Dukes County, Massachusetts - The whole text, 1911 (part 14 of 15)

The Early Sachemships

Ever since the settlement of the Vineyard, in 1642, Gay Head has remained an Indian reservation and town, and very little of its annals in two hundred and sixty-seven years of existence relates to the white man or the white man's customs and development. Every attempt of the Caucasian to introduce himself with a view to permanent attachment has resulted in his withdrawal from the field, and today this peninsular and insular town is unquestionably Indian in the warp and woof of its very fibre.

As usual the English made early efforts to obtain it from its owners. The first occasion was when "Womsuttan alias Alexander, chief sachem of Cossomsett & of the rest of the country thereunto adjacent," sold Gay Head to William Brenton, merchant of Newport, on May 5, 1661-2/ This sachem was the elder brother of King Philip and son of Massasoit of the Pokanoket tribe. In this sale he reserved onetwelfth to himself. Nothing ever developed from this grant, as Brenton never made any attempt to claim the rights deeded to him. It may have been that the Sachem of Gay Head, Nohtoaksaet, refused to recognize this transfer made by a chief on the mainland, but for some reason it had the distinction of being recorded in our local land records and in the registry at New York.'

After the death of Nohtoaksaet his younger son, Metaark, succeeded to the sachemship in the absence of an elder brother. In 1675 this elder brother returned to the Vineyard and claimed a portion of Gay Head as his birthright. The negotiations are thus recorded:

To me Mittark Sachim at Gayhead there came the person called Ompohhannut, and said I am older than thou art, and I ought to be the Sachim, for I am the first born of our father Nohtoaksaet; or otherwise I should have some part of the land of the Gayhead parted off to me, that so I may be still (or quiet) as may be found right by the Indian Sachims and Chiefmen.

Agreeable hereunto I Mettark, Sachim, and my Councel (or chief men) and also the Common Men of Gayhead did appoint a Great Court. We called the Sachims of this Island, and the people as far as the main land to find what might be right with respect to us and Ompohhannut, relating to his claim of land, or of the Sachimship; and we held a Court at that time in Sept. 1675; and we found or did thus in our Court: - we made or sent a jury to judge of the matter of Ompoh-hannuts rights in Gayhead and we gave them, the jury, such proves that what they should determine we would confirm. And these were their names: - Samuel Cashomon foreman, Hosea Manhut, John Hannet, Masquattukquit, Joshua Momatehogin, Stephen Togomasun, Japheth Hannet, Isac Ompany, Samuel James, Pattompan, Matthew Nohnahshesket, Joseph Pemmahchohoo.

And we the jury have found by persons knowing that Ompohhannut speaks true and in the whole, therefore, we now judge that in a division of four parts of the Gayhead, one belongeth to him, and all his heirs forever.^

^Dukes Deeds, III, 12. This sale was "certified" by Tahcomahhatack, Papamoo, Pessuccook, Poxine, Akeemo, Caleneanute, Teequannum, "natives and Inhabitants on the westermost end of Nope."

In accordance with the decision of the "Sachems and Chief Men" Metaark executed a deed conveying to his brother, Ompohhannut, one-quarter part of Gay Head, and requested the "Great Rulers among the Enghsh" to confirm the deed.*

Several years after this, on Sept. ii, 1681, Metaark issued a formal declaration, signed by himself and some of his chiefmen, that none of the lands in his sachemship should be alienated. In the quaint formulary of the Algonquian language this idea was expressed as follows:

Know yee all People that I Mettack and my principal men my children & people are owners of this: this our land forever. They are ours, and our offspring forever shall enjoy them: -

I Mettack and we principall men together with our children and all our people are agreed that no person shall sell any Land; but if any person will steahngly sell any Land: take yee your Land because it is yours forever: but if any one will not perform this Covenant he shall fail to have any of this Land at Kuhtuhquehtuut and Nashanaquetget forever:

Gay Head Sold To Governor Dongan

The authenticity of this document was disputed twenty years later, and it was alleged to be a forgery, as will be explained further on. Shortly after this the old sachem died, Jan. 20, 1683, and was succeeded by his son, called Joseph Metaark. Two years later (April 25, 1685) Matthew Mayhew received the grant of the "Manor and Lordship of Martin's Vineyard" from Governor Thomas Dongan of New York, and less than a month after (May 1 2th) the latter had purchased from the grantee the title and the property appertaining to it, as previously detailed.^ The property appertaining and remaining was the Gay Head peninsular principally, and in pursuance of the policy adopted by the Mayhews he quieted the Indian "rights" to it by a purchase from "Joseph Mittark Sachim of the Gay Head in Martin's Vineyard, Indian native,"

^Mass. Archives, XXXI, 10. This was signed by Metaark, John Keps, Puttuhquannon and Tasuapinu. The paper was used in 1700 at Barnstable beforeja committeeof which William Bassett was a member. At that time Metaark had been a "praying Indian" for nearly twenty years.

for £^o of all his interest therein. This transaction was dated May 6, 1687, and took place in New York, whither the Sachem had gone, evidently with Matthew Mayhew, who was one of the witnesses/

This sale was in direct violation of the covenant of the old Sachem and his "principal men," made six years previously, and may be taken as an evidence that the document was, as alleged, a forgery. With this transaction began the manorial system in this Indian settlement, and soon the Indians were gravely paying "ears of corn" as quit rents to the Lord of the Manor. ^ As the years passed by the natives found they had no rights in the soil which their ancestors had peopled and which they were now tilling and improving; and after the change of government from New York to Massachusetts had taken place, complaints were made to the new authorities of the injustice of their situation. These complaints were repeated until the General Court, in 1703, appointed a committee to investigate the conditions of the Indians on Gay Head.^ In their report, dated Aug. 18, 1703, the committee took up the question of this "covenant" of the Indian Sachem offered in evidence by the complainants:

In the contest about Gay Head it appears to us by deed that Colonel Dongan bought it of Joseph Mataack, sachem; but the Indians object and say that old Mataack by his will did settle it on his sons for the use of Gay Head Indians never to be sold or alienated from them; and to prove it produce an old writing; and upon inquiry into the truth of it, an Indian called Josiah Hosewit, which seemed to be a sober, honest man, came before the committee and owned that he wrote that writing long since Mataack's death; and by the testimony of sundry other Indians we have good reason to think that said writing was forged and not true.*

This conclusion was not satisfactory to the Indians, who seemed to have faith in the document as genuine, and two years later (1705) the General Court, upon petition of Moses Will and Samuel Assewit (Horswet), ordered a rehearing. Summonses were issued to Matthew Mayhew, as steward of Lord Limerick, and the Indians affected by the decision and

^" Josias Hosoe [Hoswet] saith that he took up with Gov's Dungans terms, brought a Red Ear of Corn to Mr. Thomas IMayhew to signify it. Terms were to pay a Peck of Wheat yearly for a while and then to pay a Bushel of Wheat per anmim." (Sewall, Diary, II, 432.)

