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^ooli£i bp SlIiEiUiam Eoot ^lism. 
 
 QUAINT NANTUCKET. Crown 8vo, 
 
 gilt top, $1.50. 
 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S 
 
 BAY. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, gilt top. 
 
 $1.50. 
 THE OLD COLONY TOWN AND 
 
 OTHER SKETCHES. Crown 8vo, 
 
 gilt top, 51-25. 
 SIDE GLIMPSES FROM THE COLO- 
 NIAL MEETING-HOUSE. Crown 
 
 Svo, gilt top, S1.50. 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 
 Boston and New York. 
 
Quaint Nantucket 
 
 by 
 William Root Bliss 
 
 Author of " Colonial Times 
 on Buzzard's Bay " 
 
 Boston and New York oSi)^! fV 
 
 Houghton, Mifflin and Company ^ 
 (^l)e mxtmt J^re??, Camtribne 
 1896 
 

 Copyright, 1896, 
 Bv WILLIAM ROOT BLISS. 
 
 Al/ rights reserved. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S. A. 
 Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. 
 
TO 
 
 GERTRUDE MOORE RICHARDS 
 
This book relates to that quaint Natitticket 
 which existed for two hundred years before the 
 island was discovered by "the sitmmer boarder^ 
 The materials from which it has been written 
 comprise the original town and court records, 
 various letters, account books, sea-Journals, and 
 other private manuscripts, including the record 
 books of the Quaker Society of Nantucket. None 
 of these valuable materials have been used here- 
 tofore for such a purpose. 
 
 For assistance in procuring them, I am indebted 
 to Mr. Henry B. Worth and to Captain Thomas 
 R. Rodman, of New Bedford; to many friends 
 in Na7itucket, and especially to Miss Helen Bar- 
 nard Winslozv Worth, whose kind services have 
 beett invaluable. 
 
 Not often docs the world hear from Nantucket 
 — except, during summer months, while steam- 
 boats from, the mainland are carrying pleasure- 
 seekers to the island, and bringing them away. 
 Its history stopped nearly half a century ago; 
 
 when 
 
zvhen prosperity had departed, and new men and 
 new manners began to take the places of the old. 
 It is to preserve its former life from oblivion that 
 I have written the book. 
 
 W. R. B. 
 
 Greystoftes, Short Hills, 
 
 Essex County, A'ew Jersey. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Beginning of all Things . . . . i 
 The Triumph of John Gardner ... 30 
 
 The Nantucket Indian 54 
 
 The Dominion of the Quakers ... 73 
 The Missionary from Boston . . . .111 
 Sea-Journals and Sea-Rovers . . . 129 
 
 The Town's Doings 176 
 
 Odds and Ends of Nantucket Life . . 192 
 Nantucket's School of Philosophers . . 205 
 
Quaint Nantucket 
 
 I 
 
 The Beginning of All Things 
 
 There is a tradition that, near the end 
 of the year 1659, an open boat, containing 
 two men, a woman, and six children, sailed 
 away from the little village of Salisbury, on 
 Merrimac River, bound to an island in 
 the Atlantic Ocean, of which the voyagers 
 knew nothing except that it was inhabited 
 by Indians and their innumerable dogs. It 
 was a circuitous voyage of nearly two hun- 
 dred miles. The boat encountered tem- 
 pestuous weather ; and the woman, alarmed 
 for the safety of herself and children, be- 
 sought her husband, who was master of the 
 voyage, to turn about and go back to their 
 home. Like the usual hero of a tradition, 
 he spurned a woman's prayers, and contin- 
 ued to drive the boat over a rugged sea until 
 
 it 
 
2 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 it reached a little harbor on the western 
 shore of Nantucket. Yet this master, 
 Thomas Macy by name, was not a seaman, 
 but a weaver by trade, and his mate in 
 navigating the boat was a yeoman. 
 
 If the tradition is to be believed, these 
 rustic mariners made themselves exiles 
 from home, to be outcasts upon an island 
 which was thirty miles distant from the 
 mainland ; where none of the comforts of 
 life existed, where wintry gales blew with 
 a roar like the roar of iron-mills, and sea- 
 fowl sometimes perished in a struggle for 
 life. 
 
 Midsummer — July i6, 1661 — is the 
 earliest authentic date of the settlement 
 of Englishmen on Nantucket. Then they 
 were drawing lots for their homesteads. 
 They had come from the frontier of the 
 Massachusetts colony, where wolves, bears, 
 and a stony soil made a farming life un- 
 profitable. They looked upon their island 
 estate as a vast farm securely fenced from 
 wild beasts by the ocean. Its forests of 
 oak, walnut, beech, pine, and cedar trees 
 were ready to give timber for their houses ; 
 
 its 
 
THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 3 
 
 its creeks and marsh-lands were growing 
 thatch for their roofs. There were springs 
 of sweet water, whose overflows were gath- 
 ered in many ponds ; turf-covered downs 
 blooming with heather; and a rich soil, 
 scantily cultivated by Indians, who still 
 possessed more than half of the island, and 
 were squatting on that part of it which the 
 Englishmen had bought. 
 
 The first need of the colonists was an in- 
 terpreter, through whom they might speak 
 with their Indian neighbors. So they sent 
 to the island of Martha's Vineyard, and 
 offered to give a half of one share of their 
 estate to Peter Foulger, if he would come 
 over to Nantucket and live with them. 
 Peter was an Englishman, a teacher to the 
 Indians of the Vineyard, and he knew how 
 to measure and survey lands. He accepted 
 the compensation, and moved to Nan- 
 tucket. By him the colonists published 
 a proclamation in the Indian tongue that 
 "Whatsoever Indians do stay on ye land 
 after ye 14 day of October 1662 shall pay 
 to ye English five shillings per weeke, at 
 the end of every weeke." 
 
 Then 
 
4 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 Then four men of the company went 
 abroad " to vew the land for laying out 
 cornfields ; " and after corn had been 
 planted, with an alewife in each hill, it was 
 found necessary for the interpreter to pro- 
 claim that " All Indians are to kill all their 
 dogs, and if any dogs be found alive after 
 ten days the owner shall pay to the English 
 two shillings for every one." The Indians 
 listened and stroked their dogs ; but time 
 went on and the dogs were still alive, paw- 
 ing up the tender crops. Then it was or- 
 dered that a tax of " fourty shillings shall 
 be pay'd to ye Constable by the one and 
 twenty proprietors within a weeke " for the 
 hire of men to kill the Indian dogs. 
 
 Lot-layers laid out the land, and Peter 
 Foulger surveyed it. A favorite section 
 was that part of the purchase which is 
 described in the records as " the old fields 
 that were bouo^ht of the Indians on Nana- 
 humake Neck." This was a picturesque 
 peninsula in the western part of the island, 
 surrounded on three sides by a lake, whose 
 waters were separated from the south sea 
 by a narrow beach, alternately opened and 
 
 closed 
 
THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 5 
 
 closed by the stupendous waves that broke 
 upon it. The neck contained fresh mead- 
 ows, through which a brook was running ; 
 patches of white-oak trees ; and a great 
 swamp skirted by cranberry vines. One 
 and twenty lots were laid out in this attrac- 
 tive region ; and an order was made that 
 " no English man shall give liberty to any 
 Indian to dwell on Nanahumake or to 
 plant Indian corne there," and no person 
 " shall fall any timber within its consider- 
 able woodland." 
 
 Thomas Macy was engaged " to supply 
 the yland in the trade of weaveing," for 
 which he was given a half of one share 
 in the estate. Afterwards the proprietors 
 gave a like interest to William Worth, to 
 Joseph Coleman, and to Richard Gardner, 
 on condition that they serve the colony as 
 seamen ; to Eleazer Foulger, son of Peter, 
 on condition that he " supply ye occasion 
 of ye yland in ye trade of a Smith ; " to 
 Nathaniel Holland, on condition that he 
 " employ himself as a taylor for ye benefit 
 of ye inhabitants ; " to Joseph Gardner, on 
 condition that he supply their wants " as a 
 
 Shoemaker ; " 
 
6 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 Shoomaker;" to John Savidge, on condi- 
 tion that " he stay and follow his trade as 
 a Cooper." 
 
 The proprietors had now so much busi- 
 ness to be recorded, concerning lands and 
 legislation, that they agreed to pay to their 
 " dark for his wages Twenty Shillings per 
 annum," with two years' back pay. Al- 
 though they possessed no incorporated 
 authority, they were already a town, whose 
 right to make laws for governing all the 
 inhabitants of the island rested on the fact 
 that a majority of the townsmen were own- 
 ers of the soil. No inhabitants except land- 
 owners were allowed to vote in the town 
 meetings. They elected a constable, and 
 they set up a police court; they issued 
 licenses " to trade on the yland," and they 
 prohibited unlicensed traders from land- 
 ing. They appointed " Surveighers of the 
 fences." They chose inspectors of high- 
 ways, and gave to them power to call out 
 the inhabitants to construct roads " as they 
 se occasion," and "to fine any man not 
 appearing on the day they appoint two 
 shillings and six pence." At Wescoe, 
 
 " under 
 
THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 7 
 
 " under ye high Clift at ye mouth of ye 
 Harbour," they built a tide-mill for grind- 
 ing " the townes corne." Peter Foulger 
 was the miller, and his multure was to be 
 " two quarts for every bushel he grindeth." 
 Near the mill was a landing place at which 
 vessels were moored, as I know from an 
 item in the records of the island court, 
 which says that, an Indian "being com- 
 playned of for stealling toe tarkees " (two 
 turkeys), " he owened he sold them on bord 
 a vessell at Wescoe." 
 
 In June, 1665, a description was written, 
 in a book, of the earmarks registered by 
 forty-eight owners of herds and flocks then 
 pasturing on the commons. It may be 
 supposed that these herdsmen and their 
 families constituted the English popula- 
 tion of Nantucket at that time. In the 
 same year, "a publike meeting of the 
 towne " was convened to receive the sa- 
 chem " Attapehat with all the Tomoko- 
 noth Indians," who then acknowledged 
 "ye English government of Nantucket," 
 and did " owne them selves subjects to 
 King Charles the Second." This cere- 
 mony 
 
8 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 mony was done in presence of the famous 
 sachem of Mount Hope, who was known 
 to the Enghsh as King Phihp. 
 
 As the farmers continued to be troubled 
 by an increase of the dog population, the 
 town ordered, in February, 1667, that 
 " Every Indian shall kill his dogs before 
 the loth of March," or pay ten shillings 
 for each dog found alive after that day. 
 To insure the death of the dogs, two Eng- 
 lishmen and two Indians were appointed 
 to collect and divide between themselves 
 the fines. Then the wanton destruction of 
 trees by Englishmen and Indians became, 
 and was for years, a subject of legislation 
 by the town. It was forbidden " to fall any 
 more timber for rails and posts ; " and no 
 " timber for building bowses at any time of 
 ye yeare " was allowed to be felled, " except 
 it be in May and the two first weekes 
 in June." When the English came, the 
 peninsula of Coatue, which is on the north 
 side of the island, was densely covered with 
 pines and cedars ; and there Indians gath- 
 ered firewood, claiming it by rights derived 
 from their sachems. As the trees were a 
 
 shelter 
 
THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS g 
 
 shelter to English sheep when northeast 
 storms descended upon the island, a town 
 meeting declared the " neasesitie of pre- 
 serving ye Seaders & pines & other groaths 
 that are there, for ye Sucker of their Sheep 
 in hard seasons; " and at last an order was 
 issued " to stop ye Cutting of any more 
 Wood of any sort off from Coatue." 
 
 The commons were stinted, lest, by con- 
 tinual grazing, the grass be destroyed. 
 Men were sent out to enforce the stint; 
 and when they found Thomas Tray's 
 horses grazing " contrary to ye towne 
 order," Thomas Tray was fined thirty shil- 
 lings, which amount was cut down, at his 
 earnest request, to fifteen shillings, "on 
 condition that he pay'd readily." As he 
 paid neither readily nor in any other 
 way, one of his mares was taken for the 
 fine. 
 
 Horses and goats were increasing so 
 rapidly, and consuming the limited pas- 
 turage of the island, that a town meeting 
 in the year 1669 said: "Horses are like 
 to be the ruine of our neat cattel & the 
 multitude of goats is very hurtful." It 
 
 was 
 
lo QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 was agreed that something must be done 
 " about cleering the yland " of these ani- 
 mals, and an order was issued, which the 
 people said " shall stand unalterable," " that 
 all horses shall be taken off the yland or 
 be destroyed before the last of November 
 next, except one to every horse keepe ; " 
 and " that two yeeres time shall be allowed 
 to men to abate their goats." 
 
 There was a bargain made " to set up a 
 pound fouer rod square," and the record 
 of the bargain says : " Stephen Coffin is 
 to keep the pound when once there is a 
 lock to it and he is to have two pence a 
 time for turning the key for any cattel that 
 come." Payments for making the pound 
 were to be " in corne butter or cheese after 
 the next harvest." The " general prises " 
 of Indian corn were fixed ; and, to prevent 
 a competition between sellers, a large fine 
 was decreed as the penalty for selling at 
 other prices, " except for money or cotton 
 wool." Wreck commissioners were ap- 
 pointed, and Indians were notified " to 
 bring intelligence about all wracke goods 
 found on the shore on any part of the 
 
 yland ; " 
 
THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS ii 
 
 yland ; " such goods, if not perishable, to 
 be kept " a yeere and a day before they are 
 disposed of." Then a reward of thirty 
 shillings was offered to " whosoever shall 
 kill the wild dog within a weeke." It was 
 described as a white dog, a ghost-like wan- 
 derer, mentioned in the records as " haveing 
 bin scene several yeere about the towne ; " 
 whose mysterious existence was talked of 
 in town meeting, where it was condemned 
 as guilty of destroying many sheep. 
 
 In the year 1668, the English made "a 
 bargaine with ye Indians concerning all 
 whales" that shall drift to the shores of 
 the island. Subsequently the shores were 
 divided into sections, over which sachems 
 were appointed to oversee the cutting up 
 of stranded whales and to divide the shares. 
 This business produced quarrels between 
 the claimants of a whale, and appeals were 
 made to the island court ; as when " the 
 Court do order that the Rack or drift 
 Whale in the bounds of the bech upon 
 the playnes shall be divided into eight 
 shares," and that " No Rack Whale that 
 com ashore in any sachims bounds shall 
 
 be 
 
12 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 be cut up until all the masters of the 
 shares that belong to that Whale do com 
 together." Sometimes the court went into 
 particulars, as when it ordered " that Wa- 
 shaman is to have the head of the drift 
 Whale for his share and Desper is to have 
 halfe along with him." A jury of six men 
 tried a complaint of the Indian " Massaquat 
 against Eleaser Foulger for stealing his 
 Whale ; " the defendant confessed that he 
 " did dispose of the Whale in controversie," 
 and the court adjudged him " to pay for 
 the Whale the summe of four pounds in 
 goods at the usual price of trading." 
 
 The island of Nantucket was within the 
 limits of the province of New York, which, 
 as New Netherlands, had been taken by 
 the English from the Dutch in the year 
 1664. Six years later the English governor 
 summoned the inhabitants of the island to 
 appear before him and show the papers by 
 which they claimed possession of it. 
 
 The story of their claims begins in the 
 year 1635, when the Earl of Stirling, sec- 
 retary of the Kingdom of Scotland, became 
 owner of all the islands adjacent to the 
 
 coast 
 
THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 13 
 
 coast of New England. The Earl ap- 
 pointed James Forrett to be his agent for 
 selling and settling the islands between 
 Cape Cod and Hudson River. Forrett 
 came over the sea, and in the year 1641, 
 for the sum of £^0, sold conditionally the 
 island of Nantucket to Thomas Mayhew, of 
 Watertown, in the Massachusetts colony, 
 and to his son Thomas, who was a preacher 
 to Indians on the island of Martha's Vine- 
 yard. Before the sale had been completed 
 Forrett was called suddenly to England, 
 and Andries Forrester came over the sea 
 as the agent of the Earl of Stirling. He 
 made promises of a settlement of the title 
 to the Mayhews, but on a visit to New 
 Netherlands he was arrested by the Dutch 
 and sent as a prisoner to Holland, whence 
 he never returned. The Earl of Stirling 
 died; and, in the year 1663, James the 
 Duke of York bought of the succeeding 
 Earl of Stirling his American estate, which 
 included the island of Nantucket. In the 
 mean time, that is in the year 1659, — the 
 date named in the tradition, — Thomas 
 Mayhew (his son being dead) effected a 
 
 sale 
 
14 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 sale of nine tenths of his interest to nine 
 Englishmen of the Massachusetts colony, 
 reserving one tenth to himself. Each of 
 these partners in the property admitted 
 another to an equal share of it; and in 
 March, 1660, they made a first purchase of 
 land from the Indians of Nantucket. 
 
 The summons of Governor Lovelace of 
 New York was not expected by the Eng- 
 lishmen, who for eight or nine years had 
 held a quiet possession of the island, and 
 had ruled it as an independent state. They 
 were men of strong minds, accustomed to 
 deal with the realities of life, and their vo- 
 luminous writings show that they were men 
 of as fair an education as was to be found 
 at that time in any English community. 
 Prominent among them was Tristram Cof- 
 fin, a Devonshire man, who came to Amer- 
 ica in the year 1642, who had been an inn- 
 keeper and a political officer at Salisbury, in 
 the Massachusetts colony, whence he mi- 
 grated with his family to Nantucket. He 
 was now sixty years old ; a man of positive 
 opinions, and of an experience which fitted 
 him to take a lead in public affairs. The 
 
 numerous 
 
THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS 15 
 
 numerous members of his family chose 
 " our father Tristram " to answer for them, 
 to the governor, while other freeholders 
 chose Thomas Macy, and asked " Mr. Cof- 
 fin to help him." Then a tax was levied 
 on all to pay " the charge of the voyage to 
 New York." 
 
 These men were summoned to submit 
 their claims to the governor within four 
 months from May, 1670. But they re- 
 quired a long time for preparation, and 
 they did not reach New York until June, 
 1 67 1. Governor Lovelace confirmed them 
 and their associates in possession of " the 
 Island called Nantuckett, that is to say so 
 much thereof as hath by them made pur- 
 chase of," and he approved their plan for 
 establishing a regular form of government. 
 This act constituted the first charter of 
 Nantucket, which is to have a chief mag- 
 istrate, who is to be annually selected by 
 the governor of the Province from two 
 nominations made by the islanders. They 
 are to elect annually two assistant magis- 
 trates and all their inferior officers. They 
 are to join with the people of Martha's 
 
 Vineyard 
 
1 6 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 Vineyard island in keeping a General 
 Court, to consist of the chief magistrate of 
 each island and four assistants. The Gen- 
 eral Court is to make all " peculiar lawes " 
 that may be needed, not repugnant to the 
 laws of England, and subject to the gov- 
 ernor's approval. There are to be " private 
 courts," consisting of the chief magistrate 
 of Nantucket and two assistants, to deter- 
 mine cases of small value ; while cases of 
 a value from five to fifty pounds are to be 
 determined by the General Court, and cases 
 exceeding that value are to be sent to the 
 assizes at New York. The private courts 
 are to inflict punishments " soe farre as 
 Whipping Stocks and Pilloring or other 
 Public Shame," but great criminals are 
 to be sent to New York for trial ; and the 
 Indians of the island are to be governed 
 according " to the best discretions " of the 
 English, " soe farre as Life is not con- 
 cerned." 
 
 When Tristram Coffin and Thomas 
 Macy left the governor to return to Nan- 
 tucket, they carried his " Orders and In- 
 structions for the well governing of the 
 
 Place." 
 
THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 17 
 
 Place." They also carried the commis- 
 sion of " Tristram Coffin to be the Chiefe 
 Magistrate of ye Island until ye 13th Day 
 of October which shall be in yeare of our 
 Lord 1672 when a new Magistrate is to 
 enter into the Employment." As Thomas 
 Macy had received neither honor nor profit 
 from the expedition, the town voted, four 
 months after his return, " that Tho Macy 
 shall have for his time to New Yorke five 
 pounds." 
 
 Selectmen were now chosen for the first 
 time ; their names, as written in the book, 
 were " M"" Edward Starbuck John Swayne 
 M"" John Gardner M"" Coffin and William 
 Worth." Their authority was defined in 
 these words : " And the major part of those 
 Select Men shal act in al things that ar 
 Committed to them in writing by the Towne 
 from year to year." They were directed 
 to give first attention to agricultural affairs, 
 especially, " concerning bearding of Cattel 
 & horses also to Judg of fences and the 
 Stray of Cattel & horses that m.ay be among 
 the Indians." They were authorized " to 
 make Rates for the Towne ; " to pay the 
 
 constable 
 
1 8 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 constable " for his time " in warning town 
 meetings, but with the understanding that 
 he is to " serve frely in any busenes that 
 concernes the King." The selectmen were 
 directed to contract with William Bunker 
 " to build a corne mill." He is " to git her 
 going" by the first day of May, 1673, and 
 is to be paid " fourty pounds in grayn 
 one third in wheat one third in barley & 
 one third in Indian Corne." Edward Star- 
 buck, John Swayne, Nathaniel Starbuck, 
 and William Worth are to " make a pair of 
 milstones & bring them to ye mill & when 
 they have finisht them they are to bring 
 into ye towne a true accompt ; " for their 
 labor they are to be paid " two shillings & 
 six pence a day in corne at harvest." Elea- 
 zer Foulger, the blacksmith, is to be paid 
 " for making of the tooles " for cutting the 
 millstones. All these details were written 
 in the town book with a particularity show- 
 ing their great importance to the islanders. 
 The farmers were then required to " sow 
 two bushels of hay seed upon every halfe 
 an Aker by the end of March," or to pay 
 a penalty of five shillings each. A public 
 
 harrow 
 
THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 19 
 
 harrow was bought, " and M"" Coffin and 
 M' Macy," so the record says, " is to see 
 that every man do sow his seed ; " and all 
 goats are to be killed by the end of Decem- 
 ber, or transported so " that no more goats 
 may be kept on the Island from hence- 
 forth." Peace and contentment reigned 
 when the new administration began its life ; 
 but evil days were close at hand. 
 
 In addition to the tradesmen and sea- 
 men, already mentioned, to whom an inter- 
 est in the island estate had been given for 
 their services, the proprietors gave to John 
 Gardner, a mariner of Salem, a half of a 
 share on condition that he come to Nan- 
 tucket " to inhabit and to sett up the trade 
 of ffishing with a sufficient vessel fitt for 
 the taking of Codd ffish." 
 
 At the time of his coming to the island 
 he was considered to be a man of impor- 
 tance ; for the town granted to him " lib- 
 erty to set a house upon the hy way at 
 Wescoe going down to the landing place," 
 and the highway was made " so much the 
 broader " for his convenience. The town 
 also gave to him " twenty acres of upland 
 
20 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 joining to his houselot towards the Cliff 
 behind his house." 
 
 The admission of these half-share men 
 as partners in the estate caused disorders 
 which, in the course of time, divided the 
 community in two opposing factions. One, 
 under the lead of Tristram Coffin, repre- 
 sented a continuance of all things as they 
 were at the beginning. The other, under 
 the lead of John Gardner, represented 
 equal rights for all the English inhabitants 
 of Nantucket. Their quarrels enlisted the 
 entire population of the island, and con- 
 tinued with varying severity for many 
 years, as this narrative will show. 
 
 The quit -rent of Nantucket, payable 
 yearly to the governor at New York, was 
 eight barrels of codfish. There were two 
 quit -rents due, and in the year 1672 "the 
 towne did chuse M' Richard Gardner to 
 Carrey the fish to New Yorke and to act as 
 Agent in such busines as shal be exprest 
 in the Selectmens order." One item of 
 this business was to present " to the Gov- 
 ernour of New Yorke M"' Edward Starbuck 
 and M"^ Richard Gardner ther names that 
 
 he 
 
THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS 21 
 
 he may Apoynt one of them for Chiefe 
 Magestrat for the year Insuing," in suc- 
 cession to Tristram Cofifin. 
 
 They were a slow-moving people, with a 
 habit of "waiting for the tide." Richard 
 Gardner waited, and did not depart for 
 New York until March, 1673. He de- 
 livered to Governor Lovelace the quit-rent 
 of codfish ; and, having finished the other 
 business for which he came, he set sail for 
 Nantucket. There were no buoys nor 
 lights to guide a navigator through the 
 intricate channels leading from Fort James 
 into Long Island Sound ; and I may im- 
 agine that his sloop was carried by a cur- 
 rent upon the shoals of Corlear's Hook ; 
 that he threw out an anchor and warped 
 her off; that a flood tide in Hell Gate 
 compelled him to put back and anchor 
 near Barrent's Island ; that next day a 
 northwester carried him safely through 
 the Gate, but, meeting an east wind at the 
 White Stone, he anchored and sent his 
 boat ashore for water. The third morning, 
 on a fresh westerly wind, with his topsail 
 lowered and a reef in his mainsail, he re- 
 sumed 
 
22 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 sumed the voyage, and late in the after- 
 noon he was off New Haven. During 
 the night he found Falkner's Island close 
 aboard, and he tacked ship just in time to 
 escape the rocks. The next day he passed 
 through Plumb Gatte with a spanking 
 breeze, and, running south of Noman's 
 Land, he made Nantucket before sundown. 
 He brought home several important 
 papers from the governor. One was his 
 own commission as chief magistrate of 
 Nantucket; one was the commission of 
 John Gardner as captain of the military 
 company ; another was " Additional Direc- 
 tions for the Government of the Island," 
 which declared that all the " Ancient and 
 Obsolete Deeds grants or conveyances of 
 Lands on the Island shall be esteemed 
 of no Force or Validity, but every ones 
 Clayme shall bear Date from the first 
 Divulging of the Patent by Authority of 
 his Royall Highnesse." He also brought 
 a license issued to Captain John Gardner 
 and himself " to buy some Land by the 
 Sea Side or else where of the Indyan 
 Natives." He brought three constable 
 
 staffs, 
 
THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS 23 
 
 staffs, having the king's arms on them ; 
 and a decree, dated April i8, 1673, that the 
 town 
 
 Shall henceforth bee called and dis- 
 tinguished in all Deeds Records and 
 Writings by the Name of the Towne 
 of Sherborne upon the Island of Nan- 
 tucket. 
 
 After Richard Gardner had moored 
 his sloop at the landing-place, and had 
 doled the news to one after another of his 
 townsmen, everybody saw that he had done 
 a large stroke of business while in New 
 York with the codfish ; but some time 
 elapsed before everybody understood how 
 great was its importance. At last some 
 of the freeholders concluded that their 
 rights had been violated by the decree 
 making invalid their deeds derived from 
 Thomas Mayhew and the Indian sachems, 
 and also by the governor's license to John 
 and Richard Gardner — new-comers — to 
 buy land from the Indians. For in the year 
 1659 the original proprietors held a meet- 
 ing at Salisbury, and made an order " that 
 no man whatsoever shall purchase any 
 
 land 
 
24 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 land of any of the Indians upon the yland 
 for his owne or other private use ; " that 
 every purchase " shall be for ye generall 
 accompt ; " and it was agreed that this 
 order shall stand inviolable, as being " ne- 
 cessary to the continuance of the well being 
 of the place." 
 
 The half-share men, being now in con- 
 trol of the government, proceeded to trans- 
 act the public business with energy. They 
 imposed a fine on " negligent parsons " 
 who are " wel and on the Hand," if they 
 come not to town meetings " within an 
 hour after the time of meeting appointed." 
 Fines were fixed for those persons who 
 " shal turbulently and disorderly behave in 
 the time of meeting after Silence being 
 called by the moderator," and it was ordered 
 that " thirteen persons being met at the 
 place appointed shall be a town meeting." 
 
 As the raising of sheep had become the 
 principal industry on the island, the new 
 government took " into serious considera- 
 tion the great benefit of keeping Sheepe 
 and the great damag that com thereto by 
 dogs destroying lambs ; " and, as attempts 
 
 to 
 
THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS 25 
 
 to destroy the dogs had been unsuccessful, 
 a law was made that '* all dogs more than 
 foure months old shall wear a sufficent 
 mussel that will keep them from biting." 
 Even in an Indian heart there was love 
 for a dog ; and this love, which had pre- 
 served the native dogs from destruction, 
 was at last recognized by the English in 
 this humane law which allowed the dogs 
 to live. 
 
 At this time England was at war with 
 Holland, and a Dutch fleet sailed into 
 New York harbor, landed eight hundred 
 armed men, captured the province, and 
 brought Nantucket under the rule of the 
 Dutch. Their loyalty to the victorious 
 flag was soon put to a test by the strand- 
 ing of a Dutch ship on the north point of 
 the island. Isaac Melyne, claiming to be 
 owner and master of the ship, and also to 
 be an Englishman, came ashore and made 
 a petition to the " Worshipfull Governour 
 & Chiefe Magestrate of this his Majesties 
 Island," saying " that upon the 30th day 
 of July 1673 the dutch fleet did arrive at 
 his majestyes port of New York and then 
 
 did 
 
26 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 did take the place and brought it under the 
 obedience of the States of Holland ; " that 
 on the first day of August he " fled with his 
 ship for New England and was pursued 
 with three pinances and armed men and 
 brought back to New York where they 
 felloniously Robbed and Ranged his ship 
 and goods." The Dutch then freighted 
 his ship to go to Holland with " 90 barrels 
 of whale oyle 83 hhds of Tobacco 473 
 peces of Logwood 1 50 cowhides ; " and 
 now, said the petitioner, " the foreseeing 
 providence of god has brought him to this 
 his majesties Island, with the loss of masts, 
 sayles, rigging, furniture, which your wor- 
 ships hereby may perceive." He offered 
 a letter from Governor Lovelace, dated in 
 the year 1669, certifying that Isaac Melyne 
 was an inhabitant and also " a free denizen " 
 of New York. 
 
