larson tree.

02/08/2011 -- Saw a notice at NEHGS that William Addams Reitwiesner died in November of 2010. His site, at wargs.com, is being maintained by his literary executor.

12/23/2010 -- Would be derelict if I didn't mention, and use, this site by Roderic A. Davis, 2nd.

10/11/2018 -- One goal is to have the first five generations documented in one place. We are looking at WikiTree for that.

12/07/2018 -- Dr. Frank and WikiTree. Using his hand-written notes, we filled in his mother's line this past summer. Too, we are going to focus on filling in the gaps. 

10/25/2018 -- We have a new look: TGSoc.org. And, we are using WikiTree (example of Samuel/Abel) with the goal of getting the first five generations documented. Some of these links may be stale (will be checking). 

10/25/2020 -- Descendants, finally. We're getting back to work.

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. 

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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 .

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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. 

Research and consequences

TL;DR -- Research in February found records for all of the children born in Sherborne, Dorset except for Joseph. But, Seeth was born here, in the mid-1630s. How is this? Right now, the solution is to split the Thomas Gardner record into two. The first deals with the father of the children and the husband of Margaret Fryer. The second is for the Dorchester Company's man who participated in the venture in 1623/24. Same guy? Other questions abound. This is a status.  

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The "In summary" post pulls together an overview of recent events and our status. Our response to the findings of a record search was one month late. How did this happen? We look at that below. But, we did get the research going as this image shows. It can be found in the "Research Notes" section of the Thomas Gardner profile on WikiTree. The original find was in 2014 by John Cook who was browsing ancestry[.]com's report on digitization. 

At that time, we did the post and redid the commentary in this blog as well as noting that we were expecting more data as transcription work progressed. Our next involvement was to argue that Margaret ought to be the mother of the children. That was done via a G2G where people discuss matters after looking at the data. Once things settle on an action, the change is done. See "Should all of the children of Thomas Gardner-159 be detached from his second wife, Margaret ____? [closed]" on WikiTree. Yes, that discussion was about the 2nd wife who was Margaret and her status as mother.  

About Margaret, wife
and mother of the children

That was settled. Then, in February of this year, we had this G2G: Comments on Thomas Gardner of Salem 1591-1674. Bob Dunlap had taken the time to browse transcribed records by the 100s. Earlier, we had records for the first three boys. After that, did the family come over to Cape Ann as Dr. Frank and many others thought? 

Well, Bob's search found records for the other children, except for Joseph and Seeth. The time of the baptism of Joseph had smudgy records. But, the following child was recorded. On the other hand, Seeth was not there, but she has records in Salem MA. So, they came over later? 

The WikiTree project in charge of the profile of Thomas Gardner decided to split out into two profiles. One is for the father of the children and husband of Margaret. The other profile is mostly without information awaiting more information on the Cape Ann adventure. 

For us, Rev. Hubbard's reference to these being the same guy has some credence. So, we will see. 

But, why the month's delay?  In November of 2022, OpenAI let loose ChatGPT upon us. John did not pay attention to that until February since there are plenty of other areas needing attention. Besides, he has established a position on AI and its current status as well as weighed in on the abundance of hype that is mostly unsupported. 

The Society had adopted technology as a focus for several reasons. One of the important ones is the growing influence, good and bad, of computing: technology search on this blog. ChatGPT came at a time of bifurcation and has acted as a Rorschach test: toy or tool. That is, what is this thing? John has been involved in research and discussion with respect to the OpenAI release and its aftermath. 

This post allows those two themes to be looked at together. The former deals with Origins which has been part of our quest from the beginning. One of our first steps will be to get back to the review of "What do we know?" with the additional information part of the research. 