Meanwhile the steward of Dongan, "by force and virtue of attorneyship," began to make grants or leases of land, "forever," to various natives, by metes and bounds, usually of forty acres each, the consideration being the payment of a quit rent yearly. Some of these unlimited leases were assigned to the English residents of Chilmark later for trifling payments, or in liquidation of debts incurred in business dealings with the whites. This became a source of friction between the natives and their neighbors who had become land owners, and complaints of these irregular transactions reached the agents of the Society from time to time.

The Earl Of Limerick Sells The Lordship To The Society For Propagating The Gospel

The Irish peer who held the Tordship of the soil in this town was an absentee landlord. It is not of record that he ever visited his domain, and his business interests here had been attended to from the first by his steward, Matthew Mayhew. The quit rents were collected, and leases prepared by the Major until his death in 1710, and this event probably hastened the change of ownership which followed shortly after. The Society for Propagating the Gospel had been for many years looking out for the moral and spiritual welfare of the natives, and its representatives in New England, comprising some of the most influential and wealthy men in the Province, saw that this state of affairs, with a landlord across the ocean, was not for the best interests of their wards. Accordingly they entered into negotiations with Lord Limerick to buy out his interests in the Manor of Martha's Vineyard. This was successfully accomplished. May 10, 1711, and the company, upon payment of ;^55o, "lawful monies of Great Britain," secured the title of Lord of the Manor and the fee of Gay Head. This purchase was made, as Judge Sewall states in his diary, "with the main design of benefitting the aboriginal natives." Livery and seizin was completed Oct. 6, 171 2, when Major Benjamin Skiffe and Samuel Sewall, Jr., as agents for Lord Limerick delivered to Penn Townsend, Esq., attorney for "the Corporation," as the society was generally designated here, the lands and hereditaments of the Manor. It was simply a

In 1 714 a "ditch of four feet wide and two feet deep" was dug across the neck and "set within with Thorns and Barberries," and the Corporation gate erected and closed to signify the exclusion of the public from the reservation. The Corporation, "with the main design of benefitting the aboriginal natives" and to put a stop to the abuses of the indeterminate leaseholds, decided (in 1727) to make a part of this reservation a source of income, and to invest the inhab- itants with the sole use and undivided occupancy of the remainder. Accordingly, on May 10, 1727, Abel Hosuit and nine other chief men, "in consideration of the great care, kindness and expense toward us, the inhabitants of Gay Head," executed a quitclaim deed of a tract of eight hundred acres in the northeast corner of the peninsular, bordering on Menemsha pond and the Sound. ^ In consideration of this resignation Pain Mayhew of Chilmark and Samuel Wells of Boston, "attorneys to the Honorable the Company for Propogating the Gospel &c," on the same day, "set off and settled upon the said natives and their posterity, that now inhabit or shall inhabit, said Gay Head, while they dwell on said Gay Head,, the westerly and southerly part of said Gay Head: that is to say, all the lands of Gay Head aforesaid except what is resigned by said natives to said company."^ For this residuary tract the tribe was to pay to the Corporation, "as an acknowledgment annually, on the first Monday of November, one ear of Indian corn for each family," with the understanding that the natives and their posterity were to be "always under the direction, government and stent of said Company." The tract of eight hundred acres was immediately leased, the same day, to Ebenezer Allen of Chilmark for a term of twenty-one years at a rental arranged on an increasing sliding scale, which yielded a total of £845 to the funds of the Corporation.^

State Control Over The Tribe

In addition to the authority of the Corporation in its capacity as landlord over the natives as tenants, and their agreement to be under the "direction government and stent" of this Company, the Province of Massachusetts exercised its sovereign power of supreme control of them as wards of the government. As in all like conditions the wards became restless under the condition of legal restraint over their property and freedom of action, and often, when excited by designing men, would prefer charges of favoritism, malfeasance and other breaches of trust against these guardians. It is difficult to estimate the true situation between charges and counter charges of the one and the other, but when the history of the cupidity of the whites is read in the light of the simplicity of the red men, we can believe that it was not all groundless complaint which the Indians made against the men who had the power over their persons and property. In 1747 this tribe entered two complaints relative to the leasing of their land for a new term, the undesirability of the persons who obtained the leases, the insufficiency of notice to the public, and the various other charges which were answered in detail by the guardians. This answer takes up each complaint and is given verbatim to show the character of the allegations and denial. After stating that they "sett Public notification . . . that on a Certain Day in them Prefixt," bids would be received, they continue:

We Leas'd s'd Land for Four hundred and sixty five Pounds, old Tenor p annum the One half to be paid at the end of every Six Months. As to their Indian built houses to be taken off s'd Land it is no more than what they commonly practice themselves. As for their Fire-wood there is enough for their own use on that part of s'd Neck which is sett off to them which is as good wood as is generally growing on any part of s'd Neck of Land; and the wood that is growing on the Leased Land is very small, Scarcely a stick large enough for a hedge Stake. As to the Article of Complaint: our turning off their Catle and not reserving Feed enough for them it is utterly false, for there is a great deal more Grass growing on the Land sett off to s'd Indians than their Catle can Eat before the Winter will ordinarily spoil the grass, as will appear by the evidence herewith submitted. And as to the Objection made against the Persons to whom the Lease was made we answer it being sett up at a Publick Vandue every Person present had a right to bid for it; and they themselves had but a little time before Let the privilege of Feeding the whole Neck to several of the same persons as appears by a writing in hands of their Com'tee herewith presented, and we doubt not but that the hon'ble Court will Dismiss s'd Petitions as groundless and Vexatious as we humbly apprehend they are, we having acted in the s'd affair with integrity, and with no other view than to serve their Interest and that we have used the likeliest methods, therefore we doubt not but that we could procure the Testimony of every unprejudiced Judicious person in the County.^