 His petition was referred to the island 
 court to be held on the 20th of October, 
 1673. To this court he testified " that the 
 ship was his own proper goods and himself 
 a free dennison of his majesty the King of 
 England." His testimony was confirmed 
 
 by 
 
THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 27 
 
 by " the boson of the ship," and by his own 
 body-servant, who said that Captain Melyne 
 had been master of the ship for three years, 
 " and never out of her." He claimed judg- 
 ment against the ship because she had been 
 " taken from him by the States of Holland." 
 The case was committed to a jury of six 
 men of Nantucket, who, not forgetting that 
 they had become Dutchmen, rendered this 
 verdict : — 
 
 We doe not find he is a subject to the 
 
 King of England, and concerning the 
 
 ship we doe not find it is his. 
 
 The Dutch governor at New York, hear- 
 ing of the accident and not knowing the 
 loyal verdict of the island court, ordered an 
 armed vessel " to proceed with all speed to 
 the cape of Nantucket," and bring away the 
 stranded ship and crew. On return of this 
 vessel its captain reported that the ship 
 had been hauled off the Rip, and taken 
 to Boston by an armed brigantine sailing 
 under a commission from the King of Eng- 
 land ; and that he, in retaliation for this 
 act, had captured and brought to New York 
 four Massachusetts ketches with cargoes. 
 
 One 
 
28 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 One of these was bound to Nantucket, 
 loaded with rum, sugar, salt, and wine, be- 
 longing to James Coffin, who was on board. 
 The governor immediately confiscated the 
 vessels with their cargoes, and sent James 
 Coffin and the captured crews to New Eng- 
 land. 
 
 During the war between England and 
 Holland, the half-share men of Nantucket 
 were encouraged to claim an equality in 
 all the rights of the original proprietors. 
 When they heard " the news that Yorke 
 was taken by the Dutch," wrote Thomas 
 Mayhew, they said : " Noe Man had a 
 Right to a Foot of Land before the Date 
 of the last Charter, and they by the Book 
 endeavour to dethrone our Libertys — an- 
 nouncing my Right obtained from the 
 Earle of Stirlinge nothing, also the Indian 
 Right nothing, my quiett Occupation there 
 of 29 yeares nothing, the Grounding of 
 the ten Partners upon my first Graunt 
 nothing." 
 
 The war with Holland was ended by 
 a treaty of peace restoring New York to 
 
 England ; 
 
THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS 29 
 
 England ; and in November, 1674, Sir 
 Edmund Andros became governor of the 
 province. But the half-share men of Nan- 
 tucket remained firm in their purpose to 
 carry on the revolution. 
 
II 
 
 The Triumph of John Gardner 
 
 While yet the Dutch were in New York 
 the freeholders of Nantucket held a town 
 meeting, " and did vote to send to the Gov- 
 ernour at the next convenant season to 
 petition about what may Infringe the Lib- 
 ertyes of the Chartar." When John Gard- 
 ner was nominated and " chosen to go to 
 New Yorke " about the business, the meet- 
 ing was in an uproar. Immediately, as the 
 record says, — 
 
 M' Tristram Cofifin enters his disent 
 John Swayne enters his disent 
 Nathaniel Starbuck enters his disent 
 Richard Swayne enters his disent 
 Nathaniel Barnard enters his disent 
 John Coffin enters his disent 
 Steven Cofifin enters his disent 
 Nathaniel Wier enters his disent. 
 By this action the lines were publicly 
 drawn between the old and the new pro- 
 prietors. 
 
THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 31 
 
 prietors. The latter were to windward of 
 their opponents, and Captain John Gard- 
 ner knew the value of that position. In 
 due time a letter to the governor was writ- 
 ten, and signed by Richard Gardner, Ed- 
 ward Starbuck, Thomas Macy, and William 
 Worth, prominent citizens of the town, on 
 behalf of the inhabitants, and then " the 
 Town did vote that the Letter drawn up 
 to be sent to the Governour of New Yorke 
 shall be forthwith sent." To this, as be- 
 fore, — 
 
 M' Tristram Coffin enters his disent 
 John Swayn enters his disent 
 Nathaniel Barnard enters his disent 
 John Coffin enters his disent 
 Richard Swayn enters his disent 
 Steven Coffin enters his disent. 
 The town also voted " that Peter ffoul- 
 ger should go to New Yorke with Cap- 
 taine Gardner to assist him in any business 
 that he is sent about by the Towne to the 
 Governour." This vote was resisted, like 
 the others, by Tristram Coffin and his band 
 of followers. 
 
 It now became necessary for the dissent- 
 ers 
 
32 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 ers to be represented before the governor. 
 Thirteen freeholders engaged to pay the 
 expenses of sending two men; and they 
 selected " M' Matthew Mayhew for one, 
 also M"" Tristram Coffin Sen"" and Major 
 Robert Pike, or any two of them in case of 
 any Providence preventing." They pre- 
 pared a statement of their land titles, a 
 copy of the Indian deed of the year 1660, 
 and an account of all sales and transfers of 
 land on the island since that year. These 
 were to be submitted to the governor. 
 When everything had been prepared that 
 could influence him to revoke the decree of 
 his predecessor respecting their " ancient 
 and obsolete deeds," Tristram Coffin and 
 Matthew Mayhew sailed for New York, 
 where they landed in April, 1675, and pre- 
 sented to Governor Andros their humble 
 petition. It was inscribed as made " in 
 Behalf of the Major Part of the first Pur- 
 chasers, Freeholders uppon the Island of 
 Nantuckett." Its complaint was that by the 
 acts of the half-share men, now in power, 
 " the first Purchasers have been damnified 
 to the value of some hundred of Pounds ; " 
 
 that 
 
THE TRIUMPH OF JOHN GARDNER t^t^ 
 
 that they, the petitioners, " are not suffered 
 to act in the Disposal of their Landes ; " 
 that the " Tradesmen and Seamen with 
 some of the Purchasers being the Major 
 part of the Island in Persones have elected 
 into Authoritie some of themselves whereby 
 they have presumed to dispose of our Pur- 
 chase, deviding it one among another." 
 The petitioners prayed for " a Process 
 against the said Intruders," quaintly saying 
 of them, " Every Card they play is an Ace 
 and every Ace a Trump." 
 
 The next day John Gardner and Peter 
 Foulger appeared at Fort James. They 
 gave to Governor Andros the letter of the 
 inhabitants of Nantucket, expressing their 
 " Real and hearty Welcome as our Govern- 
 our, which is to us as a rising Sun after a 
 dark and stormy Night," and assuring him 
 that their messengers " will give full Satis- 
 faction and Information in whose mouths 
 will not be found a false Tongue." The 
 town's letter was accompanied by one from 
 the messengers, in which they expressed a 
 belief " that very false Things " had been 
 suggested to the governor, " upon selfish 
 
 and 
 
34 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 and sinister ends," by the two townsmen 
 who were in his presence yesterday. 
 
 The difference in the motives of the 
 opposing parties is shown by their position 
 before the governor. On the one side was 
 conservatism, selfishness, and a disregard 
 of the rights of neighbors. On the other 
 side was progress, loyalty, and desires for 
 the general welfare of all the inhabitants 
 of Nantucket. Both were courteously re- 
 ceived, their statements were heard, and 
 they were dismissed by the governor with- 
 out any recorded result except some new 
 instructions " for establishing of Courts ; " 
 his action followed later. 
 
 Soon after the return of these men to 
 Nantucket came the outbreak of King 
 Philip's War, Fearing that Indians would 
 cross over from the mainland and extin- 
 guish the colony, a letter was sent to Gov- 
 ernor Andros stating that there were not 
 more than thirty Englishmen on the island 
 " capable of bearing Armes," while there 
 were of " ye Indyans 5 or 600 men ; " and 
 asking for " a couple of great Guns and 
 halfe a Dousen Soulders." The governor 
 
 sent 
 
THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 35 
 
 sent a great gun, ten muskets, a barrel 
 of powder, and three skeins of match. 
 Captain Lee, of the sloop carrying these 
 supplies, was instructed not to stay at Nan- 
 tucket " above one Tyde unles it may hap- 
 pen that the Indyans should flock over 
 from the Maine and the Chiefe Magistrate 
 desire yr Assistance for obstructing the 
 same by water." A council of war was 
 formed in the town, and it was ordered that 
 " no parson shall furnish any Indian with 
 powder or shot or any Instrument of war ; " 
 that " whatever parson shall sell or give 
 any horse mare or Gelding to any Indian " 
 shall forfeit five pounds in silver ; and that 
 no Indian corn shall be exported except to 
 New York. These precautions were not 
 needed, for the Nantucket Indians showed 
 no sign of hostility. On the contrary, it 
 is recorded that some of them " did come 
 to the Court and did disown Philino, and 
 did freely subject themselves to King 
 Charles the Second." In their simplicity 
 they brought guns and a cow to the Court, 
 and left them " as a Testimony of their 
 fidelity to the English." 
 
 The 
 
36 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 The Indian war in New England caused 
 many adventurers to fly to Nantucket for 
 safety, some of whom became active in the 
 political affairs of the island, and made 
 trouble for the magistrates. Ten men re- 
 cently landed attempted " to deliver a man 
 by force " from the constable. One of 
 these, named Edward Bennit, was fined 
 ten pounds, put in chains, and was con- 
 demned " to Remayne in Chaynes unless 
 he can prevayle with M' James Coffin to 
 tak him aboard the vessal and be bound 
 for him." This action of the court seems 
 to imply that the men had been imported 
 by James Coffin and were heelers of the 
 Coffin party. His brother, Peter Coffin, 
 a resident of Salisbury, had fled to Nan- 
 tucket in fear of the war, and had been 
 nominated by the Coffinites as a candidate 
 for the office of assistant magistrate of the 
 island. The election was as boisterous as 
 one of modern times. Peter Foulger, of 
 the Gardner party, thus describes it : — 
 There came hither from Puscattaway 
 M"" Peter Coffin and some others to stay 
 here this Winter for fear of the Indians. 
 
 Then 
 
THE TRIUMPH OF JOHN GARDNER 37 
 
 Then another Meeting was called to 
 chuse new Assistants. We knowing 
 that we should be out voted sat still and 
 voted not. The first man that was 
 chosen was Peter Coffin. Stephen Hus- 
 sey was the man that carried on the 
 Designe in such a rude manner as this 
 — Com Sirs, let 's chuse Peter Coffin he 
 will be here but a month or two and 
 then we shall have tenn Pound fine of 
 him. ... In the like uncivil manner they 
 chose two young men more, the sayd 
 Stephen bringing his corn which beto- 
 ken Choice in his hand and called upon 
 others to Corn this man and that man.* 
 Thomas Macy, the chief magistrate, and 
 heretofore a follower of John Gardner, now 
 faced about and whipped over to the other 
 side. Some of his relations followed his 
 example. These events gave a majority 
 
 to 
 
 1 It was a general custom to use corn and beans for ballots. 
 In the Massachusetts Colony, A. D. 1643, " It is ordered that 
 for the yearly chosing of Assistants the freemen shall use 
 Indian Corn and Beanes, the Indian Corn to manifest Election, 
 the Beanes contrary ; and if any freeman shall put in more than 
 one Indian corn or Beane he shall forfeit for every such offence 
 Ten Pounds." 
 
38 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 to the Coffin party, which now took posses- 
 sion of the government. In town meeting 
 they appointed a committee to " view the 
 town book," as they suspected that its writ- 
 ings had been tampered with, and they 
 desired the committee to report promptly 
 "How they find it: "they ordered three 
 loads of posts to be set up " on the playne 
 in convenient places for cattel to rub 
 against ; " and then they undertook to make 
 their opponents as uncomfortable as possi- 
 ble by voting, in words which reveal the 
 thought of Tristram Coffin : — 
 
 Whareas Capt. John Gardner was cho- 
 sen to goe to New Yorcke to negoci- 
 ate about som publicke conserns of the 
 Hand and peter foulger chossen to assist 
 hem — the tovvne doth now revoack the 
 orders aforesaid and doe forbid the said 
 Capt. Gardner and petter foulger to 
 medal at all hence forward in any of the 
 towns Consernes ether at Yorcke or elce 
 whare under any colour or pretence what 
 so ever. 
 
 John Gardner wrote to the governor 
 concerning the situation and said : — 
 
 M' 
 
THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 39 
 
 M*" Macy and his Relations now joine 
 with that Party and sum Persons now 
 come out of the Bay as Sojourners for a 
 Time by Reson of the Indian War. So 
 they now haveing the biger Party hear 
 mould all Things after ther Plesuer. 
 And Peter Foulger, writing to the gov- 
 ernor in regard to the sudden success of 
 the Coffin party, said : — 
 
 Now that your Honour may under- 
 stand how they cam to be the greater 
 pt; it was by M"" Macy his faceing 
 about and his Family — a Man who was 
 so much for the Dukes Interest when we 
 were with your Honour at New Yorke 
 as any of us. But now for divers by 
 Ends it is otherwise. 
 The writer of the letter from which this 
 paragraph is quoted, who describes himself 
 as " a poore old Man aged 60 years," was 
 clerk of the writs, and recorder of the Gen- 
 eral Court of the island, and when writing 
 the letter he was a prisoner in Nantucket 
 jail. Since the recent election, the court 
 had taken a hand in the quarrel, and was 
 pushing its influence in aid of the Cofifin 
 
 party. 
 
40 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 party. It had questioned Peter Foulger 
 about a court book which was missing; 
 and he, remembering that " out of nothing 
 nothing comes," as he said, kept his mouth 
 shut, " tho the court waited on hem a While 
 and urged him to speak." Whereupon he 
 was condemned to give a bond of twenty 
 pounds for his appearance at the assizes in 
 New York. His letter tells what happened : 
 For want of Bond away the Constable 
 carried me to Prison, a Place where 
 never any English man was put and 
 where the Neighbors Hogs had layd but 
 the Night before in a bitter cold Frost 
 and deepe Snow , . . the Constable told 
 me I might ly upon the Boards and 
 without Victuals or Fire. Indeed I per- 
 swaded him to fetch a little Hay and he 
 did so and some Friend did presently 
 bring in Bedding and Victuals. 
 When the court met in June, 1677, it had 
 not procured the missing book; but the 
 magistrates, as the record says, " were in 
 great measure stilled from their rage with 
 promise thereof," and they sent their mar- 
 shal to the jail to request Peter Foulger 
 
 to 
 
THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 41 
 
 to bring the book to the court. The pris- 
 oner sent back this reply : — 
 
 I doe certainly know that I have been 
 a prisoner ever since the 14th of Febru- 
 ary last past and doe as certainly know 
 why I was put in prison. 
 The disappointed magistrates, enraged 
 by this reply, immediately issued a warrant 
 " forthwith, to bring peeter foulger before 
 the court to answer for his neglect to at- 
 tend to his office." When he was brought 
 in, no satisfaction could be got from him ; 
 therefore, the court ordered a fine of five 
 pounds to be levied on his estate, and 
 " that he remain a close prisoner without 
 Bayle until he deliver the said Book to the 
 Authoritie of Nantucket ; and likewise the 
 Court do disfranchise the sayd peeter foul- 
 ger." 
 
 Judicial tyranny had become rampant on 
 Nantucket. Many persons were arrested 
 for expressing their opinions about the 
 tyrannous acts of the court, or, as the 
 magistrates said, " for. speaking evil of 
 Authoritie." One of these was Sarah, wife 
 of Richard Gardner, convicted " for speak- 
 ing 
 
42 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 ing very opprobriously concerning the 
 imprisonment of peeter foulgier," but par- 
 doned on being intimidated into repent- 
 ance ; one was Tobias Coleman, who was 
 fined twenty-five shillings "for many vile 
 and scandalous words " about the magis- 
 trates ; one was Eleazer Foulger, who was 
 fined five pounds "for defamation of the 
 court by saying it was cruelty to put his 
 father in prison." 
 
 On the same day the court concluded 
 that it had good cause " to suspect Captain 
 John Gardner to have an espetiall hand 
 in obstructing the proceedings by joyning 
 himself to peeter fouldier in keeping back 
 and concealing the records." A warrant 
 to arrest him at his house was given to Wil- 
 liam Bunker, the marshal, who was author- 
 ized to " draw latch, break open doors, and 
 all things else remove that may obstruct." 
 He returned to the court alone, bringing 
 this message from John Gardner: "I do 
 not disown the king's authority, but I will 
 not act." 
 
 The marshal, with two assistants, was 
 sent back immediately, and the three men 
 
 fetched 
 
THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 43 
 
 fetched John Gardner by force into the 
 court. When the magistrates spoke to 
 him about his "contemptuous carriages," 
 he listened in silence, and, without remov- 
 ing his hat, he sat down on a chest whereon 
 was seated Tristram Coffin, who said to 
 him: — 
 
 " I am sorry you do behave yourself as 
 a Delinquent." 
 
 To which John Gardner replied : — 
 " I know my business ; and it may be 
 that some of those that have meddled with 
 me had better have eaten fier." ^ 
 
 The court sought for reasons to punish 
 him. It said : — 
 
 We must maintain his Majesties 
 authoritie espetially with the heathen 
 among whom it was vulgarly Rumored 
 that there is no Govournment on Nan- 
 tucket ; and haveing good cause to sus- 
 pect the same to proceed from some 
 English instigating them to the Great 
 danger of causeing insurrection ... we 
 do therefore order that Capt. John Gard- 
 ner 
 
 1 From an affidavit by Tristram Coffin, June 13, 1677. 
 
44 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 ner shall pay a fine of Tenne pounds in 
 Mony or Something Equivolent there- 
 unto, and is disfranchised. 
 No doubt Matthew Mayhew, secretary 
 of the court and a zealous Cofifinite, was in 
 great glee when he signed these disfran- 
 chisements. But, two months later, orders 
 were received from Governor Andros direct- 
 ing the court to suspend all proceedings 
 against John Gardner and Peter Foulger,. 
 and declaring that their fines and disfran- 
 chisements " are void and null as being be- 
 yond your Authority." The intensity of 
 the partisan spirit which possessed these 
 people is shown in Mayhew's language and 
 conduct as they are described in a letter 
 addressed to Governor Andros by Captain 
 Gardner after he had given to the secretary 
 the governor's rebuke of the court : — 
 
 Hee came to my Loging in as great 
 a Pashon as I judge a Man could well 
 be . . . tacking this Opertunity to vente 
 him selve as followeth : telling mee I 
 had bin at Yourke but should lose my 
 Labor — that if the Governour did un- 
 wind he would wind, and that he would 
 
 make 
 
THE TRIUMPH OF JOHN GARDNER 45 
 
 make my Fine and Disfranchisement to 
 abid on me dow the Governour what he 
 would . . . that I had spocken against 
 his Interest and I should downe, with 
 maney more Words of like Natuer. 
 But New York was a long way from Nan- 
 tucket. So the governor's orders were dis- 
 regarded by the court, under pretense that 
 they had been given without a knowledge 
 of the facts, and John Gardner's cattle were 
 sold to pay the fine. The people, however, 
 were more loyal than the politicians. In 
 a town meeting of January, 1678, they re- 
 scinded the injunction, voted two years pre- 
 vious, " prohibiting capt. Gardner and Peter 
 Foulger to act in the publick consernes of 
 the Island at New Yorcke or Elce whare ; " 
 and at the next election they chose John 
 Gardner an assistant magistrate. This act 
 aroused the ire of Tristram CofHn, the chief 
 magistrate of the island, who on the assem- 
 bling of the General Court, October 9, 1679, 
 caused to be entered on the records: — 
 Whereas they have received informa- 
 tion against the Town for electing Capt 
 John Gardner for an assistant in govern- 
 ment ; 
 
46 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 ment ; ordered that a warrant be issued 
 forth to call the Town to answer for 
 contempt of authority therein, he being 
 under sentence of court Incapable of 
 such ofHce of trust. 
 
 The town was defiant of Tristram Coffin 
 and his court. Many letters were passed 
 between them expressing the bitterest feel- 
 ings of each side. And when, on the first 
 day of January, 1680, John Gardner ap- 
 peared before the court to take the oath of 
 his office, he bearded the lion in his den. 
 The secretary recorded that " Mr. Tristram 
 Coffin chefe magestrate on nantucket doe 
 declare against the entry of Capt John 
 Gardners oath as giving him power to sit 
 as an assistant, he being under disfranchise- 
 ment." 
 
 The controversy reached its climax at 
 the town meeting of June, 1680, when" Mr. 
 Richard Gardner was chosen by the towne 
 that his name might be sent to the govern- 
 our, and Capt John Gardner was chosen 
 that his name might be sent also, to know 
 his pleasuer as to choyse respecting a 
 Chife Magistrate for the year ensuing." 
 
 Every 
 
THE TRIUMPH OF JOHN GARDNER 47 
 
 Every townsman present at this meeting 
 voted for the choice, except one. Tristram 
 Coffin " enters his protest against the choos- 
 ing of Capt. John Gardner." It was the 
 last effort of this obstinate man to stem 
 the rising tide. He passed away during 
 the next year, at the age of seventy-two; 
 and after his death one of the first acts of 
 the town was to appoint John Gardner, 
 Richard Gardner, and another townsman 
 to " new survey and bound every mans 
 lands meadows or creek stuff on the island 
 of Nantucket," and to record them " in a 
 new booke for the purpose to avoyd futer 
 troble." 
 
 The incidents of Tristram Coffin's public 
 life show that Nantucket was not one of 
 the Happy Isles. Its English population 
 at this time was less than two hundred and 
 fifty persons of all ages, of whom one half 
 had been at difference with the other half. 
 Its social life must have been of a low order. 
 Its domestic comforts were few, as may be 
 inferred from an inventory of " the goods 
 and estate of Nathaniel Wier who deceased 
 the ist day of March, 1680." It shows 
 
 that 
 
■48 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 that all his worldly possessions were valued 
 
 at ;^35, and consisted of: — 
 
 his wareing aparell, shows and stock- 
 ings, 2 pare of halfe woven sheets and 
 a pillow case, i flock bed, i pillow, i 
 blanket &: 2 old Coverlets, i tabel & 3 
 chars, i old bibell & 5 other books, i iron 
 pot, 2 bras kettels, i scillet, i frying pan, 
 
 1 Iron cettel, i grid Iron, a tranell, fiere 
 shovel, fire tongs, i lamp, 6 milch tres, 
 4 little tres, 4 trenchers, 3 old pueter 
 dishes, 3 porrengers, i salt seler, i pint 
 pot, I saser, i buterchern, 2 old chests, 
 
 2 boxes, 5 yds. Wollen cloth, the dwell- 
 ing house, out houses, the ten akers of 
 land, 2 steers, i cow, 6 heafers, 1 7 cheses, 
 20 weight of bacon, 3 busels of wheat, 8 
 busels Indian Corne, i busel malt. 
 There was an abundance of rum on the 
 
 island, and, in barter for island products, 
 supplies of it were renewed by the barrel. 
 Steven Hussey, the most litigious of all 
 the English inhabitants, petitioned to the 
 governor in August, 1686, "yt if his Drink 
 about ten or eleven Gallons of Rum so 
 illegally taken from him must bee forfeit 
 
 yt 
 
THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 49 
 
 yt his Majesty may have it and yt it may 
 not lay leakinge in the Hands of Joseph 
 Gardner as it hath don for som years." It 
 appears in the court records that Hussey 
 smuggled this rum to the island in August, 
 1683, and that it was seized by Joseph 
 Gardner, acting for the court. He com- 
 plained that the seizure was done " no 
 other wise than a privateare or pirat might 
 doe," and when called to prove his com- 
 plaint he refused " to prosecute in any 
 pertickular," but spoke " Reprochfully in 
 Derogation of the acts of the Court and 
 Continued obstanet justifying himselfe ; " 
 whereupon he was fined ten pounds, and 
 he lost his rum. 
 
 At this period, Sunday on the island is 
 mentioned in the court records as a day of 
 " much misdemeanure," — a day on which 
 "vagrant persons are exposed to tempta- 
 tion." Samuel Bickford is indicted "for 
 being from his home in company a drinck- 
 inge on a first day contrary to law." This 
 man and his wife appear in the records as 
 the keepers of a disorderly house ; and the 
 story recorded of an affair therein, between 
 
 Dennis 
 
50 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 Dennis Manning and Katherine Innis, 
 would be written up as the morning's sen- 
 sation in a city newspaper of to-day. The 
 site of Dennis Manning's house has been 
 recently marked as one of the " historic 
 sites " of Nantucket, — the dwelling-place 
 of an ancient worthy. This fact furnishes 
 a reason for mentioning his name in my 
 narrative, and also for telling a part of 
 what the court records of the island said 
 of the man while he was living : — 
 
 August 19, 1678. Katterine Innis 
 being examined by M' Cojffin Chefe 
 magistrate saith that she is with child 
 and being asked whose it is She an- 
 swered it is Denis Mannings — speaking 
 in his presence — which he denied. . . . 
 November 7th, 1678. Denis maning 
 appears and is bound to ye Court. 
 
 June 24th, 1679. Where as Kattering 
 Innis formerly did say that she was with 
 child by dennis maning and now the 
 child being born still afifirmes the child 
 is dennis mannings — The Court doth 
 order that Denis maning shal take care 
 for the mayntenance of the child and 
 
 mayntayne 
 
THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 5 1 
 
 mayntayne it as it ought to be, he being 
 legally the father of it. And Katteren 
 Innis is bound over to the next Court 
 to make her appearance. The Court 
 order that Katteren Innis shal nurse 
 dennis mannings child which she laid 
 to his charge, and the Court wil se her 
 master William Worth paid. 
 
 September 30th 1679. Katteren Innis 
 being bound over appeareth. The Court 
 hath ordered that she shall be whipt fif- 
 teen stripes or pay five pound. 
 In the history of those times John 
 Gardner stands as the greatest of all the 
 men who had to do with the beginnings 
 of Nantucket. He had the genius of a 
 leader, and his ability was recognized by 
 Governor Andros in appointing him, three 
 times, the chief magistrate of the island. 
 The people made him their agent " to act 
 in all matters of the towne at New York," 
 and they said, " Whatsoever Captain Gard- 
 ner shall agree for, about hireing a vessel 
 to go, the towne will pay it." He was 
 made the leader of a committee " to consult 
 for the publicke good of the island against 
 
 all 
 
52 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 all invaders of the peoples Rights ; " and in 
 May, 1687, he was chosen "to go to New 
 Yorke to manege such afeares as the town 
 shall intrust him with." On his return, he 
 brought Governor Dongan's " Patent to 
 Certain Inhabitants of Nantucket," which 
 made John Gardner, with six associates, 
 " One Body Corporate and Politiq to be 
 called by the Name of the Trustees of the 
 Freeholders and Comonality of the Town," 
 with right of purchasing from the Indians 
 all "Tracts or Parcellsof Land" remaining 
 in their possession, and to make such acts 
 and orders " as they shall think convenient 
 from time to time." For this charter they 
 were to pay yearly " unto our Soverign 
 Lord the King the sum of one Lamb or 
 two shillings current money " of the prov- 
 ince. 
 
 That one lamb was a token of the peace- 
 ful victory won by those who, under the 
 lead of John Gardner, had persistently 
 advocated equal rights for all the inhabit- 
 ants of Nantucket. 
 
 In the ancient burial field, on a breezy 
 hill-top west of the town, stands a granite 
 
 monument, 
 
THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 53 
 
 monument, conspicuous above the bay- 
 berry bushes, the blackberry vines, and the 
 hawkweed blossoms that surround it. On 
 its face are cut these words : — 
 
 " Here lies buried ye body of 
 John Gardner Esq"", aged 82, 
 who died May, 1706." 
 
 Near by are the unmarked graves of some 
 of the men who stood with him and against 
 him in the memorable struggle whose his- 
 tory I have briefly related : — 
 
 " Tired of tempest and racing wind, 
 
 Tired of the spouting breaker, 
 Here they came, at the end, to find 
 
 Rest in the silent acre. 
 Feet pass over the graveyard turf. 
 
 Up from the sea, or downward ; 
 One way leads to the raging surf. 
 
 One to the perils townward ; 
 ' Hearken ! Hearken ! ' the dead men say, 
 
 ' Whose is the step that passes ? 
 Knows he not we are free from all. 
 
 Under the nodding grasses ? ' " 
 
Ill 
 
 The Nantucket Indian 
 
 The island of Nantucket was annexed to 
 the Province of Massachusetts Bay in the 
 year 1693. The Earl of Bellomont, who 
 was governor of the province at the close 
 of that century, said of the island : " There 
 is a great store of sheep on it, 't is 16 miles 
 long and 6 or 7 broad, the English there 
 are 300 souls and the Indians 800." 
 
 As soon as the English had established 
 themselves on the island, it became neces- 
 sary to put the Indian inhabitants under 
 restraint. They were lazy and lawless, and 
 reluctant to move off from lands which the 
 English had bought. They burned the 
 growing grass, hunted cattle on the com- 
 mons, carried away English firewood, and 
 stole English sheep. There was an Indian 
 preacher named Steven, who, as the records 
 say, was " complayned of by mr CofiBn for 
 killing a lam ; " for this offense he was con- 
 demned 
 
THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 55 
 
 demned to pay " ten shillings and prison 
 fees." The same Steven was complained 
 of by Richard Gardner for " stealing one 
 barrel and seven gallons of oyl ; " the court 
 gave to Steven an option of paying five 
 pounds fifteen shillings and six pence, or 
 " to serve Richard Gardner four whole 
 years." Drunkenness became the Indian's 
 predominant crime. In the year 171 1, the 
 owners of Tuckernuck ^ petitioned the leg- 
 islature at Boston to transfer that island to 
 the jurisdiction of Nantucket, which was 
 but a mile distant, so that its authorities 
 may arrest the Indians who, it was said, 
 " run over to Tuckernuck in the Winter to 
 
 avoid 
 
 1 Another small island adjacent to Nantucket, and belonging 
 to it, is Muskeget. Its history, ownership, occupancy, aliena- 
 tion of titles by inheritance and deeds, are enshrouded in un- 
 certainty. The earliest purchase of the island by citizens of 
 Nantucket, from a son of the elder Mayhew of Martha's Vine- 
 yard, was by deed recorded at Edgartown. The early probate 
 records of Nantucket contain meagre allusions to it, and the 
 early records of deeds almost nothing. It is almost barren of 
 vegetation, and has been a favorite resort for sportsmen in 
 pursuit of wild fowl ; and from the remotest antiquity has been 
 used as a free warren and piscatory, the waters around the 
 island abounding in various kinds of fish and bivalves. Num- 
 berless inhabitants of Nantucket, known to be the descendants 
 of the first seven purchasers of Muskeget, have ever claimed 
 the right to frequent it as tenants in common. 
 
