Govenor Thomas Gardner 1591-1674 Governor of Cape Ann Colony 1623 Deputy 1637, Daggett & Skiffe & Butler History of Martha's Vineyard Vol.3 Thomas Gardner and John Tilley were the chief rulers of the Cape Ann Colony during the time which preceded the appointment of Roger Conant as Governor. Source: Thomas Gardner Planter and Some of His Descendants, compiled and arranged by Frank A Gardner, MD, 1731, Essex Institute, Salem, Mass Thomas Gardner married twice. We know this from the fact that in his will he mentions his wife as the mother-widow of his sons. The Margaret Gardner, who united with the first Church in 1639, is supposed to have been his wife. Various writers, including Rev. Joseph B. It, have stated that her maiden name was Fryer (or Frier), but the writer has thus far failed to find the authority for this statement. Rev. Charles Henry Pope, in his "Pioneers of Massachusetts" suggests that the Margaret who united with the Salem Church in 1639, may have been the wife of Edmund Gardner of Ipswich. While Edmund's wife may have been named Margaret, it seems improbable that she was the one above mentioned as uniting with the Salem church, for the following reasons: Edmund is mentioned in the Ipswich Town Records as early as 1635, and very frequently thereafter. The Ipswich church was organized in 1634 and the wife of a man so prominent in local affairs would, in all probability, have united with the "home church." His second wife was Damaris Shattuck, a widow, who was admitted to the church in Salem in 1641. She had several children by her first husband, one of whom, Sarah, married Richard Gardner son of Thomas. She, like most of her Shattuck relations, evidently favored the Friends, as she was called into court many times for being "present at a Quaker meeting," and for absence from her own church. In the 9th Mo. 1667, and the 4th Mo. In the year following, "Old Mrs. Gardner was fined 5 shillings for absence from public worship. She had no children by Thomas Gardner. The date of her death is given in the Salem Town Records, as 28, 9, 1674. Thomas Gardner died the 29th 10th Mo. 1674, and was buried in the Gardiner burying ground, a hillock described as lot III. The following extract from a deposition made by William Trask in 1677 is of interest in, this connection : "I never heard that Old Mr. Gardiner did hinder any from burring there dead there butt said att severall funeralls to friends & neighbours doe not burrey your dead by fuch a young tree for I doe defire to be burried there my felfe & accordingly to my knowledge he was buried there himselfe." Thus ended his long and useful life. The writer feels that no eulogy can add to the glory of one who throughout his lifetime was so greatly honored by his fellow pioneers, and filled acceptably so many positions of trust and responsibility. Those were trying times, and Thomas Gardner well earned the high place which he has always held among the Old Planters. Source: "Early Settlers of Nantucket , Their Associates and Descendants", compiled by Lydia S Hinchman, Pub., Ferris & Leach, 1901 WILLIAM C. FOLGER, in his notes on the Gardner family, makes the following entry: " Farmer, in his Register, says, 'Thomas Gardner came from Scotland;' a Nantucket tradition says he came from Sherborne, in the northern part of the County of Dorset, and that the former name of Nantucket (Sherburne) was given through the influence of his family. There is no question of the fact that they exercised considerable influence over the affairs of the town." There are few natives of Nantucket who do not claim descent from Thomas Gardner. From New England History and Genealogical Register, vol. xxv., pp. 48, 49, we learn that "Thomas Gardiner, the first of the Salem stock, came over in 1624 from Dorsetshire, England, near which the name had flourished for more than three centuries, and settled under the auspices of the Dorchester Company and Rev. John White, with thirteen others at Gloucester, Cape Ann, upon the grant of Lord Sheffield to Robert Cushman and Edward Winslow, made in January of that year. Thomas Gardner, the common ancestor of the Salem-Nantucket Gardners, was born about 1592. He sailed from Weymouth and received an appointment from the Dorchester Company. He came to America in 1624 From Dorchester, England, landing at Stage Point in what is now Gloucester Harbor. Initially settling at Gloucester on Cape Ann, he was an overseer of a plantation. In 1626, the Dorchester Company moved from Cape Ann to the mouth of the Naumkeag River (Salem?). The Massachusetts Bay Colony admitted him as a freeman March 17, 1637. He died in Salem on Oct. 29, 1674. He was a prosperous merchant, a member of the General Court in 1637 an a holder of many town offices. he married twice, first to Margaret, the mother of all his children, and second to a Mrs. Damaris Shattuck. His son married a Shattuck likely the daughter of this woman. His name is listed in the register of the Society of colonial Wars, Connecticut Register. ("Thomas Gardner and Some of his Descendants" by Frank A. Gordon, MD., 1907: Ancestral Records and Portraits, Colonial Dames of America, Chapter 1, page 71). According to "Passengers and Ships", a Thomas Gardner sailed on the Zouch Phenix with his wife (name not given in 1624. Also sailing on that ship were George Gardner (his son?), Richard Gardner, and Joseph Gardner.