Evidence exists of the benevolent control exercised for years by the "Corporation" over the lands in this town, and elsewhere on the Vineyard, acquired by the purchase made of the Earl of Limerick. The political relations of the Province to the Crown, however, becoming more acute as we approach the period of the Revolution, necessarily had its reflex upon the activities of this English Society. The religious and political phases of this subject are considered in another volume of this history,^ and it will only be necessary to state the fact that it resulted in a gradual withdrawal of contributions and a final loss of interest in the tribe at Gay Head, in common with the other beneficiaries. It is a singular fact that no record has yet been found, if one ever were made, v/hich shows a conveyance of the rights of this corporation to the fee simple of Gay Head, and its other real property on the Vineyard occupied by the Indians. The exact legal status of the reservation during and after the Revolution is therefore a question of ethics and equity. Perhaps it may be held by those who are learned in the law, that as the corporation was the creature of the crown, all the rights to hold and manage property in this country ceased when the independence of the United States was recognized, and thus the lands escheated to the Commonwealth by arms and the right of eminent domain residing in sovereign power.* Whatever the theoretical condition may have been, the state practically assumed control, directly and indirectly, of the property, and in the confusion and antagonisms created by the war, no attempt was ever made afterwards to challenge this authority. The tribe at Gay Head became, in common with others elsewhere, the ''involuntary wards of the state." They had no control over their lands and homes. They could make no sale of them to anyone except other members of their tribe; neither could they make a contract binding in law, or sue or be sued except for trifling sums in the the courts of the county.

The Long Apprenticeship In Civilization

The evolution of the natives from dependents to citizens, after the war, was a slow and retarded process. As an observer truthfully said: "It is hardly to be wondered at that the Indians were 'thriftless and unprovident' for some of the most powerful incentives to elevate man were wanting." They were themselves lacking in initiative by inheritance. There was but one English built house in 1727, but fifty years later they had outgrown their wigwam state. While this was progress in one line there was inertia in others. A visitor in 1786 states that "they burned nothing but bushes, this part of the island affording no wood, and suffered much from cold weather, though peat was procurable in plenty."^ Twenty years later the condition of the native was discouraging to another visitor, who recorded the opinion that they were intemperate, immoral, and dishonest, though he added that they were more industrious and neater in their person and houses than their people elsewhere.^ Another traveler of this time said: "We sat by a peat fire, for this fuel is abundant on the

'No act of sequestration of this territory as the property of loyalists was passed by the General Court. See House Doc, No. 47, p. 12 (1856). The traveler Kendall, in 1807, says: "One third of the whole peninsula belongs to the Society for Propagating the Gospel etc [the one incorporated here in 1787] by which it is left to the use of the Indians" (Travels, II, 193). There seems to be no other authority for this statement.

peninsula, and wood is rare." This fuel still furnishes comfort to the present generation in seasons of inclement weather, unless a coal laden vessel unfortunately goes ashore here and jettisons or loses her cargo, when it is washed ashore in sufficient quantities to permit the adoption of metropolitan manners for a temporary period. In 1838 it was stated by an authority that "their dwelling houses, upward of 35, are mostly one story and are comfortably built. "^ Ten years later (1849) ^he commissioner said of them: ''The Gay Headers are, in the main, a frugal, industrious, temperate and moral people; but not without exceptions. In these respects they have greatly improved within the last thirty years and particularly within the last teii or twelve years. "^ In 1861 the commissioners report showed further progress in the refinements of civilization. "They are generally kind and considerate toward each other," he states, "and perform their social and relative duties as well as do other people in whose vicinity they reside."^ In 1869, at a hearing on Gay Head held by a legislative committee, there was testimony from three clergymen covering a period of seven years, that neither of them had seen a case of drunkeness nor heard profanity among them in that time.^

While this satisfactory development had been going on it was reached under conditions of material discouragement. Dependent on the state as wards, improving land they did not own, they were in the same class with aliens, paupers, idiots and the insane in their relations to the body politic. The reservation was still an undivided tract in 1800, and a visitor some years later stated that "each man cultivates as much as he pleases, and no one intrudes on the spot which another has appropriated by his labor."^ This anomalous condition existed in 1849 according to the commissioner. "While one proprietor has but half an acre and another has over a hundred acres, there is no heart-burning, no feeling that the latter has more than his share. 'I have all I want' says the former, and he is content. This state of things is as happy as it is peculiar; how long it will continue is a problem."^ He recom- mended strongly the early confirmation of titles in severalty upon an equitable basis. Nothing however was done for a dozen years, and the commissioner, in his report for 1861, makes the following interesting observation upon this peculiar system of occupancy of the soil:

This law is the unwritten Indian traditional law, which from its apparently favorable working, is probably as well adapted to their condition as any that can be devised. At any rate they adhere to it with great tenacity, and are fearful of any innovations upon it. This, probably, is a prominent reason of their jealousy of foreigners, and of the rigorous exclusion of them from any foothold on their domain, except when intermarried with one of the tribe. ^

The Final Steps To Citizenship

The General Court created this reservation into the "District of Gay Head" in 1862, and shortly after measures were instituted to ascertain and determine the existing boundary lines of such tracts as were held in severalty and the common lands. ^ The person appointed to do this work, the late Hon. Charles Marston, died before completing it, and the General Court of 1866 authorized the Governor to commission ''some suitable person" to perform this task. The late Richard L. Pease of Edgartown was appointed by Governor Bullock, and entered at once upon his duties.^ It was a peculiar and delicate mission. Some of the claimants had the most hazy notions of their holdings. One woman entered a claim for "four rows of corn" ! How well he performed it is certified by a legislative committee who visited the reservation during the progress of the work:

Pease is obliged, upon such examination and evidence as is accessible, to decide as to the ownership of property, and his decisions are generally acquiesced in with a good grace and with a better spirit of acquiescence, no doubt, than if he were dealing with the ordinary run of white people.

This work covered five years of investigation and research into the family histories of the inhabitants to make a proper apportionment of the shares of each resident or their kin elsewhere, and his report was submitted to the Governor and Council in the spring of 1871, and was ordered printed in full. It was a most valuable document, comprising a mass of valuable historical notes on the people and their lands from the earliest settlement, with a complete census of the inhabitants to illustrate the subject of his report.^

Incorporation As A Town

While the work of Commissioner Pease was in progress, Governor Claflin, in his annual message to the General Court, called attention to the anomalous political condition of the Indians of the Commonwealth. A joint committee on this subject recommended the enfranchisement of the Indians and the final distribution of the lands of the Gay Head tribe.* Both measures were adopted, and the adult male population of the place made the recipients of the glorious privilege of citizenship in this Commonwealth - with a slight drawback. Being neither a town by themselves, nor part of any other

^Title: "Report of the Commissioner," etc., 8vo, pp. 60. Boston, 1871. His duties -did not include a division of the "common" lands. *House Docs., Nos. 483 and 502 (1869).