56 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 avoid the payment of their Just debts;" 
 and, while they are there, " Indians from 
 Road Island and the main land carey over 
 liquors and strong drink to them, when 
 they get drunk and fight and make great 
 Disorder." Forty years later, Nantucket 
 was placing before the legislature a picture 
 of the condition of the Indians in which 
 was shown to what degradation they had 
 been dragged by the English. " The In- 
 dians are so universally given to Strong 
 Drinke," said the town, — unconscious 
 that it was condemning itself, — " that as 
 soon as their Corn is ripe the Greater part 
 of them for the sake of Rum begins to 
 make Sale of it, so that they are out of 
 Corn before the Winter is past ; " and they 
 " often hire out their planting land for the 
 sake of Rum of which their Desires are 
 Insatiate." 
 
 The hiring of their planting lands was 
 sometimes a device by the English for 
 getting a permanent possession of them. 
 Similar devices were practiced in Governor 
 Bellomont's time, when three sachems of 
 Nantucket sent to him a petition in which 
 
 they 
 
THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 57 
 
 they affirmed that the English were claim- 
 ing such " Interest in the herbage of the 
 whole island that they have, on pretence 
 of trespass done by our cattle, taken them 
 and converted them to their own use ; " 
 that they cannot obtain any justice in the 
 courts of the island because the judges 
 are claimants for their lands. They said, 
 " We are not versed in the English law, 
 yet we are taught our wrong by the light 
 of Nature." 
 
 This complaint referred to an act of the 
 English inhabitants which the governor 
 described as a " remarkable fraud that was 
 put on the poor Indians on Nantucket 
 Island." Writing about the matter to Eng- 
 land, he said : — 
 
 The Representative that served for 
 Nantucket (one M' Coffin) came to solicit 
 me and the Council to pass an Act to 
 restrain the Indians on that Island from 
 trading with Rhode Island. The In- 
 dians had complain'd to me how hardly 
 they were used by the English, and M"" 
 Coffin own'd the whole matter there, viz 
 that the English had bargained with the 
 
 Indians 
 
58 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 Indians that half of the Island should be 
 for the use of the Indians to sow Indian 
 wheat on, but that when the crop is off 
 the land the grass on that land is to 
 belong wholly to the English; so that 
 these Indians, now that they would keep 
 cattle, are not suffer'd so to do. This is 
 such a circumvention and fraud as ought 
 not to be suffer'd, and so I told M' Cof- 
 fin before the Council, and I declared I 
 would not give the assent to any Bill 
 that should put a further hardship on 
 those Indians/ 
 
 In the year 1706, five sachems of Nan- 
 tucket complained to Governor Dudley at 
 Boston that they " are very much wronged 
 and oppressed " by the English, " who did 
 over reach our forefathers in the purchase 
 of lands and herbage, and carrying away 
 all their wood." As they could not get 
 justice in the island courts, they asked that 
 a special court be constituted in Boston to 
 try their claims. The governor referred 
 
 the 
 
 1 Letter of the Earl of Bellomont to the Lords Commission- 
 ers for Trade and Plantations, in London, November 28, 1700. 
 
THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 59 
 
 the petition to James Coffin, the representa- 
 tive from the island. Thus was ^sop's 
 fable illustrated : the wolf was made a pro- 
 tector of the sheep. And when in the 
 year 171 7 another petition was received at 
 Boston, Governor Shute and his Council 
 resolved " that the Island of Nantucket be 
 annexed to Suffolk County," in order that 
 a just treatment might be secured to the 
 Indians ; but the House of Representatives 
 did not concur in this resolution, and 
 thereafter Nantucket Indians petitioned 
 the provincial legislature in vain. 
 
 The English inhabitants of the island 
 had so intermarried with each other that 
 judges and jurymen were related as first or 
 second cousins, and in the trials of land 
 suits they were naturally united against 
 any Indian plaintiff. While Sir William 
 Phipps was governor of the province, from 
 the year 1692 to the year 1695, he received 
 a letter from Matthew Mayhew mentioning 
 this state of affairs, and saying that, in con- 
 sequence of it, " the indians cannot expect 
 anie justice in anie thing relating to their 
 lands." This fact was reiterated in all peti- 
 tions 
 
6o QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 tions sent by the Indians to the legislature 
 at Boston ; and their petitions were fre- 
 quent for sixty years after the date of May- 
 hew's letter. In a petition dated Decem- 
 ber, 1 75 1, they asked again for a removal 
 of their trials for land to the courts of an- 
 other county, because in Nantucket " both 
 Judges and Jurors are all Interested." At 
 previous times this request had been met 
 by an opinion of the English that it would 
 be unjust to put Indians to the expense of 
 traveling to distant courts ; but now it was 
 stated that their deeds of land were for- 
 geries.^ At last the truth was confessed 
 by the representatives of Nantucket when, 
 in June, 1752, they answered a petition 
 
 from 
 
 1 ..." And the said Indian claims a Tract of land by Virtue 
 of a Writeing said to be Given by Nikanosso bearing date l668, 
 we have taken Considerable pains in Searching into that Writ- 
 ing and it Seems to us self Evident to be a piece of Forgery for 
 it appeared Originally writ in Indian Translated into English 
 by Mr. Experience Mayhew, whereas the Year that Said Write- 
 ing bears date there was not an Indian on Nantuckett that un- 
 derstood One letter in the Alphabett neither did there ever ap- 
 pear to be such a Writing untill about the time that it crept on 
 the Records of Martha's Vineyard which was in the year 1745." 
 — Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts, June 5, 1752, 
 by Richard Coffin and Abishai Folger, "Guardians unto the 
 Indians of Nantucket." 
 
THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 6 1 
 
 from the Indians to the legislature, and 
 said : — 
 
 As to the Complainants Petitioning 
 for the Removal of Tryals in Real Estate 
 to some other County, that both Judges 
 and Jurors are all Interested, we answer 
 Tis fact as to the Justices but not as to 
 the Jurors. 
 
 A few quotations from court records will 
 reveal the character of that mixed life of 
 the English and Indian inhabitants of Nan- 
 tucket which continued for nearly a hun- 
 dred years after the settlement of the 
 island : — 
 
 25th March 1679. Mr Coffin Com- 
 playnes against Philip Cumes for lying 
 and other rude carages, the sentance of 
 the Court is that this Endian shall set 
 toe ours in the Stocks next trayning 
 day. 
 
 At another time the same Indian was 
 " severely whipt for sundry storrys and 
 lyes." If the lying was confessed the cul- 
 prit gained no mercy. Sara Nesfeld, a 
 squaw, " being Inditted for Telling severall 
 lyes she owning her fault the Court saw 
 
 good 
 
62 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 good to fine her ten shillings." Will Cow- 
 keeper, an Indian (so named because he 
 drove cows from the commons to the town 
 gate, at evening, to be milked, and drove 
 them back at morning), was convicted with 
 Jack Never of " breaking a ware house of 
 Nathaniel Starbuck and carrying away sev- 
 eral goods." Each Indian was fined " nine 
 bussels of Endian Corne and twenty toe 
 shillings and six pens." Jack Never was 
 a persistent thief, frequently before the 
 court, to which on a certain occasion 
 
 He confesseth that he went in to 
 Capt John Gardners house About the 
 midel of the ni2:ht and tooke out of M' 
 Gardners pocket by the bead side five 
 shillings in mony and allso open'd a case 
 and caried away a bottel with a bout a 
 pint of Licquor in it ; the sentance of 
 the Court is that he shal be whipt 
 twenty strips upon the naked body of 
 Jack never above said. 
 Rum was given to Indians in payment 
 for services in fishing-boats ; the return of 
 the boats caused a prevalence of drunken- 
 ness on the island difficult to be suppressed. 
 
 " Five 
 
THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 63 
 
 " Five shillings for being Drunk " is the 
 court's oft-repeated sentence on Indian cul- 
 prits. The selling of rum was a business 
 licensed to Englishmen by the court ; but 
 Indians undertook it without a license, and 
 were punished. For example : — 
 
 Whare as Dare was complayned of 
 for Retayling drinck contrary to law, and 
 Powpashon for Resisting the constable, 
 the Sentance of the Court is that Dare 
 pay for Retayling thre ponds and Pow- 
 pashon for Resisting forty shillings." 
 Branding the flesh was a form of punish- 
 ment inflicted on Indians, although it was 
 not authorized by the charter, which limited 
 punishments to "whipping, stocks, and pil- 
 loring, or other public shame." The sen- 
 tence imposed upon two Indians, who had 
 confessed the charge of stealing sheep, was, 
 " Isaack shall be branded on the hand and 
 Petter shall be well whipped." There was 
 more cruelty than justice in some acts of 
 the court against " the heathen," as Indians 
 were sometimes called in the records. 
 When an Indian named Julaps confessed 
 the theft of five bushels of grain and two 
 
 bags 
 
64 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 bags from Joseph Header's mill, he was 
 fined eight pounds, and was branded " on 
 the forehead with the letter B." An Indian 
 called Samcook, who stole " about five quarts 
 of Rum " from Richard CofHn's vessel, was 
 sentenced to pay one pound six shillings 
 and six pence, " and he shall be branded 
 with the letter B." Two Indian lads con- 
 victed of stealing were condemned to pay 
 seven pounds and six shillings, and to " be 
 branded on the forehead with the letter B." 
 Thomas Bunker prosecuted the Indians 
 named Tooth Harry and Jobone "for 
 breaking open his house and stealing about 
 three gallons of Rum and breaking his 
 windows and carrying away a paile and 
 a Rundlet." They confessed the theft, 
 excepting the runlet, and each was fined 
 a sum amounting to three times the value 
 of the articles, and " they both," says the 
 record, "were branded with the letter B." 
 
 The courts dealt with various domestic 
 matters of the Indians, from a divorce down 
 to the return of a borrowed pot. I quote 
 from the records some examples between 
 the years 1673 and 1683. Quench, the 
 
 Indian, 
 
THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 65 
 
 Indian, complained against the conduct of 
 his wife ; the result of the complaint was : 
 " The court findeth her guilty and a divourse 
 is granted, and the woman that was his wife 
 is fined twenty shillings to hem in Regard 
 to his trobell." When the Indian Naka- 
 tootanit " put away his wife," the court 
 ordered him to take her back and "live 
 loveingly with her or else he shall be se- 
 verely punished ; " and the " woman Kuha- 
 petaw that he last companed as his wife" 
 was condemned to be whipped ten stripes. 
 Another case of similar kind was that 
 of Wosoak's wife, who complained against 
 her husband "for leaving of her." The 
 court " findeth him guilty of having to 
 doe with an other woman in an Evill way," 
 and ordered both Wosoak and the woman 
 to be whipped. Then Desier complained 
 against Tuckernuck " for abusing his wife ; " 
 he " owneth he was with her," and he was 
 condemned to pay Desier twenty shillings. 
 Now and then there was a breach of prom- 
 ise before the court. For example, a squaw 
 complained of John Fisherman's son " for 
 non performance of his covenant with her 
 
 he 
 
66 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 he having Promised her marrag, and the sd 
 John owned he had don soe." The court 
 ordered that " if John doe not marry the 
 Squaw he shal be whipt twenty strips and 
 pay the woman thirty shillings." 
 
 At the same session came up the com- 
 plaint of Patience, a squaw, who, as the 
 record says, " being with child layeth it to 
 a Gentelmans Son, and the Court orders 
 that he shall be whiped or pay a fine of 
 twenty shillings, and the sd Patience, when 
 she is delivered and well, to be whipt fif- 
 teen strips and pay costs." 
 
 Nanespepo was an Indian who com- 
 plained to the court that his wife " hath for- 
 saken him about a yeare and followed other 
 men." The court issued a proclamation, 
 and the public crier went about the island 
 repeating it, that " If the Nanespepo wife 
 return not unto her husband within six 
 weeks after ye day, Nanespepo is freed 
 from her." This was a quick method of 
 divorce. 
 
 The court busied itself with all kinds of 
 complaints from Indians ; as, when Jepta 
 complained that the sachems Nicanoose 
 
 and 
 
THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 67 
 
 and Wowinet " did hinder him of his share 
 of a drift whale," the court ordered that he 
 should have his share of the whale in spite 
 of the sachems ; and when Wosoak com- 
 plained that Matakeken had taken his 
 canoe in the fishing season, when he wanted 
 it, Wosoak was compelled to pay twenty 
 shillings for the use of the canoe. 
 
 The pot cases are a mystery to a student 
 of the records. The clerk of the court 
 wasted no words in explanation of his writ- 
 ings, sometimes stating a complaint with- 
 out the decision and sometimes a decision 
 without the complaint; for he could not 
 suppose that, two hundred years later, there 
 would exist a desire to know what was 
 going on at Nantucket during his lifetime, 
 and why Englishmen and Indians were 
 then borrowing and lending pots. 
 
 Capt Gardner complayneth against 
 Coshomadamon for disposing of a pot 
 lent him. 
 
 Cutuaram widdow of Thomas an 
 Indian complaineth against Coshoma- 
 damon for taking and disposing of her 
 pot. 
 
 Sesepana 
 
68 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 Sesepana complayns against a squaw 
 
 called Cuddusue for holding his pot. 
 Zackery complaines against Wowinet 
 
 for not Returning a borrowed pot. 
 Tomasos wiffe complayned against 
 
 Roag for with holding her pot. 
 
 The mystery increases when I find this 
 opinion written in the court records, as 
 sequel to a decision about land : — 
 
 The case of the pot is thus ended, the 
 
 pot is to be divided, he that hath the pot 
 
 must pay the other half the price. 
 
 This reads as if the court had been en- 
 gaged in a game of poker. 
 
 There was also an Indian court, whose 
 acts were subject to review by the English. 
 For what special purposes it was formed, 
 or how long it lasted, does not appear. 
 Evidence that it existed is found in the 
 appeals from it which are mentioned in the 
 records of the English court, and which 
 show that it did not stand in high favor 
 with the Indians. In June, 1677, before the 
 English court, Obadiah was charged "with 
 resisting the authority of the Indian court 
 in Nantucket in that he came with several 
 
 persons 
 
THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 69 
 
 persons with hem and endevord to Resque 
 one that was to be whipt a way out of the 
 constables hands — also he fought with a 
 padel, using Reviling Speeches against the 
 members of the Court." Obadiah gave as 
 reason for his conduct that " the magis- 
 trates are not Right or doe not that which 
 is Just." They could not be just if they 
 were like the Indian magistrate named 
 Sasapane, who was removed from his place 
 by the English court " for being drunck 
 and also fighting." 
 
 Quoquasha, a squaw, appealed to the 
 English Court concerning " goods that were 
 taken from her by order of the Indian mag- 
 istrates to the vallew of twenty shillings 
 and six pence; " the court directed that the 
 goods were to be returned to the squaw. 
 Waquaqenaway appealed from the Indian 
 court "because they took away his wheat 
 to buy clothing for his wife, when he said 
 he was willing to doe it himselfe." The 
 English court ordered " that he shall have 
 his wheat againe and shall provide his wife 
 clothing according to a man of his Rancke." 
 Sometimes the Indian magistrates were 
 
 punished 
 
yo QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 punished for their injustices, as, when 
 Shanapetuck complained because she had 
 been whipped " for gathering gooseberries," 
 the Enghsh court ordered " that those 
 magestrats Imqueness and Sam shall pay 
 the woman ten shillings." 
 
 When Indians had neither money, corn, 
 oil, nor feathers with which to pay their 
 fines, they sometimes pledged a canoe as 
 security. The records of the year 1690 
 say: — 
 
 Aspatchamo in open Court delivereth 
 his Canoe unto William Worth for 
 secuerity for his fine, being twenty shil- 
 lings, which he ingageth to pay in fish, 
 and William Worth engageth to pay sd 
 fine. 
 
 When they were unable to pay anything 
 they were sold into slavery ; or they were 
 bound to the English, or to the sachems, 
 in a servitude which was equivalent to slav- 
 ery. An Indian named Moab, convicted 
 of stealing sheep, was condemned " to serve 
 John Macy three years ; " another Indian, 
 for stealing eighteen sticks of whalebone, 
 was condemned to serve Thomas Macy 
 
 seven 
 
THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 71 
 
 seven years ; Alewife, convicted of stealing 
 " three payles of strong beer one Galon of 
 malases, two galons of Rum," was con- 
 demned to serve Nathaniel Starbuck and 
 Peter Coflfin, from whom the goods were 
 stolen, "the time of six whole years." It 
 was an easy way of securing a house ser- 
 vant, to catch an Indian in the act of theft. 
 Damaris, an Indian girl accused of " steal- 
 ing sundry goods," valued at less than 
 five pounds, was condemned to return the 
 goods, pay ten pounds, be whipped ten 
 stripes, and to serve John Gardner four 
 years. 
 
 The Indian named Coottas stole and 
 killed sheep ; the court condemned him to 
 pay " a fine of fower pound and ten shil- 
 lings or to ly in prison tel the Court do 
 find a way to sell him for payment " of the 
 fine. An Indian named Jasper came up 
 and engaged " to pay in to the Court by 
 next harvest" the £i^ los., and thereupon 
 Coottas was set free. The next year he 
 was convicted of stealing " a considerable 
 quantity of Sheep." The record says that, 
 as " the court find him very Incouragable 
 
 thare 
 
72 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 thare Sentance is that he Remeane a pris- 
 oner in mr Starbucks custody till opper- 
 tunity present for his being sold." His 
 confederate thief, named Kessasume, was 
 condemned to "pay thirty shillings pres- 
 ently or be sold ; and if he Run away from 
 his master then he is to be whipt every 
 time he so Runs away." As Kessasume 
 could not pay " presently," that is, on the 
 nail, the sachem Wowinet paid the fine and 
 took him " as a servant." 
 
 There must have been many attempts 
 to get free from this slavery by escape from 
 the island ; for it was ordered in the year 
 1670 that every Englishman or Indian 
 shall be fined twenty shillings who " shall 
 carry away in any vessel any Indian ser- 
 vant off this Hand without an order from 
 his master to do so." 
 
IV 
 
 The Dominion of the Quakers 
 
 " Would'st thou know," says Charles 
 Lamb, " what true peace and quiet mean ; 
 would'st thou find a refuge from the noises 
 and clamors of the multitude; would'st 
 thou enjoy at once solitude and society; 
 would'st thou possess the depth of thine 
 own spirit in stillness, without being shut 
 out from the consolatory faces of thy spe- 
 cies? Come with me into a Quakers' 
 Meeting." 
 
 The Quaker meeting-house of Nantucket 
 was an unpainted building, as destitute of 
 external ornament as a farmer's barn. It 
 was painfully simple within ; the smooth 
 pine benches had been so frequently washed 
 that they were as clean as a scrubbing- 
 board ; the floor was sprinkled with white 
 sand ; there were no cobwebs on the win- 
 dows ; there was no dust in the corners. 
 The worshipers came in softly, and when 
 
 they 
 
74 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 they were seated the stillness of the house 
 was like the stillness of a desert. 
 
 If it was " a first day," the women were 
 dressed in silks, satins, and camlets of quiet 
 colors, — brown, gray, and white ; the men 
 were dressed in broadcloths of the same 
 hues, wearing their hats, which they re- 
 moved only during prayer. Girls were 
 dressed like matrons; and they naturally 
 felt that the sober apparel and emotion- 
 less habits of Quakerism were a restraint 
 upon their lives, tempting them at times to 
 turn away dissatisfied with the universal 
 calm.^ 
 
 Now and then the trembling voice of a 
 woman was heard, rising gently out of the 
 
 congregation, 
 
 1 In early times Quakers did not wear a uniformly plain 
 apparel. George Fox, the apostle of Quakerism, bought a 
 scarlet gown for his wife, and she adorned herself with laces 
 and gay ribbons ; his daughter was particular to have her 
 gowns made " very civil and as usually worn." Quaker girls 
 of those times wore blue stockings, red petticoats, and bright- 
 colored aprons. In love emotions there was a warmth corre- 
 sponding with the colors of the clothing. It was more than 
 two hundred years ago when Thomas Lower, loving Mary 
 Fell, wrote to her : " Now, my dearest, to whom my heart is 
 perfectly united, do I heartily embrace thee in the arms of 
 pure affection and seal it unto thee with the lips of Truth." 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 75 
 
 congregation, offering a few words, " as the 
 spirit moveth," on a chance that they " may 
 suit the condition of some one present." 
 Sometimes the assembly remained mute 
 during the hour of worship, and this " silent 
 waiting on God " might continue Sunday 
 after Sunday. 
 
 The early Quakers of Nantucket were 
 noted for exactness in religious knowledge ; 
 for habits of order, prudence, and thrift; 
 and for careful attention to the intellectual 
 education of their children. Some of them 
 were born into Quakerism, some were con- 
 verted to it, and some assumed it under 
 a pressure of circumstance ; for wherever 
 the Quakers of colonial times became nu- 
 merous, the power of their inexpensive 
 religion was felt, because it suited the fru- 
 gal habits of those who had no affinity with 
 other sects. Curiosity led them into the 
 meetings, and without effort or persuasion 
 they accepted the faith and the speech of 
 
 the Quakers.^ 
 
 In 
 
 1 " You professors nicknamed us by the name of Quakers in 
 the year 1650, which name one Bennet of Derby gave us when 
 he cast us into prison, . . . who was the first that called us 
 
 Quakers 
 
y6 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 In the year 1701, John Richardson, a 
 Quaker preacher from England, accom- 
 panied by Public Friends, as they were 
 called, came to Nantucket in a sloop from 
 Newport, Peleg Slocum, the Quaker cap- 
 tain of the sloop, losing his course in a 
 summer fog, ran her ashore on an uninhab- 
 ited part of the island, where the company 
 remained all night. The next morning 
 they ascended a bluff and discovered many 
 people approaching them, for the sloop had 
 been seen, and was suspected to be a French 
 vessel bringing armed men to invade the 
 island/ John Richardson advanced, hold- 
 ing 
 
 Quakers because I bid them tremble at the word of the Lord." 
 — George Fox. 
 
 1 There was war between England and France, and Nan- 
 tucket had been already invaded by French privateers from 
 the West Indies. John Gardner wrote to the Governor of the 
 Massachusetts : — 
 
 WoRSHiPPFULL Sir — This is to enform you that this night 
 the ffrench landed on our Island, plunderd one House and 
 corred away a man & his son and are now about the Island, 
 of what sort I know not, it is but a small vessell. They said 
 at the House there was 2 more of which we know not. 
 
 We thot Good so far to signifie that by post out to Boston 
 which is all in haste. Your Servant 
 
 John Gardner 
 
 Nantucket, the 
 
 3d day of May 1695. 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 'J 'J 
 
 ing out his arms, and said that he and his 
 companions had come to visit the island in 
 the love of God. 
 
 Foremost of these Nantucket people was 
 a woman named Mary Starbuck, the mo- 
 ther of four sons and six daughters. Of 
 all the women of colonial times who were 
 influential in public affairs, she stands pre- 
 eminent. But little was known of her 
 beyond the horizon of Nantucket, for she 
 lived in a period when the towns of New 
 England were as isolated as if they were 
 islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Richardson 
 met her in the house of one of her sons. 
 He says in his journal : " Mary Starbuck 
 came in, whom the islanders esteem as a 
 judge among them for little of moment is 
 done without her. At the first sight of her 
 it sprang to my heart — ' To this woman 
 is the everlasting love of God.' I looked 
 upon her as a woman that bore some sway 
 on the island ; and so I said to her, ' We 
 are come in the love of God to visit you if 
 you are willing to let us have some meet- 
 ings.' •■ 
 
 When he asked, " Where shall the meet- 
 ings 
 
78 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 ings be ? " she paused awhile, and then re- 
 plied, " I think at our house." The order 
 of her house, says Richardson's journal, 
 " was such in all parts thereof as I had 
 not seen the like before; the large and 
 bright-rubbed room was set with suitable 
 seats or chairs for a meeting, so that I did 
 not see anything wanting according to 
 place but something to stand on, for I was 
 not free to set my feet upon the fine cane 
 chair lest I should break it." During the 
 service Mary Starbuck " strove against the 
 testimony, sometimes looking up in my 
 face with a pale and then with a more 
 ruddy complexion. When she could no 
 longer contain she lifted up her voice and 
 wept. She stood up and held out her 
 hand, and spoke tremblingly and said — 
 * All that ever we have done is pulled down 
 this day, and this is the everlasting truth.' " 
 Four years later, a Quaker missionary 
 named Thomas Story visited Nantucket. 
 He wrote in his journal that there were 
 no settled religious teachers of any kind 
 on the island ; that several " had made 
 attempts upon the people, but were disap- 
 pointed, 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 79 
 
 pointed, for there was one Nathaniel Star- 
 buck whose wife was a wise discreet woman 
 well read in the scriptures, and not attached 
 to any sect, but was in great reputation 
 throughout the island for her knowledge 
 in matters of religion ; and an oracle, in so 
 much that they would not do anything 
 without her advice and consent thereon. 
 . . . One night my sleep was taken away 
 from me under a concern of mind for the 
 settlement of a meeting. The chief in- 
 strument pointed to in my thoughts for 
 this service was Mary Starbuck to whom 
 I made it known. I proposed it likewise 
 to her children ; being all convinced of 
 the Truth, they were ready to embrace the 
 proposal." 
 
 She lived long enough to see the pros- 
 perity of the work which she undertook, 
 and then it was written in the town book : 
 "Mary Starbuck departed this life ye 13 
 day of ye 12 mo. 1 719, in ye 74 year of her 
 age, and was decently buried in Friends 
 burying ground." I have found no per- 
 sonal memorials of her save this letter, 
 which she wrote to a grandchild, Eliza Gor- 
 
 ham, 
 
8o QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 ham, in Boston, who had suffered losses by 
 fire: — 
 
 Nantucket ye 17. ist mo. 17 14. 
 
 Dear Child Eliz — These few Hnes 
 may certifie thee that thou art often in 
 my remembrance with thy dear hus- 
 band & children ; with breathings to the 
 Lord for you that his presence may be 
 with you that therein you may find rest 
 in all your visitations & trials ; as also 
 that here is a trunk fil'd with goods, 
 which is intended to be put on board 
 Ebenezer Stuart's vessell, which are 
 several tokens from thy friends, which 
 thou mayest particularly see by these 
 little minutes here inclosed & by some 
 other marks that are upon the things — 
 thy Aunt Dorcas is a new piece of oxen- 
 brigs, thy aunt Dinas is a pair of blankets, 
 thy Grandfather intends to send thee a 
 barrell of mutton, but it is not all his own 
 for cousin James sent hither 1 7 pieces ; 
 cousin James said he intended to send 
 thee 2 or 3 bushels of corn ; there is like- 
 wise sent from our womens meeting 7 
 pounds which thy uncle Jethro said he 
 
 would 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 8 1 
 
 would give an order for thee to take at 
 Boston ; sister James told me she in- 
 tended to send thee 2 bushells of corn & 
 some wool, & likewise said that justice 
 Worth said that he would send some 
 corn. More meat & corn will be sent 
 which will be in greater quantities which 
 thy uncle Jethro Starbuck will give thee 
 an account of or to thy Husband. I 
 should have been glad if he had come 
 over with Stuart, but I hope we shall see 
 him this summer if not both of you. So 
 with my kind love to thee thy Husband & 
 children & to all friends, committing you 
 to the protection of the almighty who 
 is the wise dispenser of all things, I re- 
 main thy affectionate Grandmother — 
 Mary Starbuck. 
 The conversion of Mary Starbuck and 
 her children was the beginning of Qua- 
 kerism on Nantucket. A majority of the 
 islanders, influenced by this woman, were 
 opposed to a hired ministry, as being con- 
 trary to the practice of the apostles ; but 
 she consented that when a " hireling minis- 
 ter " came to the island, and was agreeable 
 
 to 
 
82 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 to the people, and stayed some time, and 
 took pains to benefit them, the people might 
 give what they pleased for his sustenance, 
 — " such as Indian corn or other provi- 
 sions, as they happened to have at the 
 time to spare, and wool for clothing, but 
 nothing certain or settled." ^ 
 
 In her house the Quaker church was 
 formed, and there it worshiped for four 
 years. A record book was bought in 
 April, 1 708, and the first writing in it was 
 a petition to the Rhode Island Yearly 
 Meeting "to be joined unto" some Quar- 
 terly Meeting, and to have on Nantucket 
 " a general meeting of worship once in ye 
 year ; " which acts were to make a con- 
 nection with the Quaker societies of New 
 England. 
 
 At the same time it was agreed " to take 
 care for a piece of ground for a lot to set a 
 meeting-house on & for a burial ground." 
 