Remarks: Modified: 05/11/2023

05/11/2023 -- 

Margaret, equal partner

TL;DR -- 100 years ago, Margaret got some attention. Then, modern research threw her out. We got her back. Now, we'll make her presence ubiquitous (normally used for computing, of late). Too, the women of Cape Ann will get attention this month to establish a basis for future work. The order goes, Cape Ann --> Essex County --> Massachusetts --> New England, and then a long reach across the U.S. over time and a huge interior. All having been noted here will be further explored. 

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As time goes by, so too do the Awareness Months. March is Womens History Month. So, this month, we are continuing that theme as we started last year by bringing women into the discussion. We will be looking at another mathematician later, as we did last year with Emmy Noether. Too, we will be adding a post about a Native American tribe that Yankees going west encountered. 

Today, we think that it's time to bring Margaret some attention. Hence, we have changed our header at both sites (traditional, portal) to read as this image says. 

It notes that the Society is "For ... Thomas Gardner (implied &) Margaret Fryer ... Planters (Cape Ann, Salem)" as both were instrumental in getting the thing done. We're here. Also, we will be looking deeply at the history of Cape Ann and its families (many modern sites with photos of paintings done in the area of Gloucester will be linked below - coming soon).  

Too, after looking at Gloucester's 400th commemoration activities this week, we started to research possible topics to represent what the Society is about. And, per usual, Roger Conant's theme came up which was the focus 100 years ago. He is mentioned in a huge plaque plus some smaller ones in the Gloucester area. Too, he is in lots and lots of write ups as the first name of the effort. There was the theme of Beverly Planters as an example.

That is, in terms of history, we pinpoint a few to carry forward the message. But, some, like Rev. Hubbard, actually talked to Thomas Gardner and mentioned him and John Tylly. Lots of the pruning was due to technology and other limits. 

So, our theme being technology, we have to think about how we can tame the beast for the future where a sustainable mode is left for the progeny. Can we do it? Yes. But, pondering all of the possible stories, we settled on featuring Margaret, mother of the children. BTW, there is no issue with Conant taking the heat. That let's us do our own truth assessment using means outside of the normal. 

After all, Roger is on Ann's ancestors' list. Too, Seeth married a son of Roger and had a child. He married a daughter of Richard More, that puzzle of the Mayflower mindset. Other stories abound some of which we have covered in posts, like James Bryant Conant of Harvard. 

But, back to Margaret, she had another wife on board with her. Roger was here, single. Thomas Gardner and John Balch brought their families. Margaret, the mother of nine children (start with Thomas and follow the links), eight of whom had progeny. Sarah (Gardner) Balch's mother-in-law came with Margaret on the same ship in 1624. 

We are researching progeny of each child, for Sarah:

• Benjamin Balch (c. 1730s) – first Chaplain, Continental Navy; William Balch (c. 1770s) – first Chaplain, U.S. Navy. His father was first chaplain of the Continental Navy; his grandfather had been a chaplain in the Royal Navy; Adolphus Greely (c. 1840s) – American Polar explorer, recipient of the Medal of Honor; John Henry Balch (c. 1890s) – United States Navy, World War I, Medal of Honor, Lieutenant, World War II. 

Seeth (Gardner) Grafton married (first) Joshua Conant, son of Roger Conant. Their sister, Miriam (Gardner) Hill married twice. One of her progeny was the namesake of the Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, KS about which we have written a lot. 

There were later arrivals in time before Endicott came over. Some of these families went over with Salem. We'll be looking more thoroughly of pre-and-post-Massey's Cove in more ways than merely noting that Cape Ann was close to paradise or the Glory of Cape Ann. 

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. 

 

Threads through five generations

When we did the list of descendants that is on the Wikipedia page for Thomas, we browsed books, other genealogical sites, found connections, and did a quick assessment. For each entry, we put a year to relate their period plus identified the child.

Yesterday, we looked at some of these. And, picked Ezra Pound since he was documented on WikiTree. For Ezra, there was a link to his Wikipedia page, a note that he was ca. 1880s, and that his ancestor was Richard. We also looked at several others. Ezra Cornell is of Richard, too, but we need to review what has been done for him as there is some conflicting information. We found out that Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor is a descendant of Lion Gardner. In the mode of 'All things Gardner' work, we will move these to a side list showing these other families.