town, this privilege could neither be exercised nor enjoyed! This political paradox received the attention of the General Court of 1870, which sent a committee here to report on the capacity of the natives for independent existence as a township. This committee made a strong unanimous report in favor of such a conclusion. They said, after reviewing the situation:

Because they are capable of self-government, as their history since 1862 abundantly shows; because they are worthy and well quahfied now as they probably ever will be unjder the dominion of any neighboring town; because they are far remote from the nearest adjoining town by from four to seven miles; because the people of that town have been and are still strongly opposed to the annexation of Gay Head to them; because the people of Gay Head are (with one exception) unanimous for a separate township; because other things being equal, the wishes of the parties most interested ought to be consulted; and finally, because having already governed themselves in reality for the past few years (since 1862) a continuation of this control, while it would work no injury to any other interests, would be of great benefit to the people of Gay Head - giving them renewed assurance of the confidence of the Commonwealth in them and inspiring them to further effort towards improvement - we unanimously recommend that Gay Head be incorporated as a township by itself.'

The recommendation of this committee was concurred in by both houses and the act of incorporation as drawn by them was approved by the Governor, April 15, 1870, by which, after two centuries of retarded development, the last of the Algonquian race on this island became American freemen. Nor were these newly-fledged citizens "without honor in their own country," for under the rotation plan of electing a Representative for the County of Dukes County, Mr. Edwin DeVries Vanderhoop, a native "Gay Header," had the distinction of going to the General Court (session of 1888) to legislate for the white people who had lately enfranchised him. The town is now in its fortieth year of existence, a self-respecting community of people, obedient to the laws, managing its affairs economically, fulfilling all the requirements of an incorporated part of the Commonwealth, and justifying fully the faith of the men who gave it this opportunity for independent development. But it is still an "Indian" town, for the white man has made no invasion here. The words of the Sachem Metaark, spoken in 1681, now seem prophetic:

Know yee all People that I Metaack and my principall men my children & people are owners of this, this our land forever. They are forever ours and our offspring forever shall enjoy them.

'Senate Doc, No. 14 (1870). This was signed by N. J. Holden and G. A. King of the Senate and E. Davis, J. J. Smith and A. G. Hart of the House.

Material Progress, 1870-19Io

The town began its independent career with nothing in the treasury and with only a sandy peninsula to work out its destiny. The first year its receipts were $342.75 and expenses $261.68; ten years later the receipts were $421 and expenses $360.77, but in another decade the showing was rather disappointing. The receipts in 1890 had fallen to $213.90, and the expenditures consumed it all. In the following ten years, however, a marked improvement had taken place, owing to the utilization of town lands, - the famous cliffs. These were leased to a corporation known as the Gay Head Clay Co. in 1893, at an annual rental of $500, and the clay was shipped elsewhere to kilns as material for bricks. The variegated hues of the clay do not resist the heat of burning and disappear in the oven, coming out a uniform color. This added income, doubling their ordinary receipts, enabled the town to increase its expenses for permanent improvement of public property. In 1900 the receipts were $1,025.97, and expenditures $921.67 for all purposes. In the following ten years these sums have also been doubled, the financial condition of the to^n steadily improving, with annual unexpended balances of generous amounts to its credit. In 1910 the receipts were $2,196.51 and expenses $1,313.06 leaving a balance of over eight hundred dollars.

In 1 9 10 the following record showed the general character of the town's condition: real estate assessed, $30,875.40; personal estate, $9,779.58; total valuation, $40,654.98, after forty years of independence. Number of horses, 8; cows, 22; neat cattle, 56; houses, 48; acres assessed, 1,446.

The natives of this end of the Vineyard were the last to accept the rehgious teachings of the white men. It was the *'last ditch" of the polytheism of the Powwows and the Indians here "had been many Years obstinately resolved" against receiving the Gospel of Christ, ''being animated by the neighboring Sachims on the Shores of the Continent." In the year 1663, however, with the assistance of his converts, the elder Mayhew succeeded in convincing the Sachem Metaark of the truth of the white man's religion and he accepted the new theology. The Sachem then became a missionary among his people. In this departure from their ancient belief he was not followed. The influence of the medicine men was still powerful, and he found himself practically ostracised, although a Sachem.^ He removed to Edgartown, where he lived for the next three years, continuing to preach there, and at the end of that time, when opposition had died out there he returned to his own people. It is recorded then that he "set up a Meeting at the said Gayhead, he himself dispensing The Word of God unto as many as would come to hear him, by which means it pleased God to bring over all that People to a Profession of Christianity."^ He continued to preach until his death (1683), and was followed by Japheth Hannit. This man was born about 1638, the son of Pamehannitt and his wife Wuttununohkomkooh, and had been brought up in the Christian religion by his parents, who had early embraced its teachings.^ The Anabaptist schism among the Indians of Gay Head occurred while he was the regular pastor of the missionary church.

How long he preached is not known, but he died in 171 2. Doubtless during his ministry he had assistance of other natives. Among them was Abel Wauwompuhque, a brother of Metaark, and Elisha Ohhumuh. In this period, in the year 1698, they were preaching "to at least 260 souls who have here at their

Wuttahhannompisin was one of his first and few converts at this time (Mayhew, "Indian Converts," 131). "This Prince's subjects being resolved to continue in their heathenism, notwithstanding his embracing the Gospel" (Rev. John Mayhew).

charge a meeting house already framed."* Abel died in 1713, and was succeeded by Joash Pannos or Panneu, who continued in service till his death (1720) seven years later. The following contemporary account of a native meeting in 1714 during his ministry is here given to show their mode of worship:

About one hundred Men and Women were gathered together besides Children. JNIr. Mayhew directed Joash Pannos, IVIinister of Gay Head to begin with Prayer; then, Mr. Mayhew preached from Ephes. I. II. - who worketh all things after the Counsel of his own will. Sung 4 verses of the I nth Psalm. Mr. Torrey set the Low-Dutch Tune. IVIr. Mayhew gave in the heads of his Sermon in English; a good Discourse. Isaac Ompane concluded with Prayer.^

This meeting was a special function at which many visitors were present, but it affords a clear picture of the ceremonies as conducted by them. __^^.,^