 Patience 
 
 1 William Penn exhorted Quakers to " cultivate a universal 
 spirit," because recognizing the universality of Divine spiritual 
 visitation. And this sense of the priesthood of the individual 
 man, and of every one's responsibility direct to God, led the 
 Quaker to object to all hierarchical or priestly assumptions. 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 83 
 
 Patience Gardner, Ann Barnard, and Mir- 
 iam Worth were " appointed to regulate 
 the conduct of children in meeting," — a 
 more suitable appointment than was cus- 
 tomary in the Puritan churches of New 
 England, where this duty was assigned to 
 men. Next year, they agreed to build the 
 meeting-house " as fast as we can ; " eight 
 years later, they paid Jabez Macy for en- 
 larging it " by adding twenty feet more in 
 length ; " and the congregation increased 
 to such an extent that, in the year 1730, 
 men were selected " to make choyce of a 
 place to set a new meeting house on." 
 This house was built during the next year, 
 and was paid for as soon as it was finished. 
 From its beginning the church had 
 money in hand, and was liberal in gifts 
 to help its poor and to maintain its faith. 
 At every Monthly Meeting " to inspect ye 
 affairs of ye Church," or, as the records 
 sometimes say, " to inspect ye affairs of 
 Truth," shillings and sixpences were col- 
 lected " for ye servise & use of Friends." 
 Out of the meeting's stock thus collected, 
 five pounds were given to help to build 
 
 a 
 
84 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 a meeting-house in Providence town ; five 
 pounds to help to build one at Smithfield ; 
 two pounds to help " ye purchase of a Cer- 
 tain piece of land at boston " for a meeting- 
 house ; twelve pounds were given " for ye 
 procuring an unjust law made null and 
 voyd whereby Friends suffer much in the 
 loss of their goods ; " money was paid " for 
 Friends passages from the main to our 
 meetings ; " fifteen pounds were given to 
 Thomas Hathaway " towards repairing his 
 loss of his house by fire ; " four pounds 
 were given to Joseph Hamlin, " he being 
 poor and craving help ; " twenty pounds 
 were sent to England to get the disappro- 
 val of " a law in New England by which 
 Friends suffer persecution and are greatly 
 oprest by ye presbitereans." 
 
 The time for opening the book of disci- 
 pline came soon to this little church. Let 
 us read from its records of May, 1 708 : 
 " Our visitors having treated with Sarah 
 Darling respecting her marrying with a 
 man of another persuasion, and dont find 
 any disposition in her to condemn herself, 
 It is the judgement of the meeting that 
 
 she 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 85 
 
 she be set aside." And let us read from 
 the records of April, 1709: " Phebe wife of 
 George Bunker is set aside for going with 
 another man. Eunice Alley is set aside 
 for marrying contrary to the good order of 
 Friends and refusing to give satisfaction." 
 But Lois Lacey and Lydia Folger, who 
 were guilty of the same transgression, stood 
 up in meeting and told of their sorrow 
 and were forgiven. So, too, with William 
 Swayne, who, to save himself from disown- 
 ment by the Quaker church, confessed his 
 sins, " for which," he said, " I am truly 
 sorry & begg pardon of God, desiring also 
 to be forgiven by his people whom I have 
 grieved, brought truble & reproch upon by 
 my scandelouse behaviour. I do Declare 
 yt if I had kept to ye Light & Truth as 
 held & profesed by ye people called Qua- 
 kers it would have preserved me out of 
 yt evil." ^ Other acts besides immoralities 
 were punished by disownment. The prin- 
 ciples of the Quaker Society forbade its 
 members to contend with each other in law- 
 suits ; 
 
 1 Records of the Quaker Society, October, 1715. 
 
86 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 suits ; and when Stephen Hussey, who had 
 become a notorious plaintiff in the courts, 
 had caused the arrest of three of the town's 
 trustees, and expressed no regret for his ac- 
 tion, the church immediately disowned him. 
 Although many of the Quakers of Nan- 
 tucket were slaveholders, the church delib- 
 erately recorded this opinion about slavery 
 in June, 1716: " It was ye sence & judge- 
 ment of this meeting that it is not agree- 
 able to Truth for Friends to purchase 
 slaves & keep them term of life." This 
 ambiguous opinion exhibited the worldly 
 shrewdness of Quakerism. It did not con- 
 demn slavery as a sin ; it merely protested 
 in a mild manner against the purchase 
 of more slaves, and the keeping a slave 
 during the " term of life." It fell short of 
 the general sentiment about slavery exist- 
 ing in other parts of New England at that 
 time. In the year 1701, the town of Bos- 
 ton instructed its representatives at the 
 General Court to use their influence to 
 procure the abolishment of slavery. The 
 Quakers had no thought of its abolition. 
 Indian and African slaves were valued as 
 
 merchandise 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 87 
 
 merchandise in their inventories, and were 
 mentioned as in their possession, down to 
 the end of the colonial period. Stephen 
 Hussey's will, made in the year 1716, be- 
 queathed — 
 
 To my wife a negro woman named 
 Sarah. 
 
 To my son Silvanus a negro boy 
 named Mark. 
 
 To my daughter Theodata a negro 
 girl named Dorothy. 
 The Quaker church records of the year 
 1 760 say : — 
 
 We have treated with Timothy Fol- 
 ger and he says that he is bound over 
 the sea and is determined, before his 
 departure, to put his negro girl in a posi- 
 tion of living free at twenty-five years of 
 age. 
 
 The account book of William Rotch, 
 Quaker merchant, says, that in August, 
 1770, he paid " the cost and court charges 
 on my negro George for stealing three 
 geese." 
 
 The Quaker church showed its worldly 
 shrewdness, also, in giving an opinion about 
 
 the 
 
88 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 the wearing of periwigs. A Rhode Island 
 Quarterly Meeting of the year 1721 advised 
 a general examination of the question, 
 " What method or measure may be most 
 easy and effectual to prevent Friends wear- 
 ing extravagant wiggs ? " The opinion of 
 the Nantucket meeting, given a year later, 
 was evidently not intended as an offense to 
 its wig-wearing members : — 
 
 That all such who propose they have 
 need of a wigg ought to take ye advice 
 & approbation of ye visitors of their 
 meetings before they proceed to get one. 
 . . . That all be careful not in a careless 
 or overly minde to cutt off their hair 
 (which was given them for a covering) 
 to put on a wigg or indecent capp which 
 has been a gaining practice to ye Trou- 
 ble of many earnest Friends. 
 Having satisfied their consciences by this 
 recorded opinion, the Quakers expressed 
 some concern about the renewed activity 
 of their neighbor, the little Presbyterian 
 society, which for some time had been in a 
 comatose state ; and they threw a stone at 
 it by affirming " our antient & christian 
 
 testimony 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 89 
 
 testimony against paying towards ye main- 
 tenance of a hireling ministry." 
 
 In the Quaker society, love, courting, 
 and marriage were regulated, so far as was 
 possible, by the Book of Discipline. The 
 man and the woman intending marriage 
 were required to declare their intentions 
 to the Monthly Meeting. In the silence 
 of this assembly the man rises and says, 
 for example, " I intend to take Margaret 
 Gardner to be my wife if the Lord per- 
 mit ; " then Margaret rises and says, " I 
 intend to take Jonathan Folger to be my 
 husband if the Lord permit." From that 
 moment, as the book declares, " they do 
 not dwell in the same house together until 
 the marriage is consumated." A com- 
 mittee is then appointed to ascertain " the 
 conversation and clearness of the parties ; " 
 to ascertain if either of them has previously 
 made an engagement to marry, or has had 
 any entanglements with men or women. 
 If the report of these inspectors is favor- 
 able, " the continuance of their intention 
 of marriage " is permitted, and they are 
 
 said 
 
go QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 said to have "passed meeting." But the 
 inspectors' report sometimes disclosed 
 unpleasant facts. For example : " Robert 
 Gardner and Judith Folger appeared be- 
 fore the meeting and declared their inten- 
 tions of marriage. Elihu Coleman and 
 Benjamin Barney were appointed to inquire 
 into Robert Gardner's clearness from other 
 women." ^ The committee reported : " We 
 do not find that he is altogether clear, 
 there being a scandalous report of him on 
 ye accusation of a young woman." For 
 this he offered to condemn himself, and 
 after his condemnation had been read in 
 meeting he was allowed to marry Judith 
 Folger. This seems to have been the 
 usual way of getting out of a sinful mire. 
 When Mary Paddock was about to marry 
 Francis Swaine, the committee to examine 
 into their clearness made a very unfavora- 
 ble report. The two stood up in the meet- 
 ing of next first day and read a self-con- 
 demnation by which their sin was to be 
 expiated, and the queasy conscience of 
 
 Quaker 
 
 ^ Records of the Quaker Society, A. D. 1729. 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 91 
 
 Quaker society was to be appeased. It was 
 simply this : " Friends, we are very sorry 
 for our transgression, and desire mercy 
 from God, and beg forgiveness of the 
 people of God whom we have offended." 
 Then the past was buried, and they were 
 allowed to marry. 
 
 Marriages were made in the meeting- 
 house before witnesses, who subscribed 
 their names to a certificate of the act. 
 George Fox, the apostle of Quakerism, 
 said, " We marry none, but are witnesses 
 of it." He taught that marriage is " God's 
 joining, not man's ; " that no human priest- 
 hood, no " man-made minister," had a right 
 to perform the ceremony, which was like 
 a piece of simple machinery. There were 
 no orange blossoms, no music, no veils, no 
 gifts. Alongside the bridegroom were 
 placed " two judicious, grave and weighty 
 men," and alongside the bride were " two 
 such women," as the book calls them, whose 
 faces may have been solemn enough for 
 a funeral. At the proper moment these 
 guardians told the young man and the 
 young woman to stand up. Rising and 
 
 taking 
 
g2 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 taking each other by the hand, the man 
 said, " in an audible and solemn manner," 
 as required by the book, " I take this 
 woman to be my wife, promising through 
 divine assistance to be unto her a loving 
 and faithful husband until it shall please 
 the Lord by death to separate us ; " the 
 woman then repeated similar words re- 
 specting the man, and thus they became 
 husband and wife. 
 
 No one kissed the bride, no one smiled 
 as if heartily approving the marriage ; and 
 as she retired from the silent meeting- 
 house, no one threw the slipper with which 
 she was to stroke down her husband, as 
 Omphale stroked the head of Hercules 
 with her sandal when he became unruly. 
 They hastened to a place where, with only 
 their intimate friends, they enjoyed a cele- 
 bration of the marriage. But even to this 
 retreat the Quaker meeting sent its spies 
 to see if the joyousness was decent and 
 orderly. I quote an illustration from the 
 church records of the year 1 769 : — 
 
 " The members appointed to attend 
 Francis Barnard's marriage make return 
 
 that 
 
THE DOMINION OF THE QUAKERS 93 
 
 that it was pretty well conducted except- 
 ing that some of the young people were 
 very disorderly; whereupon William Coffin 
 & Samuel Starbuck are appointed to in- 
 quire into the case." They reported " that 
 they have treated with the young man and 
 with the master of the house where the 
 entertainment was, who say they disallow 
 of such disorders & hope to be more care- 
 ful in the future." 
 
 The records do not describe that " very 
 disorderly " conduct which the spies dis- 
 covered ; but, however disorderly, it was 
 probably nothing more than a spontane- 
 ous outburst of joy for their brief freedom 
 from the shackles of Quakerism. 
 
 Many of the marriageable girls of Nan- 
 tucket were born into the Quaker society, 
 and it was necessary for a young man of 
 " the world's people " to ask for admission, 
 or, as the phrase was, " to be taken under 
 the care of Friends," if he would take 
 under his own care the blooming young 
 Quakeress upon whom his affection had 
 been fixed. Joseph Nichols, for example, 
 declaring his desire " to be taken under 
 
 direction 
 
94 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 direction and care," is admitted ; and soon 
 thereafter his intention of marriage with 
 Mary Ann Barnard is announced in meet- 
 ing. 
 
 Discipline in the Quaker church was 
 never relaxed. The members were sur- 
 rounded by a mysterious surveillance which 
 was alert to catch every rumor, and to un- 
 cover every act offensive to what was called 
 " the good order of Truth." The necessity 
 frequently arising for an exercise of disci- 
 pline was doubtless painful to those of the 
 communion who strove to maintain its 
 reputation for purity and sobriety. But 
 their theory of a righteous life was ill-fitted 
 to struggle with all the evil tendencies of 
 human nature ; and this fact was acknow- 
 ledged when forgiveness was offered and 
 " unity was restored " to penitent sinners. 
 Some were so bold that they would not 
 make their repentance to an assembly 
 which assumed the divine right to forgive. 
 Such was the case of Rebecca Bunker, the 
 wife of George Folger, of whom the visit- 
 ors reported : " Not being able to come at 
 her we treated with her mother and she 
 
 told 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 95 
 
 told US she had consulted with her daugh- 
 ter and she had rather be disowned than 
 to make them any satisfaction " for her im- 
 moral offenses. 
 
 Of the many meetings of the society, 
 designated by various names, one was 
 called the Select Meeting. It was com- 
 posed of ministers and elders of both sexes, 
 selected because their lives and conversa- 
 tions were " clean and blameless amongst 
 men," because they were " sound in word 
 and doctrine," and " in unity one with 
 another." When a man or a woman was 
 found to give testimony in an acceptable 
 manner, and appeared to be " duly an- 
 nointed and qualified," the Select Meeting 
 approved such a one as a minister or as 
 an elder, and referred the nomination to 
 Monthly and Quarterly Meetings. The 
 society was greatly troubled when it be- 
 came necessary to discipline these trusted 
 teachers; as, in July, 1725, it called up 
 Stephen Wilcock for his disorderly walk- 
 ing, which, as the record says, " hath been 
 to yt degree yt his testimony is become 
 inconsistent & burdensome to ye meeting ; 
 
 & 
 
g6 QUA/NT NANTUCKET 
 
 & ye meeting having had a sence of his 
 being not fitt to preach, Nathaniel Starbuck 
 and Batchellor Hussey are desired to go to 
 him & let him know yt ye meeting desires 
 he would be silent and not offer his gift." 
 It was recorded in the year 1760 that a 
 preacher, John Macy by name, " delivered 
 in meeting several censures which are dis- 
 orderly, and he asserted divine authority 
 for a fact which proved to be not so." He 
 said he was willing " to make a verbal ac- 
 knowledgment in meeting of the miss he 
 made in asserting divine authority." This 
 was not satisfactory, and three months later 
 his career as a preacher was ended by this 
 brief record : " John Macy to bear no more 
 publick testimony." According to tradi- 
 tion, the real offense of this minister was 
 too many visits to the Presbyterian priest. 
 When Boswell told Dr. Johnson that he 
 " had been that morning at a meeting of 
 the people called Quakers," where he heard 
 a woman preach, Johnson replied : " Sir, a 
 woman's preaching is like a dog's walking 
 on his hind legs. It is not done well, but 
 you are surprised to find it done at all." 
 
 Women 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 97 
 
 Women preachers often visited the Nan- 
 tucket meeting/ On winter Sundays there 
 was a wood fire in the chimney at each 
 end of the meeting-house, but it was diffi- 
 cult for the worshipers to keep themselves 
 warm. Women carried foot-stoves, and 
 filled them with coals from the fireplaces 
 before taking their seats. Tradition tells 
 of a woman preacher from England who 
 visited Nantucket in midwinter, when the 
 meeting-house was so cold that women 
 were constantly going to the fireplaces to 
 refill their stoves. This confusion shocked 
 her sense of propriety, and she arose and 
 said : " Friends, when I came here I ex- 
 pected to find a race of hardy women, able 
 to endure cold, but I see you are not so ; 
 and I have felt while sitting with you that 
 before I would disturb a religious meet- 
 ing like this, by going to the fire so often, 
 I would come to meeting with my feet 
 
 wrapped 
 
 1 Women preachers were recognized by the Quaker church, 
 because it was not thought proper for human wisdom to deter- 
 mine through whom the Spirit should speak. " The spirit of 
 man is the candle of the Lord," was often quoted from the 
 Book of Proverbs ; the evidence of Divine authority was " the 
 witness of the Spirit." 
 
98 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 wrapped in sheepskins." Then a woman 
 arose and deliberately walked to the fire- 
 place, slammed her foot-stove on the hearth, 
 took the tongs, knocked off a bed of coals 
 from the logs, filled her stove, and walked 
 back to her seat, with an action as if to say, 
 " That 's for thee ! " 
 
 Thomas Chalkley, a Quaker minister 
 who visited Nantucket in the year 1737, 
 says in his journal : " The people live in such 
 a way that lawyers who plead for money, 
 and doctors who prescribe for money, and 
 preachers who preach for money have no 
 employment on the island." This was the 
 scrimping condition of living during the 
 early years of the Quaker society, which 
 had become the popular form of religious 
 life ; cheap in its cost, easy in its profession, 
 it now numbered a thousand members, 
 nearly nine tenths of the English popula- 
 tion. In the year 1755, it numbered two 
 thousand, and included the wealthiest peo- 
 ple. Samuel Fothergill, a Quaker preacher 
 who visited Nantucket in that year, says in 
 his journal: "As the richest of the inhab- 
 itants embraced the principles of Truth 
 
 from 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 99 
 
 from conviction, the others thought the ex- 
 pense of maintaining a priest would be 
 too heavy for them, and they have turned 
 Quakers to save money." 
 
 In the mechanism of poHtical life there 
 was no place for the faithful Quaker. His 
 principles forbade him to acknowledge any 
 duty to the state. He refused to fight, or 
 take up arms to defend the flag under 
 whose protection he was living, nor would 
 he voluntarily pay any part of the cost of 
 employing soldiers and sailors to defend it. 
 
 " I do not see, sir," said Dr. Johnson, 
 " that fighting is absolutely forbidden in 
 Scripture." 
 
 " The Quakers say it is," replied Boswell ; 
 " ' unto him that smiteth thee on one cheek, 
 offer him also the other.' " 
 
 " But stay, sir," said Johnson, " the text 
 is meant only to have the effect of moder- 
 ating passions. We see this from the con- 
 text, where there are other recommenda- 
 tions which I warrant you the Quakers will 
 not take literally ; as, for instance, ' From 
 him that would borrow of thee turn not 
 thou away.' Let a man whose credit is 
 
 bad 
 
lOO QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 bad come to a Quaker and say, ' Well, sir, 
 lend me a hundred pounds,' he '11 find him 
 as unwilling as any other man. So in 1 745, 
 my friend, Tom Gumming the Quaker, said 
 he would not fight, but he would drive an 
 ammunition cart." 
 
 "A Quaker," says Coleridge in his "Ta- 
 ble Talk," " is made up of ice and flame. 
 He has no mean temperature. Hence he is 
 rarely interested about any public measure 
 but he becomes a fanatic, and oversteps, 
 in his irrespective zeal, every decency and 
 every right opposed to his course." 
 
 In the year 1 757, a tax was levied upon the 
 inhabitants of Nantucket for expenses of 
 the French and Indian War. A part of this 
 tax was known as "soldiers money ; " and, as 
 many Quakers refused to pay it, the town 
 tax-collector distrained it. The Quaker 
 church records give this " account of what 
 has been taken from Friends to pay that 
 part of the tax called soldiers money: " — 
 
 from Jethro Folger ; four silver 
 
 spoons ^2.18.11 
 
 other silver spoons 13. 2 
 
 from John Macy ; sundry pew- 
 ter 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS loi 
 
 ter things and looking glass, 
 
 worth I.I 2. o 
 
 from Silvanus Worth ; oval ta- 
 ble and pair of hand irons 
 worth 2. 4. o 
 
 2 pewter platters worth 9. 9 
 
 from Nathaniel Coleman ; one 
 
 silver spoon 10. o 
 
 from William Hussey ; one sil- 
 ver pepper box 1.12. o 
 
 from Barnabas Coleman ; 3 sil- 
 ver spoons 1. 1 6. 4 
 
 from William Russell ; i silver 
 
 cup 2. 8. o 
 
 from Joseph Russell ; i silver 
 
 cup & spoon 2.13. 9 
 
 from Jonathan Gardner; i oval 
 table, I pair hand irons, 4 
 chairs, all worth 2.12. o 
 
 from Nathaniel Gardner ; six 
 
 silver spoons 3. 3. 4 
 
 from William Starbuck ; three 
 
 silver spoons i. o. o 
 
 In the year 1772, Stephen Hussey, a 
 member of the Quaker meeting, was 
 elected representative from Nantucket to 
 
 the 
 
I02 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 the General Court of the Province of Mas- 
 sachusetts Bay. The meeting noted this 
 fact in its records and said : " No Friend 
 can, consistent with the rule of Friends' 
 Society, sit in that assembly." Committees 
 were sent "to labor with him respecting 
 his sitting in the General Court," and, as 
 they reported " we don't find him disposed 
 to make Friends satisfaction," he was pub- 
 licly set aside. 
 
 The Quaker church believed that those 
 who never use the sword will never need 
 the sword, and so the War of the Revolu- 
 tion was a trial of its principles. William 
 Worth, a member of the church, was dis- 
 owned " for going to sea in a prize vessel 
 taken in the present war, which we think," 
 as was written in the church records, " is 
 joining too much with that spirit of plun- 
 der whereby such things are acquired." 
 Paul Hussey was disowned " for being 
 bound to sea & intending to carry guns 
 to defend himself and interests." And in 
 pursuance of its policy of peace the church 
 disowned many of its members at this time, 
 for reasons which were stated thus : — 
 
 For 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 103 
 
 For " sailing in an armed vessel." 
 
 For " going to sea privateering." 
 
 For " attending a vendue on a captured 
 
 vessel." 
 For " being down at Brandt Point among 
 
 armed men, and he had a gun." 
 For " enlisting in the East India Com- 
 pany's service at the island called St. 
 Helena." 
 For being " in some office connected 
 
 with the war in the western parts." 
 For " sailing in an armed vessel from 
 
 London." 
 For " being engaged in service on board 
 
 a man of war and taking wages." 
 For " taking up arms in a warlike man- 
 
 ner. 
 For " taking a small arm in pursuit of 
 some prisoners who had broken gaol 
 of the county." 
 Visitors of the Quaker society were ever 
 alert to find transgressors, and the num- 
 ber of transgressing members whom they 
 caused to be disowned, during the latter 
 part of the last century, was very large. A 
 committee appointed to report " how far 
 
 back" 
 
I04 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 back " offenses may be searched for, re- 
 ported that " no time be set ; " and so they 
 trailed Nantucket fore and aft, disturbing 
 many people who had been quietly living 
 immoral lives under the sober - colored 
 cloak of Quakerism. 
 
 The visitors were men and women who 
 had outlived the pleasures of youth, and 
 whose constant fear was " too much light- 
 ness among young people." They called 
 John Coffin to account " for keeping in his 
 house a musical instrument called a spin- 
 net, and permitting his daughter to play 
 thereon." A few months later, John Coffin 
 stood up in the meeting and showed his 
 penitence by the unmanly declaration that 
 he " had no hand in bringing the spinnet 
 to his house, and has forbid it ever being 
 used there, and is sorry it was brought 
 into his house, and that he was a little 
 short and rough with the visitors." But 
 Keziah Cofifin, when taken to task "for 
 keeping a spinnet in her house and per- 
 mitting her daughter to play thereon," re- 
 fused to repent, and was disowned by 
 the Quaker church. Jethro Pinkham was 
 
 disowned 
 
THE DOMINION OF THE QUAKERS 105 
 
 disowned merely " for keeping a violin to 
 play upon." 
 
 Quakers cherished the Puritan's hatred 
 of music, merriment, and sports.^ Dances, 
 picnics, and moonlight excursions for pleas- 
 ure were interdicted on Nantucket; and 
 therefore Ichabod Paddock and Latham 
 Gardner were disowned for sailing about 
 the harbor " in a vessel where dancing was 
 performed," and keeping company with 
 young women " not of our society." In 
 summer time the cliff and beach at Sias- 
 conset had the same attractions for young 
 people as now. They went there to see the 
 ocean rolling towards the island in long 
 ridges of deep water, curling over the edge 
 of the shoals, and breaking in cataracts of 
 foam along the shore. Here the view is 
 unbounded : — 
 
 " Eastward, as far as the eye can see, 
 Still eastward, eastward, endlessly, 
 The sparkle and tremor of purple sea 
 That rises before you, a flickering hill, 
 On and on to the shut of the sky." 
 
 For 
 
 1 John Banks, the Quaker preacher, spoke like a Puritan 
 when he wrote to his children : "be quiet and sober, not wan- 
 ton, nor given to play, nor laughing ; but mind your books and 
 go to meetings ! " 
 
I06 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 For " allowing a company of young peo- 
 ple to dance in his house at Siasconset," 
 Thomas Coffin was disowned by the 
 Quaker church. Jethro Hussey was dis- 
 owned because " he was refractory " when 
 the visitors reproved him for " attending 
 where fiddling and dancing were carried 
 on ; " he confessed " barring my doors, get- 
 ting my pen ink and paper, and forbidding 
 them to preach to me, and making a com- 
 parison between Quakerism and Free Ma- 
 sonry." Eunice Worth and many young 
 women were " set aside for persisting in 
 going to places of amusement where there 
 was fiddling and dancing;" but Phebe 
 Bunker, being penitent and in tears, is for- 
 given because she is " suffering for having 
 been to places of music and dancing tho 
 not a partaker therein." 
 
 The discipline of the church compelled 
 conformity to certain styles of apparel and 
 to peculiar phrases of speech. John Hus- 
 sey was disowned for " inconsistent appear- 
 ance in dress particularly in wearing his 
 hair, and no disposition to make alteration 
 therein." Several young men, deciding 
 
 not 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 107 
 
 not to wear their hair " as straight as a 
 pound of candles," tied it in cues ; they 
 were disowned for "deviating from our 
 principles in dress." Deborah Smith was 
 set aside because she did " not use the 
 plain language," — 
 
 " The thee and the thou of the Quaker." 
 
 Visitors of the church reported that " Deb- 
 orah said she did n't think she ever should." 
 Discipline fell upon trivial and upon im- 
 portant offenses alike. Reuben Gardner 
 was disowned for " refusing to submit a 
 controversy with his brother to indiffer- 
 ent men." Andrew Worth was disowned 
 for " throwing oysters out of a vessel with- 
 out authority." Timothy Folger was dis- 
 owned because he "qualified himself for 
 a magistrate ; " Philip Chase, for " having 
 been long in the practice of playing cards ; " 
 Hepzibah Russell, for " unbecoming treat- 
 ment of her husband ; " and Rachael 
 Worth, for " turbulent and outrageous be- 
 haviour to hers," Seth Ray was disowned 
 because he had " gone out in marriage with 
 a woman in New Jersey." Others were 
 
 disowned 
 
lo8 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 disowned for " partaking too freely of spir- 
 ituous licquors ; " for " launching into busi- 
 ness beyond his ability to manage it ; " for 
 " marrying too nigh of kin." ^ 
 
 Edward Allen was disowned for putting 
 his son as an apprentice " to a man who is 
 not a Friend." This discrimination against 
 persons of another faith was a bigotry of 
 Quakerism. It was like the Pharisee's 
 pretensions to superior sanctity. It ap- 
 pears in the compulsion of every man and 
 woman intending marriage to marry in 
 the meeting-house, and to marry a mem- 
 ber of the communion. Solomon Coleman 
 was disowned for " permitting his daugh- 
 ter to be married in his house after the 
 manner of the world, and also joining in 
 prayer with a priest of another persuasion." 
 Mehi table CofHn was disowned because 
 she " assisted her daughter on being mar- 
 ried in her house by a hireling minister." 
 
 Mary, 
 
 1 Marrying " too nigh of kin " troubled other consciences be- 
 sides the Quaker conscience. In Judge Sewall's Memoranda 
 of a visit to Martha's Vineyard, April, 1702, he says : " Mrs. 
 Thacher on her death bed troubled abt her Marriage to Mr. 
 Kemp her first husband. Some smell of Relation between ym." 
 
THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 109 
 
 Mary, wife of Nathan Coffin, was disowned 
 " for being present at a marriage performed 
 by a priest." Ann Husseywas disowned 
 for "justifying her daughter in marrying 
 a man not in membership with us ; " and 
 Peleg Hussey was disowned for " being 
 present at the marriage of one of his chil- 
 dren performed contrary to the order of 
 Friends." Thus, with its laws and con- 
 ventions, begetting artificial virtues and 
 punishing artificial sins, Quakerism had 
 become a tyrant. 
 
 A home-bound whaleman, running in 
 towards the island on a foggy morning, 
 anchored his ship outside the bar. When 
 the fog lifted, it was meeting time. Look- 
 ing through his spyglass, he saw crowds of 
 people going from all parts of the island to 
 the great meeting-house, and he said, " I 
 could not keep from shouting at the inspir- 
 ing sight." They who see in Quakerism, 
 as it was then represented, a high form of 
 religious and social life, must feel a shadow 
 coming over them as they now walk about 
 the island and recall its departed power. 
 But, after all that may be said in its favor, 
 
 it 
 
no QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 it was a power that suppressed the natural 
 emotions, dulled ambition, destroyed manli- 
 ness, and reduced the thoughts and actions 
 of men to such a uniform level that one 
 searches in vain for any individual great- 
 ness during the period of its dominion 
 over Nantucket. 
 
 Those plain, square, shingle-sided, un- 
 painted houses, whose cold and barren 
 look tells of the nearness of the sea, are 
 reminders of the Quakerism which ruled 
 Nantucket for more than a hundred years. 
 It reached its highest grade as the last 
 century ended, and soon thereafter it be- 
 gan to decline. As it went down the hill 
 it was split by internal quarrels into three 
 hostile sections, each one calling the other 
 spurious. It continued to dwindle and 
 •dwindle, until at last it was gone from 
 the island as completely as " a wind that 
 blew a thousand years ago." 
 
V 
 
 The Missionary from Boston 
 
 While Thomas Story, the Quaker 
 preacher, was visiting Nantucket in the 
 year 1 704, he found at one of his meetings 
 a smaller number of people than usual ; 
 and he says in his journal that " two priests, 
 an elderly man and a young one, the first 
 from the isle of Shoals and the other from 
 Martha's Vineyard, had a meeting near us 
 and several were curious to hear the new 
 preacher in the Presbyterian way." Other 
 efforts like that mentioned in the Quaker's 
 journal were made to establish Presbyte- 
 rianism on the island ; but owing to the 
 growth and cheapness of Quakerism, which 
 paid no wages to its preachers, they were 
 not successful until the year 171 1, when a 
 little Presbyterian meeting-house was built 
 near Nobottom Pond, and a little congresa- 
 tion began to worship in it. 
 