Today, we checked several other entries and considered that we need to approach this from the viewpoint of getting descendants of the children identified which would lead to the first five generations being written up. Along that line, the below list is a start. For now, we'll show the chart that maps to Henry VIII for its potential to show how collateral families come into play.

These can be thought of as threads. Some research might find them useful. I did. Those with resources have more motivation, too. I found that looking at work done by those folks would help with other lines, various ways.

This is a partial list with no particular order.

• Samuel - see Dr. Frank and Henry VIII
• Richard - see Ezra Pound, Nathaniel Gorham, Edith Kermit (Carow) Roosevelt 
• Thomas and George - see Nathaniel Bowditch
• George - see Alice Hathaway (Lee) Roosevelt
• Sarah - see Charles G. Dawes (he is also descendant of Thomas Gardner of Roxbury) 
• Seeth -- this will be a little different. Seeth married 1) Joshua Conant. He died. She married 2) John Grafton. One descendant is John Albion Andrew who was the 25th Governor of Massachusetts (1861-1866). The Essex Inst Hist  Coll (Vols 27-28) has part of his pedigree. See WikiTree (John Albion Andrew).  
• John -- see Henry Clay Folger, Jr. 

We still need one from Miriam. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/09/2019

12/09/2019 -- We have been featuring the children at our portal to truth.

Descendants of John

 Descendants of:

Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah (Gardner) Balch,
Samuel, **, Miriam (Gardner) Hill, Seeth (Gardner) Grafton 
** Joseph (had no descendants)

This series will go through all of the children and identify some descendants. The list originally was on Wikipedia's page about Thomas Gardner (Planter). We'll put a header into each so that these can be linked, easily.

For these lists, we will be adding more names. Chronological order:

• George Pollard, Jr. (c. 1791) – Captain of the Essex and the Two Brothers 
• Rowland Hussey Macy (c 1820) - Founder of R. H. Macy and Company 
• Henry Clay Folger (c. 1850s) – head of Standard Oil of New York, founder of the Folger Library
• William Coffin Coleman (c. 1870s) – founder of Coleman Company  (pending review - see American Tinkerer) 
• Juliet Pierpont Morgan (c. 1870s) – daughter of J. P. Morgan
• Chase A. Clark (c. 1880s) – Governor of Idaho
• Ann B Davis (c. ) - actress, Brady Bunch
• ...

Rowland Hussey Macy

We need to spend a little time on John (his WikiTree profile has several descendants). 

Earlier look at John. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/21/2024

09/26/2020 -- Added image to portal (TGSoc.org). 

10/04/2020 -- Added link to Descendants of Samuel.

10/21/2020 -- Added link to Descendants of Seeth. 

11/17/2020 -- Updated the William Coleman line. 

12/13/2020 -- Added link to earlier look at John. 

10/21/2024 -- Added Alice of the Brady Bunch. 

Two generations

These posts may appear irregularly, for awhile; that is due, mainly, to the large amount of material that needs to be read, digested, correlated, counted (the mind has a metrical basis) and such.

Thomas was an early arriver (1623/24); then, the tree for his direct descendant that I'm working on has several hundred New England families in it that were here before 1650. That means that these families have many generations here, too. Fortunately, a lot of these families have researched their history both here and on the other side of the pond.

For Thomas' past, before his arrival (which we'll get to), I am going to consider that James Savage was the most insightful as his family originates from the area that he proposed for Thomas. In fact, some of the trees associated with the Gardner one that I'm working have a Savage somewhere in the line. We will have posts looking backward, hopefully for Margaret, too.