Subsequent Annals

In the absence of church records the ministerial succession, if there were any continuous native ministry of the original Congregational mission, remains an unknown quantity. It is doubtful if the natives furnished many preachers after this time as the Corporation encouraged the English pastors of Chilmark and Tisbury to acquire enough proficiency in the Algonquian language to preach to the various assemblies. It is known that Peter Ohquanhut was the ''minister of the Gay head" in 1725,^ and it is understood, of course, that Experience Mayhew was a general missionary on the Vineyard, and that he preached regularly at each of their meetings in town. Rev. Mr. Torrey of West Tisbury did the same, probably in his own town principally, but doubtless here on occasion, as did the settled pastors of other towns. This condition existed till Experience Mayhew's death (1758), when he was followed, in 1767, by his son Zachariah, and in 1810 by Frederic Baylies. The Baptists practically controlled the religious sentiment of the natives, however, and in 1786 it was stated that "they were seldom favoured with a congregational teacher."^ A traveler of 1807, while on a visit to the island, says in that year the Congregational church was then taught by a native preacher ''in orders."^ It is probable that the missionaries of the several societies were satisfied to have the natives become attached to any form of Christian worship, and did not attempt to discourage the existing Baptist congregation by maintaining opposition meetings in such a small community. The last baby to be sprinkled in baptism was Mary Cooper, b. 1784, later the wife of Johnson Peters.

Shortly after this the old meeting-house, out of repair and untenanted, was abandoned to the elements. It was gradually dismantled, and having failed of its purpose in religious affairs its remaining timbers went to help pay the support of secular teaching, and thus in its last days did quite as valuable service as in its days of pristine strength.

The Anabaptist Secession

It is not known when some of the members of the Congregational mission assembly became "converted" to the current Anabaptist doctrines and left their old church to form another. The statements in the existing parish records of this church, prepared by a modern writer, and therein set forth are manifestly misleading as to the origin and responsibility for this schism.^ That the secession met with the disapproval of the Mayhews there is ample evidence, and its existence was due to the influence of outside proselyting which they could not check. When this began is uncertain. The Commissioners who visited Gay Head in 1698 do not mention this seceding body. The modern church record states "about 1693," but the author has found nothing to fix such a specific date.^ It is probable that the new influences came from Rhode Island, then a strong Anabaptist colony, as the whites and natives of the west end of this island were in constant business communication with Newport, only a short distance for sailing craft to cover. The first known leader of this sect at Gay Head was Stephen Tackamason, and in 1702 the earliest mention of the existence of such a schism appears. A contemporary authority writes as follows of his visit to this town:

^The record states that "this church was gathered under the labors of Thomas Mayhew, Peter Folger and others, and constituted a Baptist church about A. D. 1693." It was, in fact, a secession from the church founded by Mayhew.

Errors: Mr. Experience Mayhew proposes to me as a thing very expedient that some short Treatise be drawn up and translated into Indian to prevent the spreading of the Anabaptisticall Notions.'

This cannot but strike the reader of the generation as an amusing spectacle - a learned Judge of the King's Bench endeavoring to convince an Indian of the theological "errors" of "Anabaptisticall Notions," which involved not only considerations of the mystical origin of the Christian theistic dogmas, but philological excursions into the Hebrew and Greek tongues! It may be doubted whether any Indian of that day had a clear conception of the white man's religion as an abstruse proposition, to say nothing of its various sectarian interpretations. At this time (1702) the same authority states that Josias [Hossuit] and Stephen "have a church of about 30, ten men." The number of souls at Gay Head was then about three hundred, and the extent and importance of the schism may be estimated from these figures.

Stephen died in Chilmark in 1708 and was succeeded by Isaac Decamy, who was described as "a man of sober life and conversation." He came from the mainland with his family.^ Decamy died about 1720. Following him was Josias Howwaswet (or Horsuit) the younger. He was preaching in 1727, and the congregation was called "a small society of Baptists." The next in succession was Ephraim Abraham and Samuel Kakenehew, the latter of whom, a resident of Chappaquiddick, preached at both places. He died in 1763, and Rev. Zachariah Mayhew, who was a contemporary, said "he was a man of sense and of a regular and Christian life and conversation." In 1763 Silas Paul was ordained as the pastor. He was born about 1738, was baptized in 1758, and at the age of twentyfive began a service as pastor which covered nearly a quarter of a century. He died in 1787, and his gravestone is one of the few remaining stones marking the burial places of Indians on Gay Head. He was the only Baptist minister on the Vineyard during his ministry. According to the church records his pastoral labors do not appear to have been successful. "The church at this time," it is written, "was very low

*Sewall, Diary, III, 397. With his well-known fondness for details, as amply illustrated in his voluminous diaries it is improbable that he would have neglected to state that this schism had existed for nine years (since 1693) if such had been the case. The absence of any reference to it in 1698, when commissioners of the Society visited Gay Head, and Sewall's failure to indicate any lengthy existence to it, confirm the view that it was of recent growth.

respecting vital piety and practical religion." In 1774 the society had but thirteen members. " He was succeeded in 1792 by Thomas Jeffers, a native of Plymouth, born 1742, and a resident of Middleboro in his adult life. He was fifty years of age when he took charge of this church, but it is said he was a man of considerable native ability and well received by his flock. He died Aug. 30, 181 8, aged 76 years, after a service of about twenty-five years. ^ He followed farming as a principal means of support as the society could not provide for a clergyman who relied on their contributions for a livelihood. At this date this denomination was worshipping in a meetinghouse of its own. It was a plain wooden structure and stood "on the brow of a steep hill," about a mile eastward of the lighthouse.^ How long the vacancy in the pulpit existed after

'A visitor to Gay Head, in 1807, makes the following comment: "The Anabaptist Clergyman is a large farmer and was when young of great promise, but he is now given up to drink" (Kendall, Travels, II, 197).

Mr. Jeffers death we do not learn, but it appears that in 1830 fifteen members of the society became affiliated with the Baptist church at Homes Hole/ Whether this occurrence was precipitated by the lack of a pastor is not known. Two year^ later they were dismissed to form an independent society, April 8, 1832, with Joseph Amos, a Marshpee Indian, as pastor. He was entirely blind, but is described as ''a preacher of considerable ingenuity."^ The first deacons were Simon Johnson and Johnson Peters, and Zacheus Howwaswee, parish clerk. In 1838 there were forty seven communicants; about sixty in 1861 and 40 in 1870. He supplied the pulpit until his death, after which the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society began (1855) its supervision over the church and gave it financial support. The following named clergymen have

1887; Allen, 1893; Charles Kent; Engstrom; Louis B. Purmort, 1900-01; William Carpenter, 1902-04; George W. Hawkins (died June, 1906); and Clarence L. Whitman, the present incumbent.