 In May, 1725, a young minister who had 
 
 been 
 
112 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 been educated at Harvard College was sent 
 to Nantucket to revive the drooping faith 
 of the Puritans represented by this feeble 
 society. His name was Timothy White. 
 He came from Boston, a missionary zeal- 
 ous for good works, and soon after his 
 arrival he fell in love with an island girl 
 named Susanna Gardner, who was a grand- 
 daughter of Captain John Gardner, already 
 mentioned in my narrative. In this new 
 condition of existence he neglected to write 
 to his friends at home; and one day he was 
 aroused by a letter from his sister. Mistress 
 Abigail White, who had heard that he was 
 " far gone " in an occupation unknown to 
 her own experience. To this letter he 
 replied : — 
 
 Nantucket, Sept. 15. 1725 
 
 Sister Abi — I must confess you did 
 eno' to shame me, by catching at an 
 opportunity to write, while I was careless 
 to improve the many which presented. 
 But you have heard I conclude, altho' 
 you don't know by experience, that when 
 Persons are stifHy engaged in Courting, 
 
 they 
 
THE MISSIONARY PROM BOSTON 113 
 
 they are very forgetful of those lesser 
 things. 
 
 I know not to whom you were beholden 
 for your Information, but I can inform 
 you that I was not so far gone in it but 
 that I had determined to quit the place 
 & all the things in it, till I heard from 
 Boston, when your Letter came ; and I 
 have not laid my self under such strong 
 obligations yet, but that I can easily let 
 the action fall if you have anything 
 material to object. 
 
 Whether the reason is because my 
 Company is so very delightsome & 
 charming, or what it is I cant tell, but 
 it has been my Portion to be honour'd 
 with such suspicions, wherever I have 
 yet lived for any time. 
 
 But if this be not true, I could wish it 
 were for I am no enemy to proceedings 
 of this nature. 
 
 He advises his sister " to improve every 
 opportunity for the advancement of your 
 temporal good," which may have been in- 
 terpreted as a suggestion that she also 
 should be " stiffly engaged in courting ; " 
 
 but 
 
114 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 but above all, he says, " you are to be so- 
 licitous for the prosperity of your soul." 
 This was an advice commonly offered by 
 religious letter-writers of those days. 
 
 If Timothy White had " quit the place " 
 at that time, he might have been better 
 off in the end. The longer he stayed, the 
 gloomier became his prospects ; and at the 
 close of two years' living on Nantucket he 
 was intending to return to Boston, an un- 
 married man, when a letter came to him 
 from Benjamin Coleman, minister of the 
 Brattle Street Church, in that town, written 
 on behalf of a committee of " Honorable 
 and Reverend Gentlemen," and inclosing 
 a gift of ;^ioo, with promise of ;^5o more 
 in two years, to be accepted on these con- 
 ditions : — 
 
 First That ye said M' White do will- 
 ingly devote himself to ye service of 
 Christ & Souls on the Island of Nan- 
 tuckett, seriously endeavouring by ye 
 help of God for ye space of five years 
 to come, to introduce & establish the 
 Settlement of a Church state there. 
 And secondly, That ye People of Nan- 
 
 tuckett 
 
THE MISSIONARY FROM BOSTON 115 
 
 tuckett to whom he is & has been min- 
 istering due signify to us their desire 
 of M' White's continuing & labouring 
 among them to this end. 
 This encouragement satisfied him ; and 
 in September, 1728, he married Susanna 
 Gardner, who was seventeen years of age ; 
 he was twenty-eight. The next month he 
 wrote in his note book : " The Commis- 
 sioners for Indian affairs at Boston made 
 known to me their desire of my taking 
 upon me the charge of a Lecture to the 
 Indians upon Nantucket ; on my under- 
 standing of which I sent an answer in the 
 affirmative, and accordingly I begin today." 
 He preached to the Indians once or twice 
 a month for ten years, and received for this 
 labor from the Commissioners £2^ yearly 
 in poor money. During this period he 
 wrote in his book the date of each preach- 
 ing, and the number of Indians in his 
 audience; for example, " 1733, began a 6th 
 year at Miacomet ; November ist there 
 were 23 Indians present; 27th of Decem- 
 ber, 23 Indians; 20th of January, 60 In- 
 dians ; loth of February, 70 Indians ; 24th 
 
 of 
 
Il6 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 of February, 80 Indians ; loth of March, 60 
 Indians; 14th of April, 70 Indians; 20th 
 of April, 60 Indians." 
 
 His popularity with the Indian congre- 
 gations provoked the ignorant native teach- 
 ers, who interfered with his work in such a 
 manner that it became necessary for the 
 Commissioners at Boston to write to them, 
 saying : — 
 
 This is to signify that the Honorable 
 Commissioners, of whom His Excellency 
 the Governor is one, from whom you 
 receive your yearly Salaries, have ap- 
 pointed the Rev'^. M^ Timothy White to 
 preach Lectures to you, to oversee coun- 
 sell & advise you from time to time as 
 occasion shall require, and to inspect the 
 Schools & Churches & to catechise the 
 children & such as are proper for it, & 
 you & all concerned are to pay a proper 
 regard to him accordingly. 
 
 Pursuant to a vote of the AdAM WiNTHROP 
 
 Commissrs this is ordered 
 to be sent to you. 
 Nov. 17th. 1733. 
 
 In the second summer after his marriage 
 he was building a house on land given 
 
 to 
 
THE MISSIONARY FROM BOSTON 117 
 
 to him by his wife's father; it was on the 
 highway near Josiah Cofifin's house, and the 
 garden was " four rods square in the swamp 
 near by."^ Two years later, he assumed 
 the ofiBce of minister to the httle Presby- 
 terian society. For his help in this position 
 there came to him from Boston a bundle 
 of books, with a letter saying : — 
 
 These four volumes of ye Practical 
 works of ye Rev*^ Mr Richard Baxter 
 are given by Samuel Holden Esq"", Gov- 
 ernor of the Bank of England, by ye 
 Special Disposition of Benjamin Colman 
 Pasf of a Church in Boston to the 
 Presbiterian Congregation at Nantucket, 
 now under the ministry of the Rev^ Mr 
 Timo^ White, on the following condi- 
 tons — that ye s'^ Mr White & some of 
 ye principal members of ye Congregation 
 do receive them & keep them safe for 
 ye benefit of ye Teacher & Society of ye 
 Presbiterians on sd Island, & will be 
 
 responsible 
 
 1 On the south side of Cliff Road, a little east of the Josiah 
 Coffin house, is the site of the house built by Timothy White, 
 almost due north from the house with the horseshoe chimney. 
 Between the White house and the house with the horseshoe 
 chimney is the swamp, where was located his garden. 
 
Il8 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 responsible for them so as to return them 
 in Case the public Worship according to 
 the Presbiterian method fails. If there 
 be a number of People that tarry at the 
 Place of Worship after Sermon, one vol- 
 ume shall be kept there for their use if 
 it may be with safety. 
 The congregation was small and poor, 
 paying the minister by voluntary gifts of 
 wood, corn, wool, fish, labor, and some- 
 times money; so he had to look beyond 
 it for the means of living. He opened a 
 school, which had no vacations. Quaker 
 children did not attend it, as they were 
 confined to the schools of the Quaker 
 society. The largest number of scholars 
 at any time was thirty-four; from each 
 scholar he received about ten shillings for 
 a term of three months, paid in money or 
 its value in hay, corn, firewood, cheese, tal- 
 low, or molasses. I copy from his account 
 book some of the payments : — 
 Reed of James Gardner for 
 
 Schooling i Gall molasses 5s. 
 
 Reed of John Bunker for School- 
 ing 60 lbs Cheese 60s. 
 
 Reed 
 
THE MISSIONARY PROM BOSTON 119 
 
 Reed of Josiah Coffin for School- 
 ing Tallow 4s. 
 Reed of Sam Ray for School- 
 ing 2 tubs 19s. 
 Reed of George Brown for 
 
 schooling in Oyl ^4,15.8 
 
 Continuous preaching and teaching pro- 
 duced for the poor missionary and his 
 family only a small maintenance, which 
 he increased by trading in merchandise. 
 Friends on the mainland sent to him in- 
 voices of cloth, bed-ticking, cotton, flour, 
 religious books, almanacs, Watts 's Hymns, 
 and cider. His account book says: — 
 April 1733. Reed from Mr. Brown 
 5 bis Cider which is thus sold : — 
 John Gardner i bl — at 22 shillings 
 John Coffin i bl — at 22 " 
 Josiah Coffin i bl — at 22 " 
 Robert Coffin 2 bl — at 42 " 
 
 Freit on cyder 17.6 
 
 Neat proceeds ^4.10.6 
 
 Reed 
 
I20 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 Reed of above debts 
 in wool 50 shillings and 
 
 six pence ; 
 in fish 40 shillings =^4.10.6 
 
 June 1733. Reed from Mother White 
 one coverlett sold the same to Josiah 
 Coffin to be paid for in wool, £1. 
 Reed the wool and sent it. 
 July 1733. Shipped aboard Capt Wood- 
 man for John White of Haverhill to 
 be paid for in apples or cyder or 
 both — 
 on John Coffins acct — 
 
 4 lb of wool — £\, 2.0 
 
 on John Gardners acct — 
 
 10 lb wool — i.io.o 
 
 on Timothy Whites acct — 
 
 37 lb wool — 3.14-0 
 
 At same time shipped for mother for 
 her cloth 166 lb wool. 
 He appears to have had the genius of a 
 trader. In the year 1735, he sold twenty- 
 five almanacs at sixpence each, and fifteen 
 " Evidences of Christianity" at two shillings 
 and sixpence each, and " laid in for a whal- 
 ing voyage " eight barrels of beef. His 
 
 share 
 
THE MISSIONARY PROM BOSTON 121 
 
 share of the whaling sloop's oil on her first 
 cruise was ten barrels, and on her second 
 cruise fifteen barrels. From that date he 
 was annually shipping whale oil and whale- 
 bone to the Boston market. Some of his 
 slabs of whalebone weighed eight hundred 
 pounds. 
 
 A few extracts taken here and there 
 from his book reveal some of the peculiar 
 circumstances of his life : — 
 
 Let Eben Cain (an Indian) have 5 
 
 shillings which he promised to pay in 
 
 Feathers within 8 or 10 days. He paid 
 
 the Feathers. 
 
 Let Zach Hoit have a pair of Breeches 
 
 Shirt and Hat. Paid by carting Wood. 
 
 Let Zach Hoit have a Jacket for which 
 
 he is to pay ye next Fall (i\ Bushels of 
 
 Corn. 
 
 Cleared with James Ribbin for the 
 
 Boys breaking his window — paying 4 
 
 shillings and in ye Spring i shilling. In 
 
 all 5 Shillings. 
 
 Paid to Jos Daws for Labour i pair 
 
 of knee Buckles 4 shillings. Paid to 
 
 his wife for Weaving 20 shillings. 
 
 Bourt 
 
2 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 Bourt of John Bunker loo lbs of 
 Chees @ i shilling and pd in cash 40 
 shillings & Schooling 60 shillings. 
 
 Sold to Sylvanus Hussey 722 lbs 
 Whalebone besides the 200 weighed 
 out by himself. 
 
 Put on board Sylvanus's schooner for 
 Boston 34 bbls of Oyl. 
 
 Put on board Andrew Gardner's sloop 
 for Boston 18 bbls Oyl. 
 
 Pd to John Coffin Freit of wood to 
 Newburg and apples & cyder from thence 
 for sale 80 shillings. 
 
 Sent by Bro Cragie to Pay Couz. Wm 
 White for a Piece of Callico and to get 
 Sundries for sale £%. 
 
 Reed from Bro Cragie Sundries to 
 the value of ;^i7 for sale. 
 
 Sent to Rhode Island 20 shillings to 
 get vin treacle & cocheneal & a piece of 
 striped Cotton. 
 
 This day Thomas Dagget of Edgar- 
 town informed me that the money (^18) 
 which I sent to him the last year for a 
 Cow was delivered to him. 
 
 Pd to Mary Barnard, Doct^ /5.1.8, 
 
 and 
 
THE MISSIONARY PROM BOSTON 123 
 
 and for Phyisick then had 2 shillings 
 (June 21, 1749). 
 
 Thomas Hubbard, a merchant of Boston, 
 had collected ^24 from a convention of 
 ministers, and sent the money to Timothy 
 White, with a letter dated in June, 1748, 
 saying : — 
 
 Sometime ago D' Sewall put into my 
 hands a letter from yourself represent- 
 ing the low circumstances of life your 
 situation in the world had exposed you 
 to, upon which I communicated the same 
 to several of the members of the General 
 Court, but found it was beyond their 
 power to help you in a public station, 
 w'^^ I am persuaded they would gladly 
 have done if they could ; whereupon I 
 returned your letter to the doctor with 
 four pounds cash from myself to be sent 
 you at the first opportunity. . . . Doct 
 Sewall after this communicated your let- 
 ter to the convention of ministers who 
 readily voted you twenty pounds (old 
 Tenor) out of the collection. ... At last 
 he put it in my care, & now by Mr Abi- 
 jah Folger I have sent you twenty four 
 
 pounds. 
 
124 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 pounds. ... I heartily wish you health 
 & prosperity in your Lord's work & 
 hope that some door or other may be 
 opened for your comfort and relief. 
 But the poor missionary had already dis- 
 covered that it was useless to contend 
 against the power of Quakerism which was 
 ruling Nantucket ; and writing to the Rev. 
 John Webb, of Boston, his " dear brother 
 in the Lord," he said his discouragements 
 were so great and many that they will 
 compel him in a little time " to take leave 
 of the poor people " in whose service he 
 had spent a great part of his life. A reply 
 from his friend promised that the minis- 
 ters in Boston would " use their interest 
 that you may have a more comfortable 
 support." It was only a promise. In June, 
 1750, he departed from Nantucket, carry- 
 ing with him as a memorial of his mis- 
 sionary life the four volumes of Richard 
 Baxter's works. " These books," said he, 
 " are in my hands, there being no preacher 
 on the island when I left ; and as I supplied 
 that pulpit for more than eighteen years 
 after they were put into my hands, and 
 
 during 
 
THE MISSIONARY PROM BOSTON 125 
 
 during this term of years lived chiefly upon 
 my own means, I am justified in account- 
 ing them my own." 
 
 Soon after leaving Nantucket, he under- 
 took a commercial business at Haverhill, 
 his birthplace, on the Merrimac River, 
 His first venture was in loading a vessel 
 bound to Philadelphia. For assistance in 
 obtaining a return cargo he wrote to Joseph 
 Rotch, a Quaker merchant of Nantucket, 
 whose reply reflects the nature of Timothy 
 White's business, and reminds him that, 
 although he had been a trader, he has 
 not yet learned " the way amongst mer- 
 chants." 
 
 Nantucket, July 3, 1750 
 
 Respect'' friend Timothy White — 
 I remember that I tould thee I would 
 write to my friend at phelladelphia to fill 
 Capt Chase up & so I have wrote to 
 John Misselin, but if thou art affrade to 
 trust to that thou must tell what part of 
 the vessel I shal load & gitt a Charter 
 party writ for. If I know what part I 
 have to load my friend can be gitting it 
 Reddy while Capt Chase is doing what 
 
 he 
 
126 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 he will have to do, but if thou means 
 to load what part thou pleases, and not 
 tell what part it is, I know no other 
 way than to write to my friend to put 
 in what is wanting, which I have done. 
 As for sending order for such thing it is 
 not the way amongst merchants. When 
 I sent Capt Chase last year I never had 
 any agreement with any man but sent 
 him to John Misslen & desired him to 
 load him back. Therefore I must have 
 a certain part of the vessel or quantity 
 of goods now before she goes on. Thou 
 must trust to me & my friend to fill the 
 vessel up. I am thy friend 
 
 Joseph Rotch. 
 In the year 1752, he was doing business 
 at Haverhill in the name of Timothy 
 White & Company, and was writing to 
 Messrs. Stork & Champion, merchants in 
 London, that " Being about 150 miles from 
 Nantucket I can but seldom get any Intel- 
 legence from there of the management of 
 my Partners in the sloop Susanna of which 
 I own an eighth part." The sloop had 
 carried a cargo of oil to London, and he 
 
 desired 
 
THE MISSIONARY FROM BOSTON 127 
 
 desired the consignees to balance the ac- 
 count of his share, and ship what was due 
 to him in goods " by Capt. Andrew Craigie 
 who is bound to Boston." He writes : — 
 I am now scituated in the countrey 
 upon Merrimack, commonly called New- 
 bury River, about 15 miles above New- 
 bury, where we abound with the best of 
 Plank & ships timbers, and carry on a 
 large stock at building which increases 
 yearly, having expert workmen, and do 
 build cheaper than either Boston or 
 Newbury. We abound also with staves 
 both white & red oak, & with boards, 
 clap boards & shingle, and are getting 
 into the Tarr & Turpentine trade. A 
 large countrey just upon our back and 
 plenty of some kind of Furrs which 
 are transported to England. . . . What 
 suits best with us are woolens & Linens 
 for mens & womens wear, but none 
 high prized, white and black Gloves & 
 other mourning, soft Pewter, nails, cutlery 
 & Haberdashery. The Liverpool mer- 
 chants send over their Iron as well as 
 Canvas & Riging for what vessels they 
 
 build 
 
128 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 build here, this place being very well 
 suited for trade upon Merrimack river. 
 I 've made a small beginning but find 
 money to scarce have thots of entering 
 partnership with one or two skillful & 
 successful traders especially if it will suit 
 you to trade with us for shipping of any 
 kind. 
 
 Your humble servant 
 
 Timothy White & Comp. 
 At the end of his account books I found 
 
 this paragraph, written by an unknown 
 
 hand : — 
 
 M-" Timothy White Dyed at Haver- 
 hill about II o'clock Lord's Day Even- 
 ing, February 24th, 1765. 
 Although he labored during the best 
 
 part of his life to benefit the people of 
 
 Nantucket, his name is not mentioned in 
 
 their annals. 
 
VI 
 
 Sea-Journals and Sea-Rovers 
 
 " With sails let fall, and sheeted home, and clear of the ground 
 
 were we ; 
 We crossed the bar, stood round the point, and sailed away to 
 
 sea." 
 
 " A JOURNAL of an intended voyage from 
 Nantucket by God's permission," — so run 
 the opening words of these old books. 
 Following this recognition of Him " who 
 hath measured the waters in the hollow of 
 his hand " are the records of daily events 
 at sea ; the direction of the wind, character 
 of the weather, run of the log chip, courses 
 steered, the latitude and longitude, the oc- 
 cupations of the ship's company. Then 
 come the last words of the day : " So ends 
 this 24 hours all on board in health through 
 the blessing of God." 
 
 The pages of these journals have been 
 polished by the friction of oily hands ; the 
 language is picturesque; and here and 
 there quaint words, which passed out of 
 
 use 
 
130 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 use long ago, come upon the reader like 
 a flash-light from the last century. The 
 sea-rovers who wrote them were revolters 
 against uniform spellings, as if uniformity 
 were " a strife against nature." ^ In this 
 they were not wrong, for the meaning of 
 words is determined not so much by their 
 orthography as by their combination and 
 place in the text. Voltaire, who derided 
 both English and French orthography, 
 said : " Writing is the painting of the 
 voice ; the closer the resemblance the bet- 
 ter the picture." 
 
 The threads that made up the strand of 
 Nantucket life were not diverse; in one 
 way or another they all wove themselves 
 into the sea. For a Nantucket boy, there 
 
 was 
 
 1 " The process of compelling a uniform orthography is, in 
 fact, a strife against nature. It is the fault of our current or- 
 thography that it is too fixed already. This fixity it is that 
 lends force to the clamor which rises from time to time for a 
 revolutionary phonetic change. In proportion as spelling is 
 rigid, in the same degree it must be unnatural, and therefore 
 liable to a breakdown of some sort sooner or later. Language 
 is a product of life, and, if not exactly a living thing, it certainly 
 shares the incidents of life. Of these incidents none is more 
 pervading than abhorrence of fLxity." — Professor J. Earle, 
 University of Oxford, 1896. 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 131 
 
 was no outlook except across the welter- 
 ing ocean ; and on these journal pages he 
 worked out his life problems in the mathe- 
 matics of navigation. There he wrote 
 whatever he ought to know about build- 
 ing, rigging, and handling a ship ; the regu- 
 lations of foreign ports; the latitude and 
 longitude of noted headlands and harbors ; 
 the value of foreign moneys computed in 
 pounds sterling; the methods of drawing 
 bills of exchange on London. Ambitious 
 boys, who began in these journals their 
 education for the sea, were thinking of the 
 day when they were to take commands 
 and become managers as well as naviga- 
 tors of ships. 
 
 Such, for example, was George Gardner, 
 who was born on the island in the year 
 1731, and, having fitted himself for sea, he 
 sailed as a sharer in whaling cruises. His 
 book begins with his preparatory studies 
 ashore ; then follows his sea-journal ; and 
 then the record of his services as a justice 
 of the peace and collector of the port of 
 Nantucket. I will copy a day from his 
 journal : — 
 
 Saturday 
 
132 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 Saturday January 21st, 1757. The 
 first part of This 24 hours fresh Breases 
 of wind S W Intermixed with Rain & 
 Snow. wee Spake with Capt John 
 Brown from Newfoundland Bound for 
 New Lonnon. The wind blew that wee 
 Had not much Talk with him but he 
 Told us he had been Chased by a French 
 Privateer but by Good Luck Lost her in 
 the Night. Latt 36-10. Saw 2 large 
 Ise Islands hove out our boat and got 
 8 Bbls of Ise. Caught several Cod fish 
 & had Fry'd Cod heads for supper and 
 a glass of wine. So no more at Present 
 all being in Health by the Blessing of 
 God but no Whale yet. 
 Peleg Folger's sea-journals show a Nan- 
 tucket sailor of another sort. His name 
 was pronounced Pillick, and it exists in 
 an old crooning song of Nantucket fisher- 
 men, of which this fragment remains : — 
 
 "Old Uncle Pillick he built him a boat 
 On the ba-a-ck side of Nantucket P'int ; 
 He rolled up his trowsers and set her afloat 
 From the ba-a-ck side of Nantucket P'int." 
 
 He began to go to sea when he was 
 
 twenty-one 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 133 
 
 twenty-one years old, cruising yearly be- 
 low the Bahamas and beyond the Grand 
 Banks of Newfoundland in pursuit of 
 sperm whales. In those days whaling voy- 
 ages were made in sloops, each manned 
 by thirteen men, with two boats. In the 
 spring they departed from Nantucket, re- 
 turned to discharge their oil, and sailed and 
 returned again three or four times before 
 winter came. The largeness of the fleet 
 in Peleg Folger's time is indicated by a 
 remark in his journal of the year 1754: — 
 We sailed from Nantucket May 6th 
 in company with about 30 sail of whale- 
 men and when we anchor'd under the 
 East End of Nantucket we appear'd like 
 a forest. 
 
 This young sailor was an innovator in 
 the current style of sea-journals. He 
 opened his first pages with the words : — 
 Peleg Folger his hand and Book writ- 
 ten at sea on Board the Sloop Grampus 
 Mayi75i. Many people who keep Jour- 
 nals at sea fill them up with trifles. I 
 purpose in the following sheets not to 
 keep an overstrict history of every tri- 
 fling 
 
134 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 fling occurrence that happens : only now 
 and then some particular affair, and to 
 fill up the rest with subjects Mathemat- 
 ical Historical Philosophical or Poetical 
 as best suits my inclination — 
 
 " Qui docet indoctos licet indoctissimus esset, 
 Ille quoque breve ceteris doctior esse queat." ^ 
 
 This preface denotes an individuality, 
 which shone out beyond the range of 
 other sea-rovers, and leads me to quote 
 liberally from his journals. His habit of 
 using Latin phrases in them caused many 
 jests by his shipmates, one of whom wrote 
 in his book : — 
 
 Old Peleg Folger is a Num Scull for 
 writing Latin. I fear he will be Offended 
 with me for writing in his Book but I 
 will Intercede with Anna Pitts in his 
 Behalf to make up for ye same — Na- 
 thaniel Worth. 
 
 The Grampus sailed from Nantucket 
 the loth of April, 1751. The young sea 
 
 philosopher 
 
 ^ " He who teaches the unlearned may be most unlearned, 
 although he is only a little more learned than the others." This 
 maxim was rendered by Pope as follows : — 
 
 " Content if here th' unlearn'd their wants may view, 
 The learn'd reflect on what before they knew." 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 135 
 
 philosopher kept silence until May 3d, 
 
 when he wrote : — 
 
 This day we have killed a Spermaceti 
 whale which is the first since our De- 
 parture from our good Isle of Nan- 
 tucket. 
 
 May loth annoque Domini 1751 we 
 are bound home, having three small 
 Spermaceties in our hold. Latt. 38 
 North. We spy'd a sail and Draw'd up 
 to her but the Clown would not speak 
 with us bearing off S E. 
 
 " When Drake and Cavendish sailed the world about, 
 And valiant heroes found new Countries out, 
 To Britain's Glory and their Lasting Fame, 
 Were we like minded we might do the same." 
 
 May 15th. This day we fell in with 
 the South Shoal & made our Dear 
 Island of Nantucket and thro Gods 
 mercy got round the point in the after- 
 noon. So we turn'd it up to the Bar by 
 the Sun 2 hours high. In the night we 
 got over the Bar — Laus Deo. 
 
 May 1 8th we have got all ready for 
 a Second Cruise and Sail'd from our 
 wharfe round the point and anchor'd 
 
 under 
 
136 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 under Sankety Head and the next day 
 at 4 o'clock in the morning we weigh'd 
 anchor & Stood off to sea. 
 
 June 7th We have got one large 
 Spermaceti and have met with nothing 
 remarkable. But Content is a continual 
 feast. We are headed North and hope 
 to be home soon. Deo volente atque 
 adjuvente.^ 
 
 June 23*^. We sailed from Nantucket 
 Bar through Miskekit channel on our 
 third cruise, bound South. 
 
 July i*\ Nantucket bears N E 324 
 miles. We had a Good Breakfast upon 
 meat and doboys & we are all merry to- 
 gether. A ShufHing kind of Breeze — 
 only wish we Could get Some Sperma- 
 ceties. 
 
 July 6th. This day we spy'd Sperm- 
 aceties & we kill'd one. If we get 
 Whale enough we may be able to go 
 home in a fortnight. Death summons 
 all men to the silent grave. 
 
 July 9th. Lat. 36-18 Longt. 73-2. 
 
 Nothing 
 
 1 God willing and assisting. 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 137 
 
 Nothing remarkable this 24 Hours only 
 dull times & Hot weather & no Whales 
 to be seen. Much toil and labour mor- 
 tal man is forced to Endure & little 
 profit to be got by it. 
 
 July loth a gale of wind and a large 
 sea. We lay by under a trisail. It is 
 tiresome to lay by so much, rowling and 
 tumbling like the conscience of a wicked 
 man. 
 
 July nth. The wind died out and 
 the sloop began to rowl and rowl'd her 
 lee gunwail under and several times fairly 
 floated our boats and stove one. No- 
 thing to be seen but the circling skies 
 above and the rowling seas below. No 
 Whales or Whales tails to be seen nor 
 any Whalemen. 
 
 July 14th We have killed two Sperm- 
 aceties. Now for home Boys ! We 
 have 70 barrels full in our Hold — ex 
 beneficia divina.-^ 
 
 In April, 1752, Peleg Folger sailed from 
 Nantucket "with a smart wind at north- 
 west," 
 
 ^ From the divine clemency. 
 
138 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 west," beginning the cruise with a perilous 
 experience : — 
 
 April 4th we Spy'd Spermaceties and 
 we toss'd out our Boat and we row'd 
 about a mile and half and then a Whale 
 came up under us & stove our Boat and 
 threw every man overboard. And we 
 all came up and Got hold of the boat 
 & held to her till the other boat which 
 was two miles away came up and took 
 us in. 
 
 April 27th we spoke Beriah Fitch and 
 we mated with Beriah and we Struck 
 a large Spermaceti and kill'd her. We 
 Got her between both Vessels and Got 
 a Parbuckle under her and tackles and 
 runners to her and we hoised her head 
 about 2 foot above water and then we 
 cut a Scuttle in her head and a man Got 
 in up to his Armpits and dipt almost 
 6 Hogsheads of clear oyle out of her case 
 besides 6 more out of the Noddle. He 
 certainly doth hit the right that mingles 
 profit with delight. 
 
 May loth we spy'd a scool of Sperm- 
 aceties in the morning and hove out our 
 
 boats 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 139 
 
 boats and struck two and kill'd one 
 but the other ran away with one iron in 
 her tail. That which we kill'd fill'd 1 1 
 Hogsheads. 
 
 May 13th. We heard a Spermaceti 
 blow at 1-2 past 3 in ye morning and it 
 still being Dark we hove out our Boats 
 and row'd towards ye Sound and about 
 20 minutes before the Sun rising we 
 struck her. But we could not get in 
 a Second iron and so she ran away to 
 the Southard & got clear of us. And 
 so one Day passeth after another & 
 every Day brings us nearer to our Grave 
 and all human employments will be at 
 an end. 
 
 May 1 6th. in latitude 36:30 North 
 We spoke with a cape man who told us 
 oyl bore a very Good price in Boston — 
 ^140 old tenor per tun to be paid in 
 Dollars on the spot and the small pox 
 which hath been in Boston still con- 
 tinues. We spy'd Spermaceties & toss'd 
 out our boats & kill'd one which filled 
 12 Hogsheads. We stood to the north- 
 ward 
 
I40 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 ward having Got a Good voyage ex di- 
 vina beneficia. 
 
 May 2 1 St. a very hard Gale at north- 
 east. We carried a trysail foresail & 
 Gib and the wind coming on we hall'd 
 down our Gib & reef'd him then sat him 
 again. But the wind tore him sadly & 
 we hall'd him down again and unbent 
 him & Got him into the Cabin & 
 mended him and stood off under a try- 
 sail and foresail till night. 
 
 May 22nd. A very hard gale & a top- 
 gallant sea going. We lay to under a 
 trysail all day. It is five weeks since 
 we left Nantucket, but I am remember- 
 ing all the Girls at home and I hope to 
 see them soon. 
 