In total in the above-mentioned tree, there are almost 100 families claiming royal descent (Ole's blog, example), some of these are on the NEHGS list. The interplay of the plebian and the aristocratic will be a story that we will have to feature from time to time. One modern analyst made the claim that a source for recent problems can be attributed to aristocratic notions being maintained in England and being brought over here by some.

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As mentioned before, Thomas, and his life, can be the foundation for very good discussions that may have a lot to add to understanding the current quandary brought on, for the most part, by those considered to be the 'best and brightest' (give us a break).

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Now, to consider this side of paradise, let's go forward from Thomas. Like the Mayflower group, with their list for three generations, we'll start with Thomas' kids and carry this forward a couple of notches as a means to identify gaps.

In the below list, we'll start first with information from Dr Frank's book about spouses and children. There may be pointers to work done already, for some, but only as an example (meaning, of course, to be verified). Also, the pointer may be only to partial information. At some point, the goal is to pull this data together, hopefully with a full tree that includes both genders' offspring. That is, for each generation, fill in the information for all siblings, to the extent possible, of course.

Note: The links for Thomas' grandkids below (bold and larger font) came from the work of Kathleen Hall Boyce who spent 2010 looking at the Gardners.

• Thomas - m. 1st Hannah __ (Mary, Thomas, Eliza, Abigaile, Bethia, Hannah, Jonathan), Elizabeth __ (David, Susannah, Dorcas)
• George - m. 1st Eliza Horne (Hannah, Samuel, Mary, George, Bethiah, Ebenezer, Mehitable, Ruth), 2nd Mrs Ruth Turner, 3rd Mrs Elizabeth Stone
• Richard - m. Sarah Shattuck (Joseph, Richard, Sarah, Deborah, Damorice, James, Miriam, Nathaniel, Hope, Love)
• John -m. Priscilla Grafton (John, Joseph, Priscilla, Benjamin, Rachell, George, Benjamin, Ann, Nathaniel, Mary, Mehitable, Ruth)
• Samuel - m. 1st Mary White (Mary, Eliza, Mary, Margaret, Samuel, George, Jonathan, Hannah, Abel), 2nd Elizabeth Paine -- This is the descendant tree that I'm following. rootsweb.com is interesting. Here is a descendants chart for Samuel and a pedigree chart for Abel, his son. Some pedigree charts are a little more extensive (to be checked edited 04/16/2012).
• Joseph - m. Ann Downing
• Sarah - m. Benjamin Balch (Samuel, Benjamin, John, Joseph, Freeborn, Sarah, Abigail, Ruth, Mary, Jonathan, David)
• Miriam - m. John Hill (Miriam, William Hascall, Susan)
• Seeth -m. 1st Joshua Conant, 2nd John Grafton (Mary, Joseph Hardy, Seeth , Abigail, Jehoadam, Margaret, Nathaniel)

Remarks:

10/25/2020 -- Descendants, finally. We're getting back to work.

11/26/2019 -- At the portal to truth, we are featuring the kids. So, this post will be updated.

12/07/2018 -- Dr. Frank and WikiTree. Using his hand-written notes, we filled in his mother's line this past summer. Too, we are going to focus on filling in the gaps. 

10/25/2018 -- We have a new look: TGSoc.org. And, we are using WikiTree (example of Samuel/Abel) with the goal of getting the first five generations documented. Some of these links may be stale (will be checking). 

02/01/2013 -- Update rootsweb link to Larson tree. 

04/16/2012 -- Changed link, Samuel. When these databases get updated, pointers change. So, we really need to have a query-based approach. In the meantime, go to 'Index' and enter the name. In this case, it was "Gardner, Thomas" which then brings up the right person. The graph is via Pedigree. 

08/29/2011 -- A little more about Miriam.

03/17/2011 -- Another descendants list (Langsdorf, et al) for Sarah.

01/09/2011 -- We'll have posts related to the madness of 1692.

12/20/2010 -- For Ruth, daughter of George, see post on the Hathorne connection.