Schools And Education

It may be assumed that after the establishment of the Christian worship in this town some means were taken to provide schools for the education of the Indian children. Of the character, number, location or scope of such school or schools we have no record. Doubtless the preachers could read the scriptures in the Indian tongue, and there were probably others of the quicker-witted sort who could do the same. These preachers usually acted as school teachers with the meeting-house for a schoolroom, and they used the Indian bible, primers and catechisms as text books. A visitor, in 1702, wrote that there were here "two schoolmasters chiefly for winter, Josias Hassawit the Anabaptist preacher and Peter Chavin."^ It is not probable that English received much attention, if any, and doubtless what little the children learned was picked up by association with the whites. In 1714, in

At last only two young men were produced. I set him [ Josiah Hosuit Jr] to read in my Psalmbook with red Covers and then gave it him. Promised a testament to the 2d [Abel Sacahcassauet]."^ We may believe that theological books, catechisms and sermons, however excellent in design, were not calculated to encourage the spirit of learning in these youthful aborigines, and the lack of proper text books suited to their age and capacity prevented the spread of knowledge among them.

The first schoolhouse of which we have any definite knowledge existed in 1807 in the basement of the Baptist church and was described in the following terms: ''Beneath against the hill is an apartment of stone called by no better name than the cellar, in which, a school master keeps the Indian school. The winter season is the only part of the year in which it is kept .... Some of his scholars are remarkably apt and the rest are not below the ordinary level. "^ The person who then taught in this forbidding "apartment" was Ebenezer Skiff, the light keeper, who walked a mile daily over the sandhills to fulfill his task. Frederick Baylies, the missionary, succeeded him for a brief period about 1815,^ and he was followed by a native, Aaron, son of Cyrus Cooper. Of him a modern authority on local annals writes: "After many years spent in 'furrin parts,' where he learned to speak French and acquired much other information - where he had possessed himself of a set of navigation instruments and many books - Aaron returned home, and his learning soon secured him employment as a teacher."* Another returning son of Aquinniuh, fresh from traveling "abroad," Tristram Weeks (b. 1800), was the next teacher, and many of the books used by him are still preserved. He received in part payment for his services the timber that then remained in the abandoned Congregational meeting-house.

At this time, as in the past, and until 1870, the school system was under the control of the state, which paid the expenses, in part, for the Indians were wards of the Commonwealth with a commissioner to govern them. The reports

^A recent writer in referring to this teacher said: "This pedagogue occupied three chairs and spent much of his time in sleeping" (Vanderhoop, "Gay Head Indians, &c.," in New Bedford Evening Standard).

of these commissioners, regular and special, show an unpromising and generally wTetched state of affairs in the school. In 1849, for example, there was an inadequate supply of books for reading and writing according to the commissioner. ''But the contemptible and beggarly appropriations (from $50 to $100)," says one of their people who had investigated this subject, "continued to be doled out by the anxious authorities, who never allowed their love of enlightenment and their ' interest in the cause of education ' to run away with their parsimonious principles. Is it any wonder that little or no creditable work was ever performed by the natives? Those having the funds in charge always recommended the employment of home talent in order to keep the money at home. Here was a fine example of the blind leading the bhnd."^ About this time young ladies from other towns on the island came to teach, one of whom, Mary Jane Tilton (Mrs. Cottle), is most pleasantly remembered for her care and attention to the children under her charge.

The missionary preacher. Rev. Mr. Hatch (1861-5), gave a new impetus to the cause. Those students who had the desire, and those whom he could influence to learn more than was provided in the curriculum, were encouraged to come to his home, where he taught them the higher and more useful branches. His untimely death seemed a blow to the prospects of the scholars, but another, equally as zealous, was found to take up the work. Rev. George B. Fitts of Middleboro. This young man was just out of college (1866), and for nearly three years he was the "guide, philosopher and friend" of these wards of the State, and by the application of methods suitable to the molding of this crude material, the school made a great stride forward.^ Through his influence philanthropic people in Boston became interested in the work, funds were secured for the modern equipment of a schoolhouse, and visits of these influential patrons gave an added encouragement to the pupils. The school term then comprised eight months, and the expense, about $300, was borne, in part, by the state. A special committee of the General Court appointed in 1869, reported favorably on this appropriation as follows:

In view of the peculiar situation of this people and their circumstances we earnestly hope this aid will be continued. In no better way can the

'Vanderhoop, "Gay Head Indians, &c.," in New Bedford Evening Standard. ^Some of his pupils became teachers and secured employment in the southern states. One became his assistant after a course at the Normal school.

Commonwealth compensate the long years of degradation to which an unjust denial of the rights of citizenship doomed them, than by generous assistance towards the education of their children.^

The recommendations of this committee were adopted and, until 1889, when this state aid was withdrawn, the school had the benefit of twenty years of satisfactory maintenance. Since then the ability of the town to give proper financial support to the school has greatly increased, and a term of nine months is now provided with two teachers. Scholarships have been presented by public spirited friends, and one of the boys has taken a course at the Boston Latin school.

One hundred years ago a visitor to this town stated: ''on the Indian lands there are no made roads, and for the most part only horse paths." This condition existed for about fifty *years more, when a continuation of the county road from the Chilmark line to the lighthouse was laid out. Its construction was without design and unscientific, and soon became a continuous sand rut for lack of repairs. In 1870, when the town was incorporated, the act provided that the county commissioners should forthwith "proceed to lay out and construct a road from Chilmark to the lighthouse on Gay Head, and may appropriate such sum from the funds of the county as may be necessary to defray the expense of the same." It was further provided that it should be maintained for five years by the state. This legislation resulted in the construction of the present and only public highway in the town, which since 1875 has been a town charge.