 " Oh that mine eyes might closed be 
 To what becomes me not to see ; 
 That deafness might possess mine ear 
 To what becomes me not to hear; 
 That truth my tongue might always tye 
 From ever speaking foolishly. " ^ 
 
 In June, 1752, he sailed in the sloop Sea- 
 flower, bound to Newfoundland seas ; and 
 
 on 
 
 1 From Ellwoocfs Wishes. 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 141 
 
 on the 14th of the month he made the land 
 and entered " Misketo Cove." There, says 
 his sea-journal, — 
 
 the Irishmen curs'd us at high rate for 
 they hate whalemen in the Harbour. 
 We lay at anchor two weeks and in that 
 space of time bore many an oath of the 
 Paddies & bog trotters — they swearing 
 we should not cut up our Whale in the 
 Harbour. But we cut up two and then 
 they rais'd a mob under Pike an Irish- 
 man who call'd himself Captain of the 
 Harbour, and fired upon us & tho the 
 shot struck all around us, but through 
 mercy hurt no man. While the sloop 
 was anchored we cruised in our boats 
 after Whales. We struck a yearling 
 and the mother Whale kept by its side 
 and presently she was struck. We kill'd 
 her by much lancing. In her flurry she 
 came at our boat and furiously ran over 
 us and oversot us & made a miserable 
 rack of our boat in a moment. A won- 
 der it was that we all had our lives 
 spar'd for divers of us were sadly puz- 
 zled under water. 
 
 August 
 
142 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 August 15th. Yesterday we set sail 
 
 from Cape Race for Nantucket. There 
 
 was a fresh gale of wind right aft and 
 
 we took two reefs in the mainsail and 
 
 she went like a Blaze all night. 
 
 In May, 1753, Peleg Folger sailed from 
 
 Nantucket in the sloop Greyhound, bound 
 
 for Davis Straits. Soon after leaving port 
 
 he fell in with a schooner from the West 
 
 Indies bound to Boston, and he wrote in 
 
 his journal : — 
 
 We went aboard the schooner and got 
 two bottles of Rum and some limes and 
 sugar and oranges. Then we spy'd a 
 scool of Spermaceties and Kill'd one. 
 There hath been a jumbling sea today. 
 
 May 26th we struck soundings on y^ 
 Grand Banks of Newfoundland. We 
 saw several ice islands and we saw sev- 
 eral ships. The weather is freezing cold, 
 days long, nights short, our Cabins our 
 delight, the fire pleasant, our allowance 
 to every man his belly full & more if 
 he wants. Alas ! if it were not for hopes 
 the heart would fail. Lat 58:57 Long 
 51:46. 
 
 June 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 143 
 
 June 20th We saw eight whales and 
 our skipper struck one which stove his 
 boat so that she oversot and the Whale 
 ran away. We struck another which also 
 ran away. So there is two shot of craft 
 and a stoven boat in one day. 
 
 June 2ist We saw some whales and 
 struck one and we soon made her spout 
 Blood and she was a long time dying. 
 But at last she dy'd and we cut her head 
 off. The wind blew so that we could 
 not cut her up — a large swell going, the 
 cable parted and the Whale is gone 
 with about one third of the blubber. 
 
 June 24th. We cleaned our Whale- 
 bone and stowed it away. It measured 
 8 foot 3 inches. We chased right 
 Whales and Spermaceties today but 
 could not strike. 
 
 A Right Whale is very large, hollow- 
 ing on the back, all slick & smooth, 
 having no hump at all as other Whales. 
 The bone (of which is made stays and 
 hoop'd petticoats) doth grow in their 
 mouth. The tongue is monstrous large 
 & will commonly make a tun of oyl. He 
 
 has 
 
144 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 has two spout holes and makes a forked 
 spout whereby he is distinguished from 
 other Whales at a distance. 
 
 A Spermaceti will make from lo to 
 lOO barrels of oyl. He has no bone in 
 his head & his brains is all oyl. He has 
 a hooking hump on the after part of his 
 back, one spouthole, and his under jaw 
 is full of ivory teeth and his tongue is 
 very small. 
 
 June 26th. Ye wind at N E with some 
 snow, we handed our mainsail and set 
 our trisail, and let her jog to the east- 
 ward under trisail, foresail & Gib in hopes 
 to find our Dead Whale. At 6 a. m. 
 while we were pouring some Chocolate 
 down our bellies, our partner Elisha 
 Coffin, who was lying by, hove out a 
 Boat & rowed to windward & when we 
 came to discover what they was after it 
 proved to be our Dead Whale which we 
 lost the other day. So we soon got her 
 alongside. Lat. by obs. 60-24. 
 
 We are all in health & so oyly yt we 
 are in a Doleful Pickle (ut aiunt) ^ We 
 
 had 
 
 1 As they say. 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 145 
 
 had a haglet stewpye for supper ; about 
 8 at night we finish'd trying out our 
 Blubber & put out the fire of our caboose. 
 We sandrove our oyl and stow'd it away 
 in the hold, & quoined it ; our Whale 
 made 68 barrels. 
 
 June 30th. This day we had corn'd 
 fish for dinner Pancakes for supper & 
 Chocolate for Breakfast, the sea a little 
 chopling and we lay under a trysail. 
 
 July 2"^. We lay to all this 24 hours 
 under a trisail & drove to the Northward. 
 The sea broke like a surfe & appear'd 
 like a snowdrift. And we ship'd many 
 tuns of water ; our lee boat had been 
 stove had we not manhandled her when 
 she kanted on her gunnel & lash'd 
 her. Our quarter deck was sometimes 
 ancle deep & our tub of gravel got stove 
 to pieces so we shall be forced to kill 
 our fowl for fear they '1 die. We had 
 pancakes for supper. Lat. 60-30. 
 
 July 14th. We spoke with a ship 
 from Glascow. Elisha came on board 
 of us & we had a fowl stewpye and a 
 great Plum pudding for dinner. Then 
 
 we 
 
146 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 we spy'd whales & we kill'd one large 
 spermaceti & we got her alongside & 
 began to cut upon her. 
 
 July 17th. We spoke a Dutch ship 
 & our skipper & mate went on board 
 her. They had an Indian & his Canoe 
 on board & intend to Carry him to 
 Holland & bring him back next year. 
 
 August 20th. Whales plenty. Hove 
 out our boats and killed one. We 
 struck two that ran away. We struck 
 another off the bow and put two irons 
 in her. She going to windward broke 
 a warp and so away she went. We sot 
 the tryworks agoing and we soon had a 
 flaming torch under the caboose, but 
 seeing Whales we put out our fires and 
 went off & kill'd a large Spermaceti. 
 
 September loth. It is 124 days since 
 we have seen any land until to-day. 
 Cape Race bears West by North 4 
 leagues. We are bound home & the 
 wind is right ahead, but we must be 
 contented let the wind be as it will. 
 
 September 19th. Rain and thunder 
 and lightning. We hall'd down our 
 
 mainsel 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 147 
 
 mainsel and balanc'd & reef'd him and 
 let the sloop jog along. At night it was 
 as blacke as ink. So we lay a hull. Lat. 
 42:9 — Long. 61:52. 
 
 September 22^. This day we struck 
 Soundings on St. Georges Bank. Nan- 
 tucket bears west 50 leagues. We shall 
 soon see the land — even our Dear 
 Nantucket — So dayday both latitude 
 and longitude. 
 
 Let us make one more whaling cruise 
 with Peleg Folger. I will quote from his 
 sea-journal of the year 1757, in the time of 
 the French and Indian War: — 
 
 June 1 8th. We saw a very large 
 Scool of Spermaceties but they Ran like 
 Horses insomuch that tho' we hove our 
 Boats & Stroved faithfully yet we could 
 not Strike. We saw a Ship off in the 
 S E and she stood for us and rather 
 wind fretted us — she being an extraordi- 
 nary good sailer. So we stood into the 
 N W and the wind starting in our favour 
 we wither'd him about a mile. At Sun- 
 set we brought to under a Trysail. 
 July I St. This day Whales are very 
 
 plenty 
 
148 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 plenty and we kill'd one that fill'd 15 
 Hogsheads. We saw a topsail vessel 
 and we immediately made sail. It being 
 very windy and a large sea going we 
 carried away one of our shrouds. But 
 we got up our tackles and runners in the 
 room of our Shroud & setting 3 sails 
 atanto we made our sloop buckle again. 
 At the first hank we wither'd our sup- 
 pos'd Frenchman about 3 miles & then 
 we discovered a vast fleet of Ships & 
 other vessels to leeward. They appear'd 
 like a meer forest on the Ocean. How 
 many there was we know not. We 
 judged them to be an English fleet 
 bound for Canada or Cape Breton. 
 
 July 3^ we saw a Snow but we did not 
 care to Speak with her so we Sprung 
 our Luff and wither'd her about a mile. 
 We judg'd her to be some Fellow bound 
 into Virginia or Somewhere Else. 
 
 July loth. Very rough Weather & 
 we are under a Square sail right before 
 a fresh S W wind. We spy'd a Sperm- 
 aceti close under our Bow & we got out 
 3 lances in order to kill her if we could 
 
 but 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 149 
 
 but She went down just before we got 
 up with her. Experience may teach us 
 that Nothing can make a man happy 
 save a Quiet Conscience. About Sun- 
 set the wind had dy'd and the Sea had 
 grown very smooth. We let run our 
 Deep Sea Lead & had about an hun- 
 dred & ten fathoms with the Stray which 
 might be ten fathoms. We brought up 
 on our Lead 3 or 4 Living Creatures a 
 little more than an Inch long. They 
 have four horns growing out from the 
 Crown of the head : they had two Claws 
 t)r Legs forward & Six towards his hinder 
 parts : their Legs are very full of Joynts 
 & appear to end in a Perfect Point & 
 toward the end looked like white ivory. 
 July 13th. We were on the Grand 
 Bank of Newfoundland & we stood off 
 to the Eastward and about Sunset by 
 the sound of the Horns — it being very 
 thick of fog — we found two vessels who 
 were Timothy Gardner and Richard 
 Gardner who told us John Coffin had 
 got about 100 Barrels and Uriah Coffin 
 about as much. So we stood off in 
 
 company 
 
150 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 company with our mates & at 1 1 o'Clock 
 we let run our Lead and found no Bot- 
 tom & so we Brought to under a Try- 
 sail & Foresail, being very thick of Fog 
 and a small wind. 
 
 July 18. We spoke with two French 
 ships who were fishermen & told us 
 Cape Race bore Northwest. We saw 
 divers more ships that we did not speak 
 with & at 10 p. M we brought to for fear 
 of them — it being exceeding dark. We 
 took ye Sun's amplitude at his setting 
 & found ye variation of the Compass to 
 be \\ points nearest. Lat 45:19 Long 
 48:50 (848 miles from Nantucket). 
 
 July 30th. We struck a large Sperm- 
 aceti & put into him three irons & one 
 towiron. As soon as the towiron went 
 into the whale he gave a flauk & went 
 down, & coming up again he bolted his 
 head out of water, as far down as his 
 fins, and then pitch'd the whole weight 
 of his head on the Boat and stove ye 
 Boat & ruin'd her & kill'd the midship- 
 man (an Indian named Sam Samson) 
 outright. A sad & awful Providence. 
 
 August 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 151 
 
 August 7th. Fine weather but no 
 Whales to be seen. From 1 1 o' clock 
 to 1 2 at night the sky glitter'd with the 
 Northern Lights, appearing Very bright 
 & luciferous like streaks of lightning. 
 
 August 20th. We spy'd a Sperm- 
 aceti and struck her off the Bow & then 
 we hove out our Boats & kill'd her & 
 got her along side & cabled her and be- 
 gan to cut her up. There was a chop- 
 ling sea going & but little wind. Our 
 sloop girded most Violently & we parted 
 one of our Runners twice & split the 
 blocks & hurt one of our men & made 
 most Rucking work. At midnight the 
 wind began to blow hard at N E and 
 soon raised a bad sea. We parted our 
 cable and lost our Whale from ye Bow. 
 At 5 in the morning we Blew away our 
 trisail & tore him out of the Boltropes 
 and Ruined him entirely. 
 
 August 2 1 St. We made sail & found 
 our Whale and cut up the Remainder. 
 Her body fill'd 24 hogsheads. Lat 
 45:52. We blew away our foresail & 
 we got a new one out of the hold & bent 
 
 him, 
 
152 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 him, but did not set him for the wind 
 shifted all at once and blew like a Scum. 
 After a while we set our foresail and 
 went like a Blaze to the westward. 
 
 August 30th. Running to the west- 
 ward, being thick of fog & we saw a 
 noble Right Whale close under our 
 counter, We hove out our Boats to strike 
 but she soon ran us out of sight in the 
 fog. We spoke with a sloop from Barn- 
 stable. He told us Fort Henry was 
 taken. I hope soon we shall have a 
 free wind and go with flowin sheets for 
 we know not how far we are to the East- 
 ward of the Grand Banks of Newfound- 
 land. 
 
 September ist. A smart gale of wind 
 at N E & We are scouting merrily west 
 by Compass. In the afternoon We 
 struck soundings on the Grand Bank 
 and catch'd 20 noble codfish. We have 
 run 168 miles today. We are all in 
 health and hope to see our Dear Nan- 
 tucket in a short time. 
 This sea-rover ends his journal by quot- 
 ing from Francis Quarles : — 
 
 "My 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 153 
 
 " My Sins are like the hairs upon mine head, 
 And raise their audit to as high a score. 
 In this they differ — these do dayly shed ; 
 But ah ! my Sins grow dayly more and more. 
 If by mine hairs Thou number out my Sins, 
 Heaven make me bald before the day begins. 
 
 " My Sins are like the sands upon the shore. 
 Which every ebb lays open to the eye. 
 In this they differ — these are cover'd o'er; 
 But ah ! my Sins in View still open lie. 
 
 Lord, if Thou make my head a sea of tears, 
 
 Oh ! that would wash away the sins of all my years. 
 
 " My Sins are like the stars within the skies, 
 In View, in number, full as bright, as great. 
 In this they differ — these do set and rise ; 
 But ah ! my Sins do rise but never set. 
 Rise, Son of Glory, and my Sins are gone 
 Like clouds or mists before the morning Sun." 
 
 There was a young sea-rover of Nan- 
 tucket who began his first journal, in the 
 year 1 754, with these words : — 
 
 " Peter Folger his Book 
 God give him Grace therein to Look. 
 Not only to Look but Understand 
 That learning is better than House or Land. 
 The Rose is Red the Grass is Green 
 The days have past which I have Seen." 
 
 This inscription tells how much of a 
 boy this rover was when he first went to 
 sea. In time he grew manly, and his sea- 
 journal 
 
154 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 journal of the year 1761 begins with these 
 words : — 
 
 A Journal of our Intended Voyage 
 by Gods Permission in the Good Sloop 
 Endeavour. We sot Sail from Nan- 
 tuckett the 9 day of July and went over 
 the Bar and Come to Anchor and waited 
 for our Indians. 
 
 July ye 26 we saw a large School of 
 Spalmocities. They ran so Fast we 
 could not Catch them. 
 
 July ye 27 we saw 3 Sparmocityes & 
 killed one and Cut Her up. 
 
 July ye 28 we saw 4 or 5 Spalmoctyes 
 we Tryed our whale Her Boddy made 
 38 bb^ Her Head 12 hh'^%" 
 
 July ye 29 we Stoed away our whale. 
 We saw 2 Sloops to the Easterd of us 
 and we saw divers Sparmocities and we 
 struck one and maid Her Spout Blood. 
 She went down and their came a Snarl 
 in the Toe line and catched John Mey- 
 rick and over sot the Boat and we never 
 saw him after wards. We saved the 
 whale. 
 
 August ye 14 we killed a Sunfish and 
 
 we 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 155 
 
 we saw a School of Sparmocityes and our 
 Partner killed one and Got her kableed 
 and we killed another and saw two Ships 
 to windered ye wind at S W and our 
 Partner cut from his whale and we cut 
 from ourn abute 9 of Clock in ye morn- 
 ing. We stood to ye N E and our Part- 
 ner stood to ye S E — one Ship took us 
 in Chase and ye other took our Partner 
 in Chase. We clapt away large and sot 
 our Square Sail and Topsail and got our 
 fairsail under the Boom and made all 
 ye Sail we could and brought her to 
 winderd and we held her toit and she 
 fir^ a Gun at 4 O'Clock in ye after Noon 
 and at 6 under English Coulers She 
 left us and stood to ye S W and we 
 stood to N E. We have lost our Con- 
 sort because these Ships they chased us 
 from 9 in ye Morning till Sun Sett. So 
 ends ye Day all in Good health by God's 
 Blessing. 
 
 In the latter part of the last century, 
 ships of three hundred tons burden took 
 the place of small sloops in cruises for 
 whales ; they went below the equator, and 
 
 at 
 
156 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 at last found their way around the capes 
 into the Pacific and Indian oceans. Two 
 of the ships that brought the obnoxious 
 tea to Boston, in December, 1773, were 
 whaling-ships of Nantucket. They had 
 carried their catches from the South Seas 
 to London, and were returning home with 
 general merchandise by way of Boston. 
 After unloading cargoes at that port, — 
 excepting the tea, which was thrown into 
 Boston harbor by a mob disguised as 
 Indians, — the ships sailed to Nantucket, 
 where one of them, the Beaver, was fitted 
 for a cruise in the south Atlantic ; and 
 another, the Dartmouth, was loaded with 
 sperm oil and sent to London just before 
 the American Revolution began. 
 
 Nantucket whalemen were ruined by the 
 Revolution. After the war was ended, 
 sperm oil, for which England had been the 
 principal market, was taxed an alien duty 
 of ;^i8 sterling per ton; and therefore it 
 became necessary for the people of the 
 island to make some new adjustment of 
 their whaling business. There appeared 
 no alternative but to transfer it to England. 
 
 With 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 157 
 
 With this object in view, WilHam Rotch, 
 a successful merchant of Nantucket, sailed 
 for London in his ship Maria, July 4, 1785, 
 accompanied by his son Benjamin. He 
 visited the Channel ports in search of a 
 suitable location for the whaling business, 
 selected Falmouth, and then made his pro- 
 posals to the British government. Not 
 meeting with success, he crossed the Chan- 
 nel to Dunkirk in France, where, aided 
 by Shubel Gardner, of Nantucket, who had 
 been a prisoner in England, and by a na- 
 tive of Dunkirk, named Fran9ois Coffyn, 
 who served as an interpreter, his proposals 
 were written to the French government 
 and sent to Paris. He stipulated for liberty 
 to emigrants from Nantucket to worship 
 as Quakers ; for their exemption from 
 military duty ; for a bounty per ton on 
 Nantucket ships engaged in whaling from 
 French ports ; the free entry of their oil ; 
 and that the ships should be commanded 
 by Nantucket men. His proposals were 
 accepted, and he sailed for home in Decem- 
 ber, 1786, to prepare for a transfer of his 
 whaling business to France. 
 
 England 
 
158 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 England reduced the import duties on 
 oil, and France failed to pay the bounty ; 
 then the French Revolution came, with 
 its compulsory oath and military service, 
 bringing trouble to the Quakers at Dun- 
 kirk. On the loth of February, 1791, 
 William Rotch, Benjamin Rotch, and a 
 French Quaker named Marsillac appeared 
 (with their hats on) ^ before the National 
 Assembly at Paris, over which Mirabeau 
 was presiding, and asked permission to 
 present a memorial explaining the Quakers' 
 objection to taking an oath and bearing 
 the arms of war. Their memorial was 
 referred to a committee, and in the follow- 
 ing September the original engagements 
 with Nantucket whalemen were confirmed 
 by the Assembly. 
 
 In March, 1788, the ship Penelope, of 
 
 Nantucket, 
 
 1 " If ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin." From 
 these words of the Epistle by St. James, George Fox taught 
 that it was forbidden by the Lord to bow to any person cere- 
 moniously, or to remove one's hat as a token of respect. His 
 followers accepted this teaching ; and for a long time it was 
 a question, marked by bitter strifes in the Quaker churches, 
 whether it was right for men to remove their hats during the 
 time of prayer. 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 159 
 
 Nantucket, sailed from Dunkirk for the 
 Arctic Ocean, in pursuit of whales, and 
 passed beyond the high latitude of seventy- 
 nine degrees. I copy a few passages from 
 the sea-journal of Tristram Gardner, of 
 Nantucket, commanding the ship : — 
 
 Wednesday March ye 26th 1788, at 
 2 in the morning Left ye Port of Dun- 
 kirk & Anchard in ye Road, at 2 Past 
 merid" waid ancher & Stood S by E 
 with ye wind at E by N. at 6 we ware 6 
 Leges from Dunkirk. 
 
 Tuesday aprel ye First Day 1788 
 trying for A harber at Shetland, at 6 
 ye wind Shifted from S W to N W blod 
 fresh, at 12 ye wind died we maid Sail 
 wirking in with ye Land, at 6 Pilot 
 came on board at ye mouth of ye harber. 
 Came to ancher in Erase bay whare we 
 found 24 sail of ships. 
 
 Wednesday Aprel ye 9th 1788 at 10 
 waid ancher & Put to sea from Erase 
 bay in Company with 4 ships wind S W 
 bound for Greenland. A crabed sea from 
 ye westward. Latt. 62:13. Long 34 W 
 Thirsday Aprel ye 24th Fresh wind 
 
 at 
 
l6o QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 at South we Lying to ye W S W under 
 Close Reef Topsails in company with 
 a number of ships. Saw Ise & Spake 
 with a Ship from London, at 4 Past 
 Merid" saw ye Land hairing E by S we 
 Run through sum Ise & found clear 
 water. Lat 77 Long 10 No whales. 
 
 Friday May ye 2"*^ ye First Part of ye 
 day ye wind N E. Clost Refd our Top- 
 sails, at 1 2 ware Clost beset with heavi 
 Pack Ise so that we had No yuse for 
 sails but Got 2 warps to ye Ise to bring 
 our ship starn to ye wind. Later Part 
 still Clost beset & 20 Sail of Ships in ye 
 same Condison. Latt by Obs. 77-07 ye 
 Land in Sight. Saw one Rite whale. 
 
 Wednesday May 7th brought our 
 Ship by ye starn & mended our Cut- 
 water whare ye Ise had Cut it to ye 
 Stem & Stove of two Knees. 50 Ships 
 in Sight & all in ye Ise. Stowd down 
 our water Fil'd some salt water for bal- 
 lace. Lat. 77-22. 
 
 Monday June ye 2 Day Saw Sum 
 whales hardby but the weather being 
 bad could not Ingage — bloing hard 
 
 with 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS i6l 
 
 with snow. Lay back & forth under 
 Clost Reef'' Fore Topsail, Saw two Racks 
 wich was Stranded ye Last Gale one 
 was ye London of London ye other was 
 a Ship belonging to Whitbe — ye Men 
 saved. Saw whales among ye Ise could 
 Not come at them. loo sail of Ships 
 in sight. Lat 78. 
 
 Sonday June ye 8th Kil'd a ten feet 
 bone Whale. Mated with Capt Mooers 
 & Strook a Whale that run out our 
 line. Got our Whale on board. Bloing 
 fresh we maid Sail ye Ise near by to 
 Luard & very heavy. 
 
 Saturday June ye 14th we Kil'd two 
 Whales. A trying our whale. A fresh 
 wind and Snow. Lat. 78-44. 
 
 Sonday June ye 22 A rugged sea. 
 Plenty of Snow. Saw ye Ise to ye S W 
 of us. Thick weather. Saw a number 
 of Ships but no Whales. Lat. 79-02. 
 
 Monday July ye 21 Maid ye Land 
 which Prouvd to be ye Norway Shore 
 10 Leags Distant. Spake with a Brig 
 from Sligo. Caut sum mackerill. Spake 
 with a Ship from Norway bound to Hull. 
 
 Saturday 
 
1 62 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 Saturday August ye 3 day Course S 
 by W at 9 o'clock maid ye South Fore- 
 land so we bore away for Dunkirk at 
 meridian took our Pilot on bord ye tide 
 being up we Put over ye bar, and so 
 came to an Anchar. 
 
 The men of the little island of Nan- 
 tucket were natural sea-rovers, for whom 
 the charms of home were charming only 
 in the short intervals between their voy- 
 ages. After they had gone to sea their 
 wives adopted a penurious style of house- 
 keeping, in order to save money for the 
 beloved sea-rover against his return. Per- 
 haps he did not return at the expected 
 time; born with an instinct for adventure, 
 his absence may have been prolonged by 
 repeated cruises on distant seas, and wan- 
 derings on distant shores, until the Nan- 
 tucket home had been effaced from his 
 thoughts. And when, like a new Ulysses, 
 he came back to it after many years of 
 absence and silence, there was no reason 
 for surprise if Penelope, tired of waiting 
 for him, had finished her weaving and had 
 
 accepted 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 163 
 
 accepted an importunate suitor to fill his 
 place. 
 
 Shubel Worth, a sea-rover of the true 
 blue, was cruising in the South Seas when 
 the War of the Revolution began. On ar- 
 riving at Nantucket he learned that his 
 wife and children had left the island and 
 gone to find a safe retreat in her father's 
 house, in Saratoga County, New York. 
 As the war prevented him from going to 
 sea again, he followed his family, bought 
 a farm, and cultivated it. One day, after 
 the return of peace, he drove a load of his 
 farm's produce to the village of Hudson, 
 expecting to sell it and return to his home 
 within three days. 
 
 Three days, three weeks, three months, 
 three years passed ; — " and where was 
 Enoch ? " He had not obliterated himself 
 from human society, as did the " strong 
 heroic soul " portrayed in Tennyson's poem, 
 but he had suddenly gone a-sea-roving. 
 On arriving at Hudson, and learning that 
 a ship was fitting out at New Bedford for 
 a whaling cruise along the coasts of Green- 
 land, he put his farm produce aboard a 
 
 sloop, 
 
164 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 sloop, sailed with it to New Bedford, sold 
 it to the outfitters of the Greenland ship, 
 and went to sea in her as first ofBcer. The 
 ship ended her voyage at Dunkirk. Here 
 he took command of the ship Criterion, 
 and sailed on a cruise to the Indian Ocean. 
 Returning to Dunkirk with a cargo of oil, 
 he sailed again ; cruised on the Pacific 
 Ocean, and carried another cargo of oil to 
 Dunkirk. At the end of the last voyage 
 he returned to his home, from which he 
 had been absent five years instead of three 
 days. The restlessness of the sea-rover 
 was in him, and he went to sea again, but 
 he never returned home. He died on 
 board his ship while she lay at anchor in 
 the harbor of the island of St. Helena. 
 
 I copy two or three days from his sea- 
 journal, written while cruising in the In- 
 dian Ocean : — 
 
 Ship Criterion, May 19th — at 4 PM 
 took a Lunar observation, found our 
 Longitude io7°-32' East of London 
 Latitude is 7°-38' South. Land bareing 
 N E to N W 8 Leages — fine weather all 
 drawing Sail Set. Steard for the Land. 
 
 Saw 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 165 
 
 Saw a School of Spermaceties headed 
 off Shore. 
 
 Friday May 22^. Lay'd off & on the 
 Land till day Light then Steard for Java 
 Head bareing N N W 4 Leagues distance. 
 At 6 p M Came to anchor in 25 Fath- 
 oms. Got up the boarding Neting. 
 Got under way for Mew Isle watering 
 place. Sent the yawl ashore to find the 
 water. Saw a number of men on the 
 Isle. Before the boats Got at Shore 
 Saw 10 Prowes coming for us. Saw 
 theare Guns Glittering. Set the coulers 
 to the Ship & fired one 4 Pounder. 
 The Prowes fired a Number of guns 
 at us. Got under way and set all Sail. 
 So ends all well. 
 
 Wednesday May 25th. Came to an- 
 chor in 23 Fathoms water. Got in Red- 
 dyness for Battle with the Pirot Maylays. 
 Saw a great Number of Maylay fishing 
 boats. Got under way for Anger Rhodes. 
 At 6 p M came to anchor — Batavia 
 Church baring N N W. 
 A sea-rover was David Brown, of the 
 
 ship 
 
1 66 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 ship Manilla. I quote one day from his 
 sea-journal in the South Atlantic Ocean : — 
 December ist 1791. Down a boat 
 and caught a Sea Dog. Running S W 
 with two ships bearing West, one a try- 
 ing. Saw whales and gave chase. Hove 
 to under 3 staysails headed to the south- 
 ward. At I p M saw whales. Killed 3 & 
 at 5 p M came on board without any. 
 Went off again & kill'd one and took her 
 a long side. Spoke William Bunker 
 with 600 Barrels. Lat. 37-20 S. 
 A sea-rover of Nantucket made a dis- 
 covery in the South Pacific Ocean which 
 is still a theme of history. In January, 1 789, 
 the British ship Bounty sailed from Otaheiti 
 with a crew whose attachments to the 
 women of that tropical island made them 
 reluctant to leave it. Soon after sailing, 
 twenty-five mutineers seized control of the 
 ship, and sent adrift in a boat the com- 
 mander with his officers and the loyal 
 members of his crew. The mutineers 
 sailed the Bounty back to Otaheiti, where 
 sixteen of them landed with the expecta- 
 tion of leading lives of endless enjoyment. 
 