12/16/2010 -- A descendants chart for Miriam: Susan

11/28/2010 -- The pedigree for Thomas Gardner (Salem) at the Boyce site changed. So, the link has been removed. Since databases at rootsweb are updated regularly, pages can change. Hence, the procedure might be to do an image capture of the tree, or a portion, with a link to the current tree. That, folks, is one maintenance item that will be required for web-based approaches. This is a type of degradation. Another item removed today was a pointer that was to a local file rather than to a web-based file.

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

10/31/2010 -- About cousin calculations.

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.

10/29/2010 -- Another thing to look at will be the famous cousin game as it seems to be ubiquitously present; that is, it is found seemingly everywhere that there is a genealogical site. We have already started a list of Thomas' descendants which can be extended as we learn more. Cousins can be extracted from that list. As well, interplays between all of the families brings in another set. So far, I've identified relationships in the tree with 27 of the Presidents of the USA. Then, the list of luminaries is large, many in the arts and sciences. Of course, attainment in some religious sense is represented, too. Then, we have that for which Salem is famous.

Needless to say, and given that Thomas was in Salem early, we'll need to look at the mania of 1692 which, by the way, is apropos to the topic of two generations. We've already shown that [Nathaniel, offspring of] John Hathorne (the main judge) was a descendant of Thomas. And, many of Thomas' descendants have a number of those involved in the Salem area troubles as grands (parents, aunts, and uncles) in their tree.

Modified: 10/25/2020

Descendants of Thomas

 Descendants of:

Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah (Gardner) Balch,
Samuel, **, Miriam (Gardner) Hill, Seeth (Gardner) Grafton 
** Joseph (had no descendants)

We just did the descendants of the first daughter, Sarah. Like with Sarah, we are taking these from the list built on Wikipedia almost a decade ago. On reviewing the Sarah list, we had a chance to re-check some of the relationships. We will do a post for all of those on the list. Plus, we can start to add more as part of the effort to document the first few generations.

For these lists, we will be adding more names. Chronological order:

• Ebenezer Gardner (c. 1740s) – American Revolutionary patriot (Col. Benjamin Foster's Regiment), builder of the Gardner House, Machias, Maine. Ebenezer is also a descendant of Samuel, forebear of Dr. Frank. 
• Charles Jackson Paine (c. 1830s) – Union General, American Civil War.
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr (c. 1840s) – American Jurist (with his father, members of the Dudley-Winthrop family).
• Nathaniel Bowditch (c. 1770s) – autodidactic mathematician
• Nathaniel Ha(w)thorne (c. 1800s) – American author, descendant of John Hathorne. Nathaniel is also a descendant of George through daughter Ruth who married John Hathorne. 
• Charles Sanders Peirce (c. 1830s) – philosopher and mathematician. CSP is also a descendant of Thomas' and  Margaret's daughter, Seeth. We have mentioned CSP and his father in several posts. 

C.S.Peirce

As we modify the page on Wikipedia to bring it up to date and within standards, we will move the descendants list to another site (our server). Too, we will use WikiTree and Family Search to check the pedigrees. At some point, we will institute our own verification scheme based upon our experiences with several members of the Heritage Society Community plus D.A.R.

Remarks: Modified: 12/13/2020

10/24/2020 -- Added list of children. 

12/13/2020 -- Early look at Thomas. 

Richard Gardner

We have a page for some of the children and will have one per. Why? There is open research being done, and post are a good way to collect material and comments.

There was an earlier one in which Richard and John featured. That dealt with Nantucket issues. Some of Richard's descendants were mentioned, such as Folger (coffee company) and Macy (store with the red star). we got to looking at Richard while tracking down the ancestry of the namesake of Fort Worth, TX: William Jenkins Worth who was a pre-Civil-War officer in the U.S. Army. One of his forebears married a descendant of Richard; however, she had died, and a new wife was involved. Those close-calls are interesting.