The Government Services

Only one lighthouse exists in the town, but it is of such an important character that it warrants extended consideration. It was the first one erected on the Vineyard by the general government, and was authorized by an act of Congress approved July 16, 1798, which provided for its construction "As soon as urisdiction of such land at Gay-head .... shall have been ceded to the United States." This formality was accomplished

Feb. 22, 1799, by the General Court of this state/ and a tract of two acres and four rods passed into the possession of the government. The tower first built was of wood, forty feet high, and the lantern, supported by eight large pine beams, was reached by ladders. The light, which was a white flash, was produced by fourteen lamps burning sperm oil, and it is a part of the tradition of the place that there was quite as much smoke as flame resulting from the combustion of this illuminant. The keeper was often obliged to wear a veil while in the tower, and the cleansing of the smudge on the glass lantern was no small part of his job. This wooden tower, which had been reduced ten feet in height, lasted sixty years, and the site of it, nearer the brow of the cliffs than the present one, can be seen yet in a circular elevation of the soil. The second and present tower was built in 1858-9, and is of brick construction sixty feet high/

This new lighthouse was placed in the class of the first order and equipped with one of the most powerful illuminators on the Atlantic coast. The compound lens, made by Fresnel, a French expert, consist of 1,003 prisms of the finest cut and polished crystal glass, scientifically arranged in three sections.'' This results in a refraction of the rays of light from the lamp above and below to the middle of "bull's eye" whence they are projected horizontally in concentrated power. The illuminator is a lamp with five concentric wicks, the largest being five inches in diameter, and it consumes two quarts of oil an hour, or about seven and a half gallons on the longest nights. The distinctive flash effect was retained, but a red one was added. Every ten seconds a white light flashes three times and the fourth is red. This magnificient light sweeps the sea for twenty miles with its great luminous radiants majestically revolving around the tower, affording a sublime spectacle to the beholder standing beneath. A famous writer of a half century ago describes the effect of this during his visit, in the following language: "Of all the heavenly phenomena that I have had the good fortune to witness - borealis lights, mock suns or meteoric showers - I have never seen anything that in mystic splendor equalled this trick of the magic lantern of Gay Head."'

'The work of construction at this remote point tested the capacity of the contractor. It required eight pair of oxen to transport the iron deck across the island and hoist it into position. In 1903 a new keeper's house, costing $10,000, was built to replace the old one shown in the illustration.

The first keeper was Ebenezer Skiff* (i 799-1834), followed by his son, Ellis Skiff. He was succeeded in turn by Henry Robinson, John Hayden, Samuel Flanders (a picture of whom appeared in Harper^ s Magazine in i860), Ichabod N. Luce, Calvin C. Adams, Horatio N. Pease, William Atchison, Edward Lowe and Crosby L. Crocker (1886), at present in service.

Until 1873 this town was served from the Chilmark office at Squibnocket, and on Feb. 14 of that year Isaac D. Rose was appointed the first postmaster of the newly-established office. He served eleven years, and was succeeded by William A. Vanderhoop, Dec. 11, 1884; Paulina A. Vanderhoop, Nov. 14, 1893, and Mary A. Cleggett Vanderhoop, Aug. 13, 1907, the present incumbent.

Life Saving Station

A fully equipped station of this service was established at Gay Head and placed in commission Dec. 20, 1895, with a crew composed of native surfmen, and the crews have generally been of Indian extraction. The record of the station is that of great efficiency and notably brave work.

This headland has been the scene of many marine disasters since its settlement by the English, a line of reefs making out far into the Sound, hidden from view, and strong currents setting unwary mariners onto the Devil's Bridge, to be dashed and broken in pieces by the pounding of the waves.

In the night of Jan. 14, 1782, occurred a disaster laden with sorrow for the people of the Vineyard, as the master and more than half of the crew were residents here. The vessel had started from Edgartown under favorable weather conditions, but a severe storm of wind and snow arose towards night and she was driven ashore on the reefs about two miles from the

^The Boston Marine Society recommended Capt. Silas Daggett of Homes Hole as keeper "should he find It for his interest to surrender other objects of business to this alone" (Records, Aug. 6, 1799).

It is a little difficult to follow the mathematics, to say nothing of the metre of this rhyme, but later verses seem to say that twelve lost their lives. ^ Matthew Butler, Samuel Wiswall, Bayes Norton, Samuel Fish, Jethro Norton, and Isaac Bunker were of Edgartown. Four were buried at Edgartown and the rest in Chilmark.

The wreck of the City oj Columbus, which occurred in the early hours of the morning of Jan. 18, 1884, was the most appalling in the annals of this headland. The vessel was proceeding from Boston to Savannah, and the night was unusually clear with the moon shining, though a heavy wind was blowing; the air was bitterly cold, and the seas were high. As she was passing the Devil's Bridge, about 3:45 a.m., the man at the wheel either misunderstood an order for a change of course or a wrong order was passed, and in a moment she was fast on the treacherous ledge of rocks and careened to port. The sea was soon making a clean sweep of the larger part of the deck. For some reason those on duty in the lighthouse did not discover the stranded vessel until 5 a.m., when the keeper of the light (Horatio N. Pease) called for assistance. Meantime, as the unfortunate passengers, aroused from their sleep, came upon deck they were washed off into the raging surf and either drowned or killed by their injuries. Four men succeeded in reaching the shore in a ship's boat about 7 o'clock, and one of these died from exposure almost immediately after landing. The volunteer crew of Gay Headers, consisting of

*This "poem" was evidently written by a survivor. The author of this book has a copy made in 1842 by Betsey Burdsall for "Jane Randal, one of these fatherless children." Parson Thaxter states that fourteen were lost.

Thomas C. Jeffers, in command, Henry H. Jeffers, Raymond Madison, Thomas E. Manning, Charles Stevens, Simeon Divine, and John O. Anthony, could make no headway in launching their whaleboat, as it was stove up in their efforts to clear the breakers, and they barely escaped drowning. At about nine o'clock a life-boat was successfully launched by a crew of Gay Head Indians, consisting of Joseph Peters captain, Samuel Haskins, Samuel Anthony, James Cooper, Moses Cooper, and John Vanderhoop. After battling an hour they were able to bring seven men ashore rescued from the rigging. A second crew manned it, all Indians, except the captain, James T. Mosher. They were Leonard L. Vanderhoop, Thomas C. Jeffers, Patrick Divine, Charles Grimes, and Peter Johnson. They had rescued thirteen men when the U. S. Revenue Cutter Dexter arrived to render assistance, having been called to the scene by telegraphic messages. There were passengers still in the rigging, but many had become numbed and frozen, and had dropped off exhausted, into certain death. Lieutenant John U. Rhodes commanded a rescuing party in one of the ship's boats and performed feats of heroism that made his name famous in the story of this terrible wreck. It was impossible to effect a landing on the vessel or get very near to it owing to the danger of being battered to pieces in the heavy seas. The only way men could be helped was to induce them to jump overboard and be picked up. But two men remained in the rigging, and both were fast losing strength. Rhodes, with a line about him, jumped into the chilling, surging waters and swam for the Mrreck. Some wreckage struck him and he sank, was pulled out, taken to the Dexter, revived, and his wound dressed. He insisted on making the second attempt and this time he succeeded. The last two living souls on the unfortunate ship were aided in their leap for life by him and brought to safety. "For heroic exertions at the imminent peril of his own life" the Massachusetts Humane Society presented a gold medal to him, and their silver medal was given to each member of the Gay Head crews. ^ The toll of the sea from this unnecessary wreck was one hundred and twenty-one souls, and is the greatest disaster in the history of the place.