 The 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 167 
 
 The nine who did not land took aboard 
 nine women of the island as wives, and six 
 men as servants, and then they sailed away. 
 What became of them was a mystery for 
 nineteen years, or until Mayhew Folger, 
 of Nantucket, cruising for whales in the 
 ship Topaz, fell in with Pitcairn's Island, on 
 a February morning of the year 1808. This 
 island, which is about two miles wide and 
 three miles long, rises abruptly from the 
 deep sea to the height of a thousand feet. 
 On a plateau, four hundred feet above the 
 ocean, Captain Folger found a little pas- 
 toral village peopled by descendants of the 
 nine mutineers of the Bounty and their 
 Otaheitian waves. I quote from his sea- 
 journal : — 
 
 Saturday February 6th 1808. At 2 
 A M saw Pitcairn's Island bearing South. 
 Lay off and on till daylight. At 6 a m 
 put off with 2 boats to explore the land 
 and look for seals. On approaching the 
 shore saw smoke on the land at which I 
 was very much surprised as the island 
 was said to be uninhabited. I discovered 
 a boat paddling towards me with three 
 
 men 
 
1 68 QUAINT NANTUCKTET 
 
 men in her. They hailed in the Eng- 
 lish language & asked who was the cap- 
 tain of the ship. They offered me gifts 
 of cocoanuts & requested I would land, 
 there being a white man on shore. I 
 went ashore & found an Englishman 
 named Alexander Smith, the only per- 
 son remaining out of nine that escaped 
 on board the ship Bounty. Smith in- 
 formed me that after putting Capt Bligh 
 in the long boat and sending her adrift, 
 Christian their chief proceeded with the 
 ship to Otaheiti. There all the muti- 
 neers chose to stop except Christian, 
 himself, and seven others, who took 
 wives and also six men as servants, 
 and immediately proceeded to Pitcairn's 
 Island where they landed all the goods 
 and chattels, ran the Bounty on shore 
 and broke her up. This took place, as 
 near as he could recollect, in the year 
 1790: soon after which one of their 
 party ran mad and drowned himself, an- 
 other died of a fever ; and after they 
 had remained about four years on the 
 island, their men servants rose up and 
 
 killed 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 169 
 
 killed six of them, leaving only Smith 
 alive, and he desperately wounded with 
 a pistol ball in the neck. However he 
 and the widows of the deceased arose 
 and put all the servants to death, which 
 left him the only surviving man on the 
 island, with eight or nine women and 
 several small children. He immediately 
 went to work tilling the ground so that 
 it produces plenty for them all, and he 
 lives very comfortably as commander-in- 
 chief of Pitcairn's Island. All the chil- 
 dren of the deceased mutineers speak 
 tolerable English. Some of them are 
 grown to the size of men and women, 
 and to do them Justice, I think them 
 a very humane and hospitable people; 
 and whatever may have been the errors 
 or crimes of Smith the mutineer in times 
 back he is at present a worthy man and 
 may be useful to navigators who traverse 
 this immense ocean. I tarried on shore 
 with the friendly Smith and his truly 
 good people till 4 p. m. and then left him 
 and went on board the Topaz and made 
 sail steering for Masafuera, having re- 
 ceived 
 
lyo QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 ceived from the people on shore some 
 hogs cocoanuts and plantains/ 
 The wars provoked by Napoleon touched 
 the whaling-ships of Nantucket in many 
 ways. In the year 1808, England was al- 
 lied with Spain in a war against France, 
 and defeated the French army at the bat- 
 tle of Talavera in June, 1809. Whaling- 
 ships were now armed ; and because they 
 carried arms and large crews they were 
 sometimes arrested on the high seas under 
 suspicion that they were belligerents dis- 
 guised as whalemen. A story of such an 
 arrest is told in the sea-journal of Captain 
 Charles Gardner, who was cruising the 
 ship Argo in the South Seas. I copy it ex- 
 actly as it was written in the journal : — 
 1809 Sunday November 5 in Lat. 
 17-27' South. Standing in by the Wind 
 East at 2 p M saw a Ship 2 points off 
 the Weather bow. Saw that She had all 
 Sail out and coming for us. Steerd on 
 til She was of the Starboard beam then 
 
 up 
 
 1 After this visit by Captain Folger, Smith changed his name 
 to John Adams, by which name he has been called in histories 
 of the mutiny of the ship Bounty. 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 171 
 
 up Corses and backed the main yard. 
 She came within hail and ordered a boat 
 onboard with the papers. I sent the 
 boat and the cheaf Mate with the papers. 
 He was detained onbord the Private 
 Spanish Ship of war & all the boats crue 
 but one was Stoped and two officers and 
 boats Crue from the Spanish Ship Came 
 onboard the Argo & Sent more of my 
 hands onboard the Vultor. At 7 p m 
 they onbent the Mainsail and the boat 
 Came from the Vulter with more Span- 
 ish men & took Charge of the Argo and 
 wore Ship and Steerd on a wind to the 
 South all night in company with the 
 Vulter. At 7 A M Shortened Sail and 
 lay by. The Capten of the Vulter Came 
 onboard and brot the Argos papers that 
 I had sent by the mate & asked me if 
 I knew them. I told him I did. He 
 wished for a Candle which was brot him. 
 He told me all other papers would be 
 of no youse to me hear after and in my 
 presance Sealed the papers up. I asked 
 him if it was war. He told me that was 
 none of my Business. I Should See & 
 
 would 
 
172 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 would give me no Satisfaction but told 
 me to go on Deck which we ded and he 
 Looked at the Ship. 
 
 He asked how many guns I had. I 
 told him. He asked why I run from 
 him to Luard. I told him I did not, he 
 told me I did and a Whale Ship had 
 no business with guns — and where the 
 guns was. I told him Some in the hole 
 & some on Deck, he in a ruf tone told 
 me I had mounted them 4 on Deck 
 after Seeing him. I told him no — he 
 told me he new better than that. After 
 a little time on Deck he told me he 
 wished to go below in the Cabin and 
 look about the Ship. I told him any 
 part he wished to See Should be Shone 
 him. He told his officers and men to 
 open the after hachway and brake up 
 the hole to the eilson — and Capt & 
 Some men brock up the run & took all 
 the casks out, and all the powder out 
 of the magersean, and the Officers took 
 more than 40 Casks out of the after 
 hole and Some out of the main hach 
 and oppen'd the Casks of Sails & Bread. 
 
 The 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 173 
 
 The Capten Cut open my Slops with 
 his own hand and made me turn up my 
 bead and made me take everything out 
 of my trunks, and told me my own han- 
 kerchefs was Spanish and told me I had 
 Money onboard and that I had no Busi- 
 ness with guns & with a Drum and that 
 I lyed & what I told him was lyes. I 
 told him what I told him was truths and 
 what ever Construcktions he pleased to 
 put on it I could not help, but I never 
 was told so before — and he Seamed 
 Displeased notwithstanding I ded every- 
 thing in my power to Shoe him all parts 
 of the Argo and every thing onboard. 
 
 At halfpast 12 three Ships hove in 
 Sight and half an hour after the Capt 
 went to his own Ship and told me he 
 would Send my papers and men, which 
 he ded & told my mate I mite go where 
 I pleased — but he left the Argo with 
 50 or 60 Casks on Deck that they had 
 taken out of the hole and much wood 
 the Mainsail Laying in a heap on Deck, 
 the Ship in grate confution & three 
 Ships come for us. 
 
 Monday 
 
174 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 Monday Nov™ 6. First part laying 
 by and geting the Decks Cleard. At 
 5PM Stod towards the Ships and 
 found them to be Whalers and the 
 Vulter had Spook them and her boats 
 were along Side. We Stod by and ded 
 not Speack them Standing to the S S W 
 — 4 Ships in Sight to the S S E. Dul 
 times and No whales. Latt by Obs" 
 \f-Zi South. 
 
 The days of " dull times and no whales " 
 
 did not last long after this privateer had 
 
 left the Argo. As a contrast to her bad 
 
 luck with the Spaniard, I quote one day 
 
 from Captain Gardner's sea-journal : — 
 
 Nov. 25th. At 2 p M saw Sperm 
 
 Whales. Went off and got six. At 
 
 7PM got them to the ship. One boat 
 
 stove. At meridian got aboard five. 
 
 Lite wind. Latt by obsevation i8°-09' 
 
 South. 
 
 These journals of sea-rovers are a valu- 
 able accessory to the picture of Quaint 
 Nantucket. They reveal the boldness and 
 extent of that hazardous business which, 
 during a century and a half, enlisted all 
 
 the 
 
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 175 
 
 the wealth and enterprise of the island. 
 Now Nantucket is manning no more whale- 
 ships, is writing no more sea-journals. The 
 days have gone when — 
 
 " There was rich reward for the look-out man, tobacco for 
 
 every sail, 
 And a barrel of oil for the lucky dog who 'd be first to raise a 
 
 whale." 
 
VII 
 
 The Towns Doings 
 
 The doings were done in the town- 
 house, a building so old that in May, 1 707, 
 the people said " the towne howse should 
 be repaired ; " and then they agreed that 
 " thursday next should be the day to goe 
 a perambelation." Every spring it was a 
 custom to perambulate the town, — to walk 
 along the boundary lines of public lands 
 and note if the marks were standing, or if 
 any man had encroached upon them. Men 
 who went on the perambulation were, by 
 a vote of the town, " to be paid for their 
 time." Time was the principal property 
 that some of them had to sell. Besides 
 these, the perambulating procession, which 
 was led by the selectmen, included all boys 
 and dogs who were at leisure on the morn- 
 ing appointed for the tramp. 
 
 The next yearly routine of importance 
 
 was 
 
THE TOWN'S DOINGS 177 
 
 was to prepare for "the shearing time," 
 which always came in the month of June. 
 For this event two men were chosen to 
 count the flocks as they went into the 
 shearing-pens, to take care of the fleeces, 
 to sell the town's sheep, and " receve the 
 money for the townes euce," as the clerk 
 of the records wrote it. Now and then 
 " an assembly man to serve his majesty 
 at the great & generall Court at boston " 
 was elected, and the names of thirteen 
 men *' to serve his majesty as jurors " were 
 drawn out of a box. Occasionally a land- 
 holder applied for permission " to lay 
 down " a swamp which had been allotted 
 to him, and " to take up " a meadow in its 
 place; another asked for the grant of a 
 swamp, and got it on condition that he 
 " stand out on the next divishon " of pub- 
 lic lands. A man who wanted to move 
 out of town got " liberty to exchange his 
 howse lott " for land in " anie place east- 
 ward of the towne fence ; " another, living 
 on a lonesome spot " up the island," was 
 granted " liberty to exchange three akers 
 near the beache woods for land at the 
 
 towne." 
 
1 78 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 towne." Exchanging and laying out lands 
 by allotment formed the staple business of 
 town meetings in the early part of the cen- 
 tury. These acts were varied by hiring 
 a schoolmaster at " three score pound cur- 
 rent money for the yeare ; " by legislating 
 about the commons, as : — 
 
 No hogg shall go thereon without an 
 
 order ; 
 
 No man shall mow grass in the ram 
 
 paster ; 
 
 Bethiah Gardner shall mow grass at 
 
 Coatue in compensation of her grass 
 
 eaten up by sheepe at Pacamoka. 
 
 Then came the affairs of the day, such 
 as : John Macy " shall build a prison for 
 the towne as soon as he can." Benjamin 
 Waire " shall have that stream of water to 
 damit up & sett a fulling mill on it." Wil- 
 liam Gayer " shall take care of ye townes 
 two Great Gunns that are at Wescoe," and 
 John Swaine "shall take ye little Great 
 Gunn to his home & fix it & cary it to 
 Squam & there it is to abide." Some- 
 times business was so much wanting at 
 these meetings that little farces took its 
 
 place ; 
 
THE TOWN'S DOINGS 179 
 
 place ; as, to quote from the records of the 
 year 1710, "George Gardner was chosen 
 trustee by vote & was at ye same time put 
 out againe." 
 
 The welfare of the large flocks of sheep 
 pasturing on the commons always inter- 
 ested town meetings. Men had been ap- 
 pointed " to rayse the towne to look up the 
 sheepe when lickly hood of bad wether 
 ensuing ; " and it was ordered that " if 
 any man refuse to goe when he is cal'd on 
 he shall forfeit five shillings ; " pens had 
 been made to shelter the sheep in winter, 
 and " five loads of hay " put in each pen ; 
 the town meeting had also provided that 
 " the sheepe shall be kept by three shep- 
 herds all the yeare." Nevertheless, sheep 
 farmers suffered losses from Indians who 
 stole their lambs, dogs that killed them, 
 and hogs that ate them. The Indians 
 were punished, all swine were impounded, 
 and at last, in an exasperating moment, the 
 town meeting ordered " that all the Dogs 
 upon the Island of Nantucket be forth- 
 with killed ; " an order which must have 
 
 struck 
 
l8o QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 struck sorrow to those who loved their 
 dogs. 
 
 The ancient rights to pasturage for 
 sheep are disclosed in a town record of 
 the year 1689, from which it appears that 
 each owner of one share in the island 
 estate had the right to pasture on the 
 commons 540 sheep ; that it was then a 
 custom to count the sheep at the shearing 
 time, and every owner having more than 
 540 to a share was to pay to the town two 
 shillings per head for the excess. Failing 
 to do this, the surplus sheep were con- 
 demned as " damage feasant " and sold. 
 
 There appeared on the island a plague 
 of rats, which annoyed the sheep as a 
 plague of flies annoyed the Egyptians. 
 Year after year the town meeting ordered 
 that " every person who shall kill a Rat 
 and bring his head to the towne treasurer 
 shall Receive for every such Rat a six- 
 pence." To prevent rat-hunters from cheat- 
 ing the treasurer with the heads of rats 
 that were young enough to be harmless, 
 it was stipulated in the town's order that 
 "the said Rat shall be so full grown as 
 
 to 
 
THE TOWN'S DOINGS i8l 
 
 to be all over covered with hair." Said 
 the old player, " I smell a rat ! " And so 
 said the Nantucket boys — " I smell a rat!" 
 — as they scurried here and there to earn 
 the sixpence reward. 
 
 In the year 1723, the town meeting 
 found it necessary to establish "a con- 
 stables watch in the night season, for sup- 
 pressing disorders and breaches of the 
 peace." The streets of the prospering 
 town had become a night resort of " In- 
 dians negroes and other suspected per- 
 sons," as the record says, who molested 
 such inhabitants as walked abroad, and 
 disturbed the repose of those who slept. 
 A long wharf had been built into the 
 harbor from the end of the main street, 
 and this was the trysting-place of these 
 idlers of the night. The town resolved 
 " to suppress " the vagrants ; and it or- 
 dered that " if they shall be found upon 
 the wharfe & about towne after nine of 
 the clock at night, they shall be taken up 
 and carried before a Justice." This action 
 was effectual for a time ; but at last the 
 constables proved to be so incompetent 
 
 to 
 
1 82 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 to preserve the peace that a town meet- 
 ing chose sixteen stout men to be a night 
 watch, and paid them for their services. 
 Their duty, as it is written in the town 
 records, was " to walk the town in the 
 night season, and on the first day of the 
 week, to suppress the growing disorder 
 of the young people and all others that 
 act inconsistently with the principles of 
 morality and virtue." To aid the sixteen 
 men in their task of suppressing young 
 people in the night season, and promoting 
 morality and virtue, a town meeting be- 
 sought the legislature at Boston " to pass 
 an act to put a stop to masters and mis- 
 tresses of houses entertaining minors at 
 unseasonable hours of the night, in Drink- 
 ing and Carousing and Frolicking contrary 
 to the mind of their parents." This was 
 a sad commentary on the nature of family 
 ties in Nantucket, and also on the effects 
 of that sober-sided Quakerism which ruled 
 the town, and had caused the streets and 
 houses of public entertainment to be the 
 only places in which young men could 
 meet young women, or boys and girls 
 
 could 
 
THE TOWN'S DO/NGS 183 
 
 could find a vent for the natural exuber- 
 ance of their spirits. They were driven 
 into the streets by the extreme severities 
 of the Quaker home, in which the most 
 harmless of joyful amusements could not 
 be tolerated. 
 
 Having thus published the fact that Nan- 
 tucket was a place of immoralities, the 
 parents went satisfied to bed, but not 
 until they had voted in town meeting that 
 the sixteen night - watchmen " shall fre- 
 quently give the time of night and looks 
 of the weather and other Remarks worthy 
 of notice in a clear and audible voice." 
 Thenceforth, as I may fancy, the mid- 
 night cry of the watchmen was : " Twelve 
 o'clock ; wind no'theast ; bloin' fresh ; no 
 young people in sight ! " 
 
 Although the principles of truth were 
 supposed to influence all the acts of this 
 Quaker town, there was enough of human 
 nature existing to prevent honesty from 
 being its prevailing policy. So the town 
 meeting had to appoint " Sam Ray to view 
 and prevent frauds in meats exposed for 
 sale by the barrel ; " and John Macy " to 
 
 inspect 
 
1 84 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 inspect wood that is for sale & see that 
 there be no deceit therein ; " the inspector 
 was to have " one penny per cord to be 
 paid by him that sells the wood." 
 
 The Quaker inhabitants had become so 
 numerous that their principles were asserted 
 in town meetings on every occasion. In 
 the year 1 740, when it was proposed " to 
 build some fortification to prevent an 
 enemy from coming into the harbour," 
 the Quakers defeated the resolution. They 
 would not consent that the town guns be 
 put in order, but they were willing " that 
 the charge for drums and colours for the 
 military foot company shall be defreyed 
 out of the treasury ; " and this was re- 
 corded as " the mind of the towne." 
 
 When smallpox appeared on the island 
 it created much alarm. After a long de- 
 bate in town meeting it was voted, " by 68 
 voices against 41," to "suffer Inoculation 
 of the small pox to be practiced." It was 
 then voted " that a House be built near the 
 shore for the reception of persons infected." 
 The Quaker church was hostile to this 
 movement. All its members who allowed 
 
 themselves 
 
THE TOWN'S DOINGS 185 
 
 themselves to be inoculated were dis- 
 owned, unless they abased themselves in 
 public meeting by a confession that they 
 were sorry for it. Next year the church 
 was rallied to town meeting, and it was 
 voted " that Innoculation shall not be per- 
 mitted in this town." The Quakers pro- 
 tested when the legislature billeted upon 
 Nantucket some of the French prisoners 
 who had been brought to Boston from 
 Acadia. These people of a foreign tongue 
 and a foreign faith were very unacceptable, 
 and the town's representative was directed 
 to petition for their immediate removal 
 from the island. 
 
 In the year 1746, the town built a light- 
 house on Brant Point, the owners of ves- 
 sels agreeing to maintain the light. The 
 light-house was burned down, rebuilt, and 
 then blown down by what was described as 
 "a violent gust of wind." The first loss 
 of the light reminded the inhabitants of 
 the island that they needed " an engine to 
 quench fire," and the town sent ^18 ster- 
 ling to London to buy one. It proved to 
 be too small ; and, after experimenting 
 
 with 
 
1 86 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 with a second one, the town sent £^o 
 sterling to London to buy a large fire- 
 engine. The selectmen were then ordered 
 to provide five dozen leather buckets and 
 six ladders " as cheap as they can," and to 
 appoint men to run with the machine. 
 For public safety, all powder was ordered 
 to be removed "from the body of the 
 town ; " and at the same time it was voted 
 " that the ends of all the cows horns be 
 sawed off." 
 
 The court of common pleas, sitting in 
 the town, had much to do with the daily 
 life of the people. It licensed John Coffin 
 " to sell Tea and Coffy," and William 
 Rotch, with his brother Joseph (who had 
 been complained of by a licensed retailer), 
 to sell " Speritious Lickers " out of doors 
 only. It recorded the certificates of a jus- 
 tice of the peace that Stephen Norton had 
 sworn "one profane oath," and also "one 
 profane curs." It tried many suits of 
 sailors, against owners and masters of 
 whaling-vessels, for more pay than they 
 had received. Those who had been pre- 
 sented by the grand jury " for not attending 
 
 Public 
 
THE TOWN'S DOINGS 187 
 
 Public Worship for more than one month" 
 it fined ten shillings each and costs of 
 court, five shillings and sixpence. It tried 
 a breach of promise case, in which the 
 woman claimed damages of two hundred 
 pounds from a sailor; but, as twelve 
 pounds four shillings and seven and a 
 quarter pence were all the property that 
 could be found belonging to the man, the 
 court gave judgment to the woman for 
 that sum, and she was satisfied. 
 
 They alternately voted to build a work- 
 house and not to build one. Meanwhile 
 the town paid Silas Paddock " for nursing 
 a squaw thirteen weeks at 12 shillings per 
 weeV;" and ordered "that the negro wo- 
 man Hager be considered one of the towns 
 Poor." They repaired the old prison," 
 and built a new one with a fence around 
 it ; ordered that oysters shall not be ex- 
 ported ; and subscribed ^50 " towards de- 
 freying the cost of a fulling mill for dress- 
 ing of cloth." They refused to send 
 delegates to the convention at Faneuil 
 Hall, called by inhabitants of Boston to 
 protest against the revenue acts of Great 
 
 Britain ; 
 
1 88 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 Britain ; and, that smuggling might be 
 made easy, they refused to petition " the 
 commissioners of his majesties customs to 
 send a collector of Duties to this town." 
 They asked the legislature of the year 1770 
 to build a light-house " on the sandy point 
 of Nantucket," and to annex Muskekit 
 and Gravelly islands to the county. The 
 event of the next year was the delinquency 
 of Thomas Arthur, collector of taxes, who 
 was put in jail, and refused to deliver the 
 tax-books, or any extract from them, until 
 he was let out. And so the routine of the 
 town's doings went on, in the usual way, 
 until the War of the Revolution began. 
 The island had been the centre of a con- 
 trabrand trade between Holland and New 
 York, by which gunpowder had been 
 smuggled into the colonies. There was 
 now an end of it. The Earl of Dartmouth 
 wrote to Lieutenant-Governor Golden, of 
 New York, in September, 1774: "My in- 
 formation is that the ship Polly, bound 
 from Amsterdam to Nantucket, has among 
 other articles received on board, no less a 
 
 quantity 
 
THE TOWN'S DOINGS 189 
 
 quantity than three hundred pounds weight 
 of Gunpowder." 
 
 When the war began, Nantucket con- 
 tained upwards of five thousand inhabit- 
 ants. They were a conservative and cal- 
 culating people, who felt that the benefits 
 received from the protecting power of 
 England were of more importance than 
 the political restraints which she imposed 
 upon them. They held a town meeting, 
 and decided that the only safe line of con- 
 duct for them to pursue was to take no 
 part in the contest, and to give no cause of 
 offense to either of the contending forces. 
 Their isolated situation was made difficult 
 to control by the hostile conduct of a few 
 restless persons who had nothing to lose 
 by the war, and who hoped to gain some- 
 thing by thwarting the pacific plans of their 
 neighbors. In April, 1779, the island was 
 threatened by an invasion of the enemy. 
 Immediately a town meeting was convened 
 to consult on measures for safety, and it was 
 decided to send three Quakers — William 
 Rotch, Benjamin Tupper, and Samuel Star- 
 buck — to the British commanders at New- 
 port 
 
igo QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 port and New York, to prevail on them 
 " to avert the impending stroke," and " to 
 put a stop to depredations on the island." 
 A memento of this expedition is to be 
 found in the account book of William 
 Rotch, from which I copy : — 
 
 — 1779. 8 mo. 17 day Rec'd of Wil- 
 liam Rotch one hundred and seventy one 
 pounds, on acct of the towne, in full for 
 1 1 weeks & 3 days wages in sloop Speed- 
 well to Newport & New York as a Flag 
 of Truce — John Cartwright. 
 On return of the sloop from this success- 
 ful venture, a town meeting voted " that all 
 the inhabitants will remain in a quiet and 
 peaceable condition in the future, as being 
 the basis of the Indulgence granted by 
 the British commanders." In the following 
 September, learning that an invasion was 
 threatened from Martha's Vineyard, the 
 islanders voted that they " disown every 
 hostile proceeding towards the British 
 forces and Servants of the King." But this 
 declaration did not save the island of Nan- 
 tucket from many depredations by royalists 
 and refugees who destroyed the property 
 
 of 
 
THE TOWN'S DOINGS igi 
 
 of the inhabitants, and sometimes made it 
 difficult for them to obtain even the neces- 
 saries of life. 
 
 As soon as peace came, the whale-ship 
 Bedford, which had been lying in the har- 
 bor since the war began, was fitted for sea 
 with a cargo of sperm oil, and sailed for 
 London flying the new ensign of the 
 United States. 
 
VIII 
 
 Odds and Ends of Nantucket Life 
 
 After the war was over, the town was 
 in a distressed and turbulent condition. Its 
 records make frequent mention of " Disor- 
 ders in the Night by Boys and Servants ; " 
 of " unruly Boys and others Disturbing 
 the Peace ; " of " noise and Tumultuous 
 Assemblies in the streets." This state of 
 affairs was so serious that at one time 
 sixty-four men offered their services as a 
 night patrol for a year, and at another 
 time forty men volunteered for a similar 
 service. Records of the justices' court re- 
 flect in a slight degree the condition of 
 the town at this time. An Indian, com- 
 plained of for " assaulting & striking Obed 
 Hussey Esq'," was condemned " to be whipt 
 ten stripes on the Naked Back." Three 
 boys, who " stove off the boards of Jere- 
 miah Colemans house in the Night sea- 
 son," 
 
ODDS AND ENDS OF NANTUCKET LIFE 193 
 
 son," had each to pay five shillings and the 
 costs of court. Hannah Russell and Hep- 
 zibeth Coffin confessed to the justice that 
 " on Saturday night they did strike Phebe 
 Glover for which they are exceeding sorry," 
 but each had to pay a fine of five shillings. 
 A cordwainer was condemned to pay;^i 
 1 6s. 4d. because he "did in a violent man- 
 ner take hold of a bucket that was in the 
 hand of Abigail Bunker & stove it to pieces 
 & further assaulted the aforesaid Abigail 
 in a violent manner by pushing her against 
 the Law and Peace of the Commonwealth." 
 Two women, who, as the justice wrote, " not 
 having the Fear of God before their eyes 
 & being instigated by the Devil did wick- 
 edly with force & arms commit an assault 
 upon each other," were condemned " to 
 receive nine stripes on the naked back." 
 
 There was other business in the court 
 besides the punishment of disorders. An 
 Indian woman, accused of stealing " about 
 four doz. ears of green corn of the value 
 of four shillings," was condemned " to pay 
 three fold the value of the corn you stole 
 the cost of Court & a fine of five shillings or 
 
 be 
 
194 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 be whipt five stripes on the Naked Back." 
 As she could not pay, she took the whip- 
 ping. Daniel Johnson, accused of " stealing 
 a Quantity of Iron Bolts," was condemned 
 to pay " three fold the value of the Iron you 
 stole the cost of court & a fine of ten shil- 
 lings or be whipt ten stripes." Out of the 
 judgment money paid into court, the jus- 
 tice took to his own pocket the amount of 
 a small debt which the prisoner owed to 
 him for oysters. John Crandall, for stealing 
 " sundry Silk Handkerchiefs & a Razor," 
 was condemned to pay three times the 
 value of the stolen goods and the costs 
 of court, amounting to ^3 15s. lod. He 
 confessed inability to pay the judgment, and 
 was sentenced to serve the plaintiff " four 
 months in compensation of this sum." 
 John Smith stole a flannel shirt. His sen- 
 tence was, to pay three times the value of 
 the shirt, or go to prison. To this sum the 
 justice added a sixpence which John Smith 
 owed to him " for trowsers." 
 
 Nantucket society was dependent upon 
 itself for social amusements. There was 
 no theatre on the island, dancing was ta- 
 booed 
 
ODDS AND ENDS OF NANTUCKET LIFE 195 
 
 booed by the Quakers, and the circus never 
 came. I have the manuscript of a play 
 written in the town and acted before pri- 
 vate assembHes, which interested its play- 
 ers and its audiences because the simple 
 plot was based on incidents of the time, 
 — a hundred years ago. The heroine, a 
 young coquette of Nantucket, is engaged 
 to be married to a sailor-boy who is at sea. 
 A young man of insinuating manners, who 
 is supposed to be wealthy, comes from New 
 York and seeks the heroine's acquaintance. 
 In the first scene of the play he enters 
 a parlor, where the coquette is waiting to 
 receive him, and the following conversation 
 occurs : — 
 
 " Madam, I am your most obedient 
 humble servant. I hope I have the pleas- 
 ure of seeing your ladyship very well this 
 evening." 
 
 " Will thee please to sit down, sir ? " 
 (She offers him the easy chair. He seats 
 himself in it.) 
 
 " I thank you, madam ; this becomes 
 me very well. Here is room for us both. 
 
 Sit 
 
196 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 Sit down here, if you please ; I want to 
 have a little chat with you." 
 
 " I find thee very capable of that, sir ; 
 but I '11 take another chair, if thee please." 
 
 " Madam, you '11 excuse me. I have 
 business of the utmost importance ; and as 
 my stay here must be short, I may as well 
 come to the point at once as to be very 
 ceremonious about it. I am not fond of 
 long courtships." 
 
 " Why, sir, thee alarms me ! — talk of 
 courting ? " 
 
 " Really, madam, I am in love with you, 
 deeply in love with you, and I have taken 
 this opportunity to convince you of it. I 
 am sure you will pity me and heal the 
 wound that bleeds. It 's in your power to 
 do it." 
 
 " I must have time to think of that, sir. 
 I have already passed my word, and — and 
 my honor to a sailor-boy whom I expect 
 soon. Shall I be treating him right to 
 deceive him ? " 
 
 " Oh, tell not of a sailor-boy ! Not one 
 in ten of them, who goes to sea with the 
 most sacred promises from his fair one, 
 
 but 
 
ODDS AND ENDS OF NANTUCKET LIFE 197 
 
 but expects to be deceived. The sea 
 bleaches his heart, and he cares not for 
 his girl at home." 
 
 " Why, sir, thee seems to understand 
 something about it ; and I do believe 
 what thee sayest to be partly true. In- 
 deed, if I should deceive my sailor-boy! — 
 Well, he is not the first to whom I have 
 made solemn protestations ! Oh dear ! 
 Oh dear ! I feel faint ! " (She falls back 
 in her chair. He offers a glass of wine.) 
 
 " Take a little of this, my dear, and you 
 will feel better. It is the closeness of 
 the room. Let me open a window. (She 
 drinks the wine.) Dear madam, I am dis- 
 tressed for you. You look so pale, yet 
 there is beauty in your paleness." 
 
 " Oh, I feel better now. I never had 
 such a disagreeable feeling as that. But 
 it has gone. And can thee think it right, 
 after such a promise to him, to encourage 
 thee?" 
 
 "Oh, fie! I shouldn't suppose that 
 promise would have such an effect upon 
 you, my dear ; for you say it is not the 
 first time, and habit is a second nature." 
 