As we were collecting Thomas descendants (Wikipedia page), Richard's (WikiTree) descendant line was touched upon more often than it was for others. For instance, look at the category of "Academic/science/arts" for an example of this.

Richard named one of his daughters Miriam. He had a sister, Miriam (Gardner) Hill, so we just added some information about the niece.

One open issue is where was Richard born? It might have been England, however some claim that he was born here, in New England. This is an example, like that of Margaret Fryer, of work to be done by the family rather than from researchers looking at the wider scope. There are more which we will itemize.

Children (according to the NEHGS and the Great Migration Project - as represented by WikiTree): Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah, Samuel, Joseph, Miriam, Seeth.

List of descendants of Richard. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/13/2020 

11/27/2019 -- The kids (each will have link): Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah, Samuel, Joseph, Miriam, Seeth.

12/13/2020 -- Added link to a list of descendants of Richard. 

Descendants of Samuel

 Descendants of:

Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah (Gardner) Balch,
Samuel, **, Miriam (Gardner) Hill, Seeth (Gardner) Grafton 
** Joseph (had no descendants)

Note: Earlier, we had a list that included a British family in the descendants of Samuel. Now, that turned out to not be easily determined, so we do not have them on the list. However, I have heard from many British families and need to do a post on them. That is, these are Thomas and Margaret descendants who have an ancestor born here who went back.

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This series will go through all of the children and identify some descendants. The list originally was on Wikipedia's page about Thomas Gardner (Planter). We'll put a header into each so that these can be linked, easily.

For these lists, we will be adding more names. Chronological order:

• Jonathan Gardner (c. 1690s) – his Great Pastures became Salem Woods
• Jonathan Gardner (c. 1720s) – Commander of a privateer, French-Indian War, Commander of Minutemen, American Revolution — Described by William Bentley thusly: A most useful Citizen, of amiable temper, inflexible integrity, and a sober friend to all useful, social & religious institutions.
• Ebenezer Gardner (c. 1730s) -- was in Nova Scotia and forced south to Maine in the Revolution. 
• Samuel Knapp Gardner (c. 1780s) – Mariner, captured in War of 1812, held in Dartmoor (HM Prison). His 3rd great-grandfather, Edward Woodman, was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts.
• Thomas Needham Gardner (c. 1800s) -- 1st great-uncle of Dr. Frank. 
• William Crowninshield Endicott (c. 1820s) – Secretary of War in the Administration of President Grover Cleveland
• Richard Crowninshield Derby (c. 1830s) - Died at Battle of Antietam, 17 Sep 1862, he is the great-grandson of Elizabeth and Jonathan 
• Elliott P. Joslin (c. 1860s) – founder of Joslin Diabetes Center
• Alfred Winslow Jones (c. 1900s) – created first hedge fund
• Alfred L Gardner (c. 1900) - Smithsonian Institution, Emeritus curator (USGS). See also, "More than STEM, we need MSET+" post. 

Descendant of George and Samuel

WikiTree profile for Samuel: Gardner-614. 

Earlier look at Samuel. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/21/2024

10/09/2020 -- Add links and image. 

10/15/2020 -- Added link to WikiTree. Removed Chamberlain until proven. Added in Richard Crowninshield Derby. 

10/16/2020 -- Note the relationship of Richard Crowninshield Derby with Jonathan and Elizabeth (Gardner) Gardner. He a descendant of George and Samuel.

10/21/2020 -- Added link to post on descendants of Seeth. 

10/24/2020 -- Add list of children. 

10/27/2020 -- Add AL Gardner to list.

11/03/2020 -- Add Thomas Needham Gardner. 

12/13/2020 -- Added link to earlier look at Samuel (and John Curwen). 

02/27/2022 -- Added Ebenezer Gardner of Maine. 

12/21/2024 -- Added comment to Alfred L. Gardner, regarding significance of the LSU event.