'The Squibnocket lifeboat of the Massachusetts Humane Society was brought over before the end of the efforts at rescue. She was manned by Eddy C. Flanders, captain; Benjamin F. Mayhew, E. Elliott Mayhew, William Mayhew, Cyrus C. Look and Setii Walker. They did excellent relief work, and were awarded a bronze medal by the Humane Society.

There have been no "public houses" in this town worthy of record, as the transient visitor is infrequent except in summer, and private famiHes have always furnished temporary lodging and otherwise cared for the traveler who remains at Gay

The native population of Gay Head preserved the traditions of their race in the matter of burials, although the town has not proved to be rich in the funeral memorials of its dead. Few graves, which have accidentally been opened, have yielded up much archaeological treasure. Small articles, such as stone fishing implements, arrow points, corn, and tobacco, have been found buried with the Algonquians of Gay Head. Naturally they had no well-defined grounds set off for their burials, as this was not an Indian custom, but there is a considerable collection of graves on Abel's neck, and a tradition is that Hiacoomes, the first Indian preacher of the Vineyard, is here interred. This seems quite unreasonable, as he w^as a resident of Chappaquiddick. On the old Congregational meeting-house lot are many graves, and on Meletiah's hill, in the rear of the site of the Baptist meeting-house, may be seen still more. Most of them are marked with rough stones, and the inscriptions are nearly obliterated. In fact, scattering memorials of the dead are to be noticed all over the peninsula.

The modern burying ground contains the remains of the Indians of this day and generation, as well as some of the white race, and has no special historic interest.

Maritime Trafeic

As showing the extent to which this great marine highway guarded by Gay Head is used the following record, kept by an official of the lighthouse in the year 1870, will testify: number of craft seen passing, 36 ships, 160 barks, 1,541 brigs, 21,642 schooners, 1,989 sloops, and 1,102 steamers, making a total of 26,470 vessels of all classes and rigs.

collectively, for the town derives some income from licensing fish traps and pounds. In addition to this is the shipping of clay from the cliffs, which has continued for nearly twenty years in the hands of the Gay Head Clay Co. and the Gay Head Fire Brick Co., as lessees of the town rights, as previously noted.

Formation Of The Group

The chain of a dozen islands, large and small, running westward from the mainland of Cape Cod at Woods Hole, between Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound, constitute the Elizabeth Islands, known now as the town of Gosnold, an integral part of the County of Dukes County. These islands, varying in size from a few acres to several thousand, now bear the following names, beginning at Woods Hole and going westward in sequence: Nonamesset, Uncatena, Monohansett, Naushon, Weepecket, Pasque, Nashawena, Penekese, Gull, and Cuttyhunk. They have been, since the first purchase by Mayhew in 1641, a part of the poHtical life of Martha's Vineyard and this county, at first forming one of the outlying portions of the Manor of Tisbury, later of Chilmark and for the past quarter of a century as an independent township.

There are but few references at hand for computing the number of persons living on these islands before 1800, and none prior to the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1761 it was stated that there were "near twenty famihes" here, and we can estimate that this represents about ninety souls. In 1777 there were reported seventeen families and "about 100 souls" (Mass. Arch., CXVII, 758). The census of 1790 gives 13 on Cuttyhunk, 10 on Nashawena, 21 on Pasque, and 59 on Naushon, a total of 103.

No further records of the separate enumeration of people resident here until after its incorporation as a township exist. The decennial censuses of the United States show the population of Gosnold as follows: In 1870 it was 99; in 1880 it was 152; in 1890 it was 135; in 1900 it was 164. The state census of 1905 showed a population of 161 in the entire group.

The voyage of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold and his landfall at Nomans Land in the spring of 1602 has been narrated in this history (Vol. I, pp. 59-65), and it will only be necessary to refer to his landing and settlement on the westernmost of the group, now called Cuttyhunk. Leaving Nomans Land on May 24, 1602, the "Concord" sailed past Gay Head, which was ''doubled," in their course, "and then came into a fair sound where we rode all night." This was the Vineyard Sound. "The next morning," the journalist continues, "we sent off one boat to discover another cape that lay northwest of this, between us and the main, from which were a ledge of rocks a mile into the sea, but all above water and without danger."^ Sailing around this they anchored in "one of the stateliest sounds," which was named by them Gosnold's Hope.^ "This island," near which they dropped anchor, wrote the journalist, "Captain Gosnold called Elizabeths Isle," the one now known by its Indian name, Cuttyhunk.^ This little Elizabeth's Isle, has thus survived three centuries as one of the landmarks of the early voyagers, and spread itself in the plural form over the entire group. ^

^At the close of his narrative of the voyage the statement is repeated as to Captain Gosnold naming it, "which he called Elizabeths Island," is the language used. It may be assumed that it was bestowed in honor of the Queen of England.

These islands thus taken possession of and named became English soil by right of discovery and occupancy. They were included in the territorial grant of the King to the Council for New England in 1606, but when that corporation dissolved in 1635, and divided the New England coast among themselves they were not assigned by name to either Gorges or Stirling. In the then hazy knowledge of this region it can not be said which of the members of the Council had a definite legal claim to these islands.

Purchase By Mayhew, 1 64 1

Stirling's agent asserted his right of jurisdiction over them, however, as he had done in the Vineyard and Nantucket, and when he sold those two islands, in 1641, he gave Thomas Mayhew, under date of Oct. 23, that year, a supplementary authorization to ''plant" upon the Elizabeth Isles. The agent of Gorges made no pretensions of title to them.

At this time they were probably unsettled, either by whites or Indians. Three years before this (1638) Underhill, in his *'Newes from America," stated that the "Ehzabeth Hands all these places are yet uninhabited." It does not appear that Mayhew took any steps to attract settlers or to dispose of his rights to others for many years, nor is there any contemporary evidence of Englishmen living here for the next twenty-five years. The name of Quick's Hole is of contemporary usage (before 1670), and suggests an original form of an English surname of a person who may have lived at that place.* This, however, is but a conjecture.

Mayhew and his son began, in 1654, the purchase of the Indian "rights" to these islands, securing Cataymuck first (1654), while Nonamessit "with several other islands" had been conveyed by the Sachem Seayick in various deeds, before 1668, but unrecorded. Coincident with this, in the larger domain of government politics, the proprietorship of these islands was being transferred from Lord Stirling's heirs to the Duke of York, in 1663, although in the Duke's Patent of 1665 they are not mentioned