 He 
 
ig8 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 He marries the coquette, having ob- 
 tained the approval of her mother, who is 
 a matchmaker by nature and wants her 
 daughter to have a wealthy husband and 
 a quick wedding. Tradition tells the se- 
 quel of the story of the play, — that the 
 husband was a profligate, that she left him 
 and returned to her father's house, that 
 the profligate died, and she married the 
 sailor-boy. 
 
 I have the order book of David Greene, 
 the fashionable tailor of Nantucket from 
 the year 1787 to 1794. I copy a few of 
 his orders, because they give a picture of 
 the customary dress of the people at that 
 time : William Brown is charged for " mak- 
 ing a Cloak for Eliza & a Hood with 
 Silk & hooks & eyes. A pair of denim 
 Breeches for thyself & mending thy snuff 
 coloured Coat & 8 buttons for Velvet 
 Breeches & piecing side seams of thy Sa- 
 gathee Waistcoat & mending a Baze waist- 
 coat & new kneeing a pair of Breeches ; " 
 Nathaniel Starbuck, making " a seal skin 
 Waist-coat with leather pockets ; " William 
 Hussey, making " a velvet Jacket, and a 
 
 Cloak 
 
ODDS AND ENDS OF NANTUCKET LIFE 199 
 
 Cloak for thy Daugh"- Abigail ; " Peter Pol- 
 lard, " to 9 Buttons & twist for Eliza's 
 pocket ; " Sylvanus Macy, " making Velvet 
 Breeches with buckram in the knees ; " Dr. 
 Roland Gilson, " making nankeen Breeches 
 and black Satin Breeches and for 12 large 
 Deathead buttons on Statute Coat ; " Dr. 
 John Bartlett, " making blue satin Waist- 
 coat with 8 buttons ; " Peter Barney, " mak- 
 ing buck skin breeches for boy ; " Daniel 
 Starbuck, " making a Suit of Superfine 
 Broadcloth & repairing & new lining a 
 pair of Breeches and making a Waistcoat 
 of cotton denim ; " Benjamin Rotch, for 
 " 14 large Basket buttons on satute coat 
 & I doz. large Deathead buttons and a 
 seating to thy Breeches ; " Samuel Rod- 
 man, "making Velvet jacket & waistcoat 
 for thy Son Thomas & twilled Velvet 
 Breeches with 3 large & 4 small ivory 
 buttons for thyself & a pair of leather 
 Drawers ; " William Macy, " making coat 
 with 5 pockets & working new set of but- 
 ton holes to thy Satute Coat & mak- 
 ing waistcoat & breeches of Florentine ; " 
 Oliver Spencer, " making Velvet Breeches 
 
 for 
 
200 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 for son Tristram & thread for Tristrams 
 trowsers & Velvet Breeches for thyself & 
 a Great Coat with 14 small & 8 large but- 
 tons ; " William Rotch, " making a waist- 
 coat of Bengali, setting new breast buttons 
 to frock jacket & making a great coat for 
 Cesar;" William Rotch, Jr., "a Greatcoat 
 with Velvet collar ; " Thomas Rotch, " turn- 
 ing thy coat & making 2 pair Drawers ; " 
 Simeon Russell, " repairing a dark brown 
 coat, turning Broadcloth coat with hooks 
 & eyes for ye same & turning thy Saga- 
 thee waistcoat ; " Captain John Cartwright, 
 " a calico jacket & a blue coat ; " Seth 
 Cartwright, " making black Satin Breeches, 
 and turning a coat, & making a Cloak for 
 Priscilla." These tailors' orders tell us 
 that there was then, as now, a standard of 
 fashion in clothing to which every one 
 tried to conform. 
 
 As the streets of the town were not 
 lighted, the selectmen proposed that house- 
 holders should set up lanterns if the town 
 would supply oil for their lighting. The 
 proposal did not meet with favor, because 
 sperm oil was considered to be as good as 
 
 money, 
 
ODDS AND ENDS OP NANTUCKET LIFE 20 1 
 
 money, and of course it was an extravagant 
 waste to burn money in the street. Those 
 who had barrels of oil stored on the wharves 
 held them in such value that they hired 
 men to watch them, lest a barrel be stolen. 
 I copy from William Rotch's account 
 book : " Paid Wm Peak for watching oil 
 on the wharf los. 8d." At one time there 
 was no oil to be had for Brant Point light- 
 house ; and when, in the year 1 785, the 
 selectmen were directed to hire "some 
 person to keep the light-house," they asked 
 the town meeting, " How is Oyl to be pro- 
 vided in the future ? " The Point was a 
 cause of constant expense to the town. 
 They built there a " Hedge Fence to pre- 
 vent the sand blowing off." When north- 
 erly winds blew, the sand buried the fence, 
 and the selectmen were at a loss, as they 
 said, " How to secure Brant Point from 
 blowing into the Harbour." 
 
 It was not " agreeable to the mind of 
 the towne " to pay direct taxes. In the year 
 1784, it instructed its representative to the 
 legislature " strictly & positively to bear 
 Testimony against the State Tax ; " this 
 
 voice 
 
202 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 voice was the voice of Quakerism. In the 
 year 1787, it was "voted that no money be 
 raised by tax for this year, but if any be 
 wanted the Town will borrow of William 
 Rotch." In its thriftiness the town refused 
 to send delegates to the convention at Bos- 
 ton in January of that year; and the next 
 year it refused to send a representative 
 to the legislature. When it elected Alex- 
 ander Gardner " to serve as Representa- 
 tive," it directed that he " do not attend the 
 General Court except when his presence 
 there shall be thought necessary by the 
 selectmen." The town objected to all 
 unnecessary expenses ; and when business 
 involving an outlay of money was to be 
 proposed at town meeting, the attendance 
 sometimes numbered three hundred men, 
 of whom the majority were savers rather 
 than spenders of money. In a meeting at 
 which the attendance was small, it was 
 voted "to build piers on the back flats." 
 At the next meeting there was a crowd, 
 and the vote of the previous meeting was 
 reconsidered ; then the question about 
 building piers on the back flats was put 
 
 again 
 
ODDS AND ENDS OF NANTUCKET LIFE 203 
 
 again in due form, and was "passed in the 
 negative," 250 men voting against it and 
 43 in its favor. 
 
 In the beginning of this century a peti- 
 tion by the town for the removal of Nan- 
 tucket bar was sent to Congress. It stated 
 that " the whale fishery commenced with 
 vessels from 30 to 50 tons burthen upon 
 the American coast, and so continued 
 until the year 1753, since which the whales 
 have left the coast and we have gone fur- 
 ther in pursuit of them ; and since the year 
 1790 we have had to follow them to the 
 Pacific and Indian oceans — voyages of 
 eighteen months to two years, with ships 
 of 200 and 300 tons." The petition said 
 that " the bar will destroy this business ; " 
 that it " lies about two miles from the har- 
 bor, has had only about nine feet of water 
 over it at full sea, and within a year it has 
 shoaled nearly one foot. We have already 
 sustained considerable loss by our vessels 
 grounding on the bar, and it is with much 
 difficulty and expense that we can get our 
 ships out of the harbor." 
 
 The town voted " that Isaac Coffin Esq'. 
 
 be 
 
204 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 be the bearer " of this petition to Congress, 
 but the people wanted to know what the 
 cost was to be, before he started ; and so 
 they appointed three men " to contract 
 with Isaac Coffin Esq", what he shall have 
 for his services in carrying the petition," 
 Then they voted " that Gideon Gardner 
 shall accompany him to assist him, and 
 that the Town shall be at no Expence for 
 his service." 
 
 The economically planned petition pro- 
 duced no result. The harbor bar remained, 
 as an obstacle to the commerce of the 
 port, for nearly a hundred years longer, 
 when two jetties, constructed by the United 
 States government, began to deepen, and 
 are still deepening, the sea that flows over 
 Nantucket Bar. 
 
IX 
 
 Nantucket's School of Philosophers 
 
 It was an insurance office in a brick 
 house that stood near the wharves at the 
 foot of the main street, and is standing 
 there now. It was also a place of resort 
 for learning what news had come from 
 the sea. The news was written in a book 
 lying on the public table, whose title, " Ma- 
 rine Journal," had been carefully drawn 
 with a pen on the outside of its front cover. 
 The book is dated in the years 1804 and 
 1805. It is a mirror of its times. 
 
 The office was open every day in the 
 week. Every morning a secretary wrote 
 in the book the direction of the wind and 
 the character of the weather, as if he were 
 at sea ; then he wrote the news of the day, 
 — concerning vessels entering the harbor, 
 vessels departing, vessels anchored " in the 
 Cod of the Bay," vessels passing the island, 
 
 vessels 
 
2o6 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 vessels ashore, Nantucket ships spoken at 
 sea, the barrels of oil on board them, the 
 disasters that had happened to them. 
 
 Turning the leaves of the book, I notice 
 how neatly the items of news are written ; 
 how the importance of certain events is 
 indicated by wider spaces between the 
 lines ; how the corners of pages had been 
 made thinner by the stamp of brown 
 thumbs. Its paper covers, tattooed with 
 a variety of pen-marks, initial letters of 
 unknown names, reckonings in figures, 
 sketches of a steering-wheel, a compass 
 card, a harpoon, and mazes of thoughtless 
 scrawls, tell me of the dozy hours spent by 
 men who came in to read the book, and to 
 lounge in the office chairs as if resting on 
 their oars, while expecting some waif of 
 news to come ashore, or to be brought by 
 a mail-packet from the continent. After 
 the news had been recorded in the Jour- 
 nal, it was given to the town -crier, who 
 went through the streets publishing it " by 
 sound of the trumpet and the publicque 
 cry." 
 
 These records were reminiscent to the 
 
 marine 
 
NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHERS 207 
 
 marine philosophers who frequented the 
 office. Some of them had retired from 
 the sea to a quiet life ashore ; some were 
 yet sea-rovers, waiting for their ships to be 
 got ready for a cruise ; some were heroes 
 of hazardous deeds, having about them 
 that air of authority which comes from a 
 habit of command. When they read in 
 the Journal that the ship Edward had 
 arrived from the coast of Peru, reporting 
 the ships with which she spake since she 
 "stowed down her oil and put away for 
 home," and that the ship Rose, with teas 
 and silks of Canton, had been heard 
 from homeward bound to Nantucket, the 
 thoughts of these marine philosophers 
 surveyed " the world from China to Peru." 
 And, as they talked over the news, they 
 told of strange voyages of which they had 
 been a large part. And yet they were not 
 adrift from the facts of their present time ; 
 for when the Journal reported the arrival 
 of a sloop from Wood's Hole,^ loaded with 
 
 firewood 
 
 1 For more than two hundred years, Wood's Hole was the 
 name of a village and two adjoining harbors of Barnstable 
 County, Massachusetts. In April, 1702, Judge Sewall wrote in 
 
 his 
 
2o8 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 firewood for which the master was de- 
 manding ten dollars a cord, they had opin- 
 ions that the price was too high considering 
 the condition of the spermaceti-oil market. 
 Woven in with the strands of marine 
 news were things belonging to the shore 
 life of the islanders. For example : — 
 
 Tuesday, December 25th, 1804. In 
 the morning small wind, westerly, and 
 snow. The President of this Office was 
 hurt by a horse at 9 o'clock this morn- 
 ing. The Faculty consider it not dan- 
 gerous. Seth Baker has arrived with the 
 Cranberries. 
 
 Seth and his cranberries had been ex- 
 pected a day or two sooner; perhaps he 
 was detained at Hyannis by a head wind. 
 As his arrival is noised through the town, 
 housekeeping women are hastening to the 
 
 wharf, 
 
 his diary tliat he embarked for the island of Martha's Vineyard 
 in " Mr. Robinson's boat at little Wood's hole " (meaning the 
 smaller harbor). In the year 1875, ^^ summer residents of 
 Wood's Hole caused the name to be changed — for peculiar 
 reasons — to Wood's Holl. In May, 1895, the United States 
 Board, which is empowered to decide and fix the proper ortho- 
 graphy of geographic names, declared that the proper form of 
 this name is Wood's Hole. 
 
NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OP PHILOSOPHERS 209 
 
 wharf, carrying baskets and pails to be 
 filled with cranberries for their Christmas 
 dinners. 
 
 Saturday Feb'y i6th 1805. Wind 
 west by South, snow — arrived Sloop 
 Charles from Bermuda. News of the 
 Sloop Planter coming through woods 
 hole struck a rock & sunk. Arrived 
 Lively Packet with seven Mails & Pas- 
 sengers — from the papers get accounts 
 of Ship John & James spoke Dec 9 — 
 Latt 30 South — Long 35. Arrived 
 two wood Sloops, want 10 dollars per 
 Cord for wood and cannot in our opin- 
 ion get $8. — At last the captain got $6. 
 Monday March 4th. Wind northerly 
 — pleasant weather. Arrived several 
 coasters; the packet with two mails 
 from New Bedford. The Harlequin was 
 off Isle of May Dec. 20th. Congress 
 closes their session this day. 
 To-day, loungers in the insurance office 
 are discussing the adjourning Congress 
 and Thomas Jefferson, who becomes for 
 a second time the President of the United 
 States. They are saying that the political 
 
 horizon 
 
2IO QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 horizon is cloudy, for England is claiming 
 a right of search on the high seas, and her 
 frigates are boarding Nantucket ships. 
 
 Tuesday April 30th. Fine Spring 
 weather. Wind Southerly. Some small 
 coasters arrived. Sailed the Leander 
 packet in persuit of the Revenue Cutter 
 which was run away with last night sup- 
 pos'd to be by a man that came passen- 
 ger with Silas Coleman in the Leander 
 from Hudson. 
 
 After spring had begun to bloom on 
 the island, " small coasters " were arriving 
 daily with various kinds of merchandise 
 for tradesmen, and for the outfit of ships ; 
 with grain, hay, salt, firewood, fruit, and 
 vegetables, to be sold. Then, in the busy 
 streets and above the clatter made by 
 mechanics, truckmen, and the town-crier, 
 was heard the shrill call of the huckster: 
 " Har-war-che-e-e ! ar-fine-onions — beets — 
 turnips — apples ! Har-war-che-e-e ! Who 
 buys ? " As there was no newspaper on 
 the island, the night-watchman, tramping 
 his rounds, became an advertising herald, 
 announcing with the hours the wares that 
 
 are 
 
NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OP PHILOSOPHERS 211 
 
 are to be sold by his customers to-morrow. 
 Hear him: "Twelve o'clock and all is well. 
 Jabez Arey has beans to sell." 
 
 Tuesday June i8th. Wind southerly. 
 Arrived schooner Betsy from Cape de 
 Verde, several coasters, and the mail 
 packet from New Bedford with a num- 
 ber of Passengers. This is second 
 Shearing Day. 
 
 It is a holiday on Nantucket. The east- 
 ern and western flocks of sheep, num- 
 bering together nearly ten thousand, were 
 washed in Miacomet Pond on Friday and 
 Saturday of last week, and on Monday and 
 Tuesday of this week they are publicly 
 counted and shorn. When this Marine 
 Journal was written, it was the cruel custom 
 to leave the sheep without a shepherd 
 through the entire year, and without a 
 shelter of any kind, not even so much as 
 that of Jonah's gourd. In the tempes- 
 tuous winters they were abandoned by 
 their owners to all the severities of cold 
 and hunger, compelled to get their food 
 from a frozen soil, or to starve. During 
 the storms they naturally huddled together 
 
 to 
 
212 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 to get warmth from each other, and hun- 
 dreds of them were often crowded into the 
 freezing ocean from a bluff that bounded 
 one side of the common pasture. This 
 treatment of sheep was in painful contrast 
 with the care which flocks received from 
 their owners during the earlier periods of 
 Nantucket' 
 
 In the summer season the pastoral scene 
 was more pleasing; the large flocks feeding 
 upon the new grass made a conspicuous 
 picture in the landscape. Their compan- 
 ions were golden plovers, whose whistle 
 could be heard all over the commons. If a 
 gunner flushed the birds, they kept within 
 protection of the sheep, winding in and 
 out among them until they were beyond 
 reach of a shot, when away they flew over 
 the sea. 
 
 These sheep-shearing holidays, with their 
 feasts and festivities, lasted about forty 
 years longer. Feuds arose between land- 
 owners and sheep-owners ; sheep running 
 at large were impounded ; lawsuits ensued ; 
 the last sheep was driven from the com- 
 mons ; 
 
 1 See page 179. 
 
NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OP PHILOSOPHERS 213 
 
 mons ; and the holidays, to which home- 
 ward - bound whalemen looked forward, 
 hoping to arrive in time to enjoy them, 
 came to an end. Let us return to the 
 Journal. 
 
 Thursday, July 4th. Independant 
 Day. Wind Westerly. Dry dusty hot 
 weather. Sailed Maria packet for New 
 Bedford and returned, was gone about 
 13 hours. Brought a mail. Arrived a 
 schooner from Mistic with Hats, Cotton 
 and tar. 
 
 There are no sounds of fire-crackers in 
 the Journal, and no indications that the 
 fourth of July was observed as a holiday 
 on the island. 
 
 Now and then a real waif was brought 
 in from the sea. The Journal of Monday, 
 May 20, says : — 
 
 Arrived ship Eliza, Capt Chase, from 
 Patagonia and the Brazils. The follow- 
 ing letter was found in a junk bottol 
 taken up about a league to the south of 
 Nomans Land on the 9th of May. The 
 bottol had about 6 oz of lead balls in it, 
 was cork'd & seal'd tight, had a small 
 
 staff 
 
214 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 staff lashed to the neck and a piece of 
 silk handkerchief for a flag on it : — 
 
 French National Ship Silene, 
 April 10, 1805. 
 
 One of his Britanic Majestys subjects 
 confined a prisoner on board this ship 
 embraces this mode of communicating 
 information to his countrymen (being 
 the only means in his power) hoping that 
 it may prove successful. If it should 
 even fall into the hands of our american 
 well wishers they no doubt will make it 
 public — That a valuable Spanish ship 
 with an immense quantity of Specie 
 would leave the Havana about the first 
 of this month. Such a fine prize is cer- 
 tainly worth the attention of any of his 
 Majesty's Ships on this station looking 
 after. The Spanish vessels force is only 
 16 guns and but indifferently equipt. 
 
 Thomas Burk. 
 This letter, picked up at sea and brought 
 to Nantucket, is a reminiscence of the 
 empire of the first Napoleon. At its date 
 France and Spain were allied in war 
 against England, a crisis of which was 
 
 reached 
 
NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHERS 215 
 
 reached in Lord Nelson's victory at Traf- 
 algar, the 2ist of October, 1805. Other 
 reminiscences of the war appear in the 
 Journal's news from Nantucket ships : — 
 By a letter from Obed Chase, dated 
 August 3d, he informs that he took 
 38 English Prisoners from the Cape of 
 Good Hope, & for landing them at St. 
 Helena was to have 6000 rix dollars & 
 was to return to the Cape of Good 
 Hope. 
 
 Capt Ransom Jones left St. Helena 
 with 200 tons Sperm oil under convoy 
 of ship Calcutta of 64 guns for London. 
 The ship Fox touched at St. Helena 
 from Timor, with 1200 bbls of oil. 
 Capt Shubel Worth died out of the 
 F0X.1 
 
 The Journal makes note of wintry days 
 on Nantucket when the island was swept 
 by gales and was locked in ice ; when the 
 moors were covered with snow, the springs 
 were frozen, and there were wrecks along 
 the shore. 
 
 Monday Dec^ 17'^ Wind north 
 
 west 
 
 1 See page 164. 
 
2i6 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 west cold. Arriv'd Dispatch Packet 
 with a mail & sloop from Oldtown with 
 Oile out of ship Edward 4 months from 
 coast of Peru. Ship Brothers went to 
 sea this day. Had accounts of the Ship 
 Rose which left Canton the 2^ of June 
 Macoa Rhodes the 7th of June & was 
 spoke with 18 days out in the China 
 Seas. Arrived a sloop from Rhode 
 Island with hollow meat, fruit and Veg- 
 etables. Afternoon a snow storm. 
 
 Sunday December 30th. Wind north- 
 west blowing Strong, considerable Ice 
 in the Harbour. Brig Eliza Capt. Mat- 
 thew Dole of Newburyport from Marti- 
 nico ashore at Low Beach. 
 
 Sunday January 6th. the Harbour 
 froze up — wind northwest cold — abun- 
 dance of Snow. 
 
 Tuesday January 8th — the Harbour 
 
 still froze, a ship is aground between 
 
 Muskeket & the Vineyard. 
 
 During winter seasons the island is often 
 
 inaccessible for a time. In the winter of 
 
 1 780, the surrounding ocean was frozen as 
 
 far away as the eye could reach, and all 
 
 communication 
 
NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OP PHILOSOPHERS 217 
 
 communication with the continent was cut 
 off for forty days. The island was also 
 blockaded by ice for forty days in the win- 
 ter of 1837. During the winter of 1857, 
 the mail steamboat was locked in the ice 
 for thirty days, and in February, 1895, the 
 ice blockade lasted nearly three weeks. 
 And yet, sometimes, — 
 
 " When February sun shines cold, 
 There comes a day when in the air 
 The wings of winter slow unfold 
 And show the golden summer there." 
 
 Friday February i'' Wind southwest 
 pleasant and warm for the season. Sailed 
 schooner Brittania for St. Thomas and 
 the salt islands. 
 
 Monday February 4th. Snow storm. 
 Arrived a Jabaca boat from Pasama- 
 quada with only one man & one boy 
 on board. Tuesday Feb. 5th. Wind 
 north west verry cold, the harbour full 
 of Ice. 
 
 In the spring came home the ship Rose, 
 long expected from China. She took a 
 pilot from the south side of the island, and, 
 passing through the west channel, dropped 
 
 anchor 
 
2l8 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 anchor at the bar, after a voyage of 273 
 days from Canton, including 80 days from 
 the Cape of Good Hope. Her arrival was 
 an event in which every islander was inter- 
 ested. Having discharged her cargo into 
 lighters outside the bar, she came up to 
 the wharf on the 19th of March to receive 
 an ovation. The ship was built for Paul 
 Gardner by island mechanics. James Cary 
 was her captain ; Joseph W. Flasket was 
 her chief mate; Uriah Swain was her su- 
 percargo. She was manned by young men 
 of the island, and she was the first ship that 
 had sailed from Nantucket direct to China. 
 I found her name writ large on the cover 
 of the Journal, and I fancied that it was in- 
 scribed during the days succeeding her re- 
 turn, when the story of her long adventur- 
 ous voyage was told at the table in the 
 insurance office. She was fitted again for 
 sea ; and the Journal says : — 
 
 Sunday October 13th Wind in the 
 morning Southerly with rain, then 
 cleared up and hauled around to the 
 westward. Sailed from the Bar the ship 
 Rose for Canton. 
 
 The 
 
NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHERS 219 
 
 The Rose sailed on her second voyage 
 to China, laden with general merchandise, 
 Spanish dollars, and shark fins for Chinese 
 epicures. I may imagine that on the morn- 
 ing of her departure every black cat in 
 the town was put under a tub, according 
 to the popular superstition, so that a head 
 wind should blow and detain the Rose a 
 few days longer. But the trick was unsuc- 
 cessful ; the ship sailed on a fair wind, 
 leaving the Nantucket girls in tears. On a 
 range of sand-hills south of the town stood 
 four large windmills, of which only one is 
 standing now. They were the first land- 
 marks of the island to be discovered from 
 far at sea, and they were the last things 
 that faded from the sight of the Rose as 
 she sailed av/ay from her home. 
 
 A traveler who visited Nantucket in the 
 year 1810 speaks of its windmills, rope- 
 walks, and two steeples as prominent ob- 
 jects in the landscape. He says that there 
 are generally fifteen or twenty ships in 
 port, and twice or thrice that number of 
 coasters, " presenting a lively scene as you 
 
 enter 
 
220 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 enter from the sea." ^ To a traveler land- 
 ing at the wharf the scene was interesting. 
 All the townspeople who were at leisure 
 have hastened down to learn what the 
 packet has brought, and to scan the stran- 
 gers who are coming ashore. If one of 
 these has aught to distinguish him above 
 his fellow-passengers, his description is re- 
 ported from house to house, heads turn to 
 gaze at him as he passes by, and bright 
 eyes reconnoitre him through the window 
 blinds. If he is a young man of affable 
 manners, he will be welcomed by society, 
 and will receive invitations to supper and 
 to ride in a calash, a vehicle peculiar to 
 Nantucket. This invitation expressed the 
 utmost force of island hospitality. 
 
 The governor of Massachusetts visited 
 Nantucket in September, 1825, and was 
 honored by what his secretary called " a 
 solemn reception at the Insurance Office." 
 Here he met the philosophers who made 
 it their place of resort; shipowners and 
 
 shipmasters, 
 
 1 In the year 1822, Nantucket possessed 80 ships, 6 brigs, 16 
 schooners, 59 sloops, 9 ropewalks, 36 candle factories, 7,266 in- 
 habitants, 1,423 families, 911 houses. 
 
NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OP PHILOSOPHERS' 221 
 
 shipmasters, farmers and tradesmen, whose 
 labors and savings had contributed to the 
 wealth of the island. The visitors were 
 introduced to men who had never been 
 ashore on the continent of North America, 
 although they had visited South America 
 and the islands of every ocean. They con- 
 versed with one, sixty years of age, who 
 had seen no other horizon than that of the 
 island. When the visitors observed that 
 Nantucket, the largest holder of whale oil 
 in the world, was the darkest corner of it 
 at night, they were told that it would be 
 an extravagance to consume, in street lan- 
 terns, oil that had been procured for expor- 
 tation. Oil was the source of the incomes 
 of the inhabitants : if the market price was 
 low, the town could not afford to use it 
 for lighting streets ; if the price was high, 
 the town could not afford to buy it. Thus 
 the Quakers, who had given sombre colors 
 to the town, had also given thrifty manners 
 to the inhabitants. They could say, as said 
 Henry the Fifth of England to his French 
 princess : " We are the makers of manners, 
 
 Kate, 
 
222 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 Kate, and the liberty that follows our 
 places stops the mouths of all find-faults." 
 
 A venerable Quaker, named Micajah 
 Coffin, addressed the visitors in the Latin 
 language, which he had learned from his 
 father Benjamin, who was a famous school- 
 master of Nantucket in the last century. 
 He was now ninety years old, yet of a robust 
 personality ; and, as he rambled about the 
 town, his custom was to heave to, when- 
 ever he met a stranger, and hail : " Friend ! 
 My name is Micajah Coffin. What is 
 thine .? " 
 
 The governor had come by stage-coaches 
 from Boston, through Plymouth and Sand- 
 wich, to Wood's Hole, whence he em- 
 barked, with his companions, on the mail- 
 packet sailing at sundown. The travelers 
 were stowed into narrow bunks in the 
 packet's cabin, where they snatched such 
 sleep as was possible until two o'clock the 
 next morning, when a sudden thud and a 
 swashing of waters against the sides of the 
 sloop brought them to their feet to ask 
 what had happened. 
 
 " All right ! " answered the skipper, 
 
 shouting 
 
NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OP PHILOSOPHERS 223 
 
 shouting down the companionway, " you 
 jest lie still till morning. We 're aground 
 on Nantucket Bar — that 's all." 
 
 Notwithstanding its harbor bar, the 
 town, containing in its prime nearly ten 
 thousand inhabitants, was in touch with 
 all parts of the world. Every ship that 
 sailed away carried bags filled with letters 
 to Nantucket men and boys who were 
 " pursuing their gigantic game " in seas 
 beyond Cape Horn and beyond the Cape 
 of Good Hope. I copy some letter-bag 
 announcements of the year 1839: — 
 
 LETTER-BAGS FOR THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 Ship Ploughboy, Capt Moses Brown, 
 to sail about the 20th of June. Letter 
 Bag at the store of G. H. Riddle, 71 
 Main St. 
 
 Ship Peru, Capt Joshua Coffin, to 
 sail about ist of July. 
 
 Ship Constitution, Capt Obed Rams- 
 dell, to sail about ist of July. 
 
 Ship Richard Mitchell, Capt. Wm 
 H. Gardner, to sail about ist July. 
 
 Letter 
 
224 QUAINT NANTUCKET 
 
 Letter Bags at the store of J. Law- 
 rence & Co. 
 
 Once in a while an outward-bound letter- 
 bag was brought back to Nantucket after 
 a long cruise, those to whom its letters 
 were addressed not having been met with 
 on any ocean. Then appeared a public an- 
 nouncement like this, of the year 1839: — 
 
 RETURNED LETTERS. 
 
 Letters returned by the Ship Montano 
 are at the store of Obed Barney. 
 The town was now a hive of industry, 
 Its streets were busy market-places ; the 
 paving-stones and the sand were rutted 
 and stained by a constant travel of trucks 
 loaded with hogsheads of oil and other 
 merchandise, just arrived or just going 
 away. Its five wharves were lined with 
 whaling-ships getting ready to sail, and 
 with merchant vessels loading or discharg- 
 ing cargoes. All day long, coopers, spar- 
 makers, riggers, boat-builders, and sail- 
 makers were at work ; ironsmiths were 
 forging harpoons, lances, and knives ; cord- 
 age factories were turning out every kind 
 
 of 
 
NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OP PHILOSOPHERS 225 
 
 of " standing and running rigging, bolt- 
 rope, wormline, marline, spunyarn, whale 
 lines, or any other article in their line, of 
 a good quality and on favorable terms," as 
 the announcements stated. Only when 
 the Old South bell rang the hour of noon, 
 and the streets were thronged with me- 
 chanics going home to dinner, was there 
 a lull in the noises of labor. 
 
 At last the tide turned, and the pros- 
 perity of Nantucket began to depart. Its 
 sounds of industry became fainter; its 
 wharves fell into decay; its population 
 decreased in number ; its marine philoso- 
 phers drifted away to the unknown sea ; 
 and when, in the year 1869, the last whal- 
 ing-ship sailed from the harbor bar. Silence 
 dropped his mantle on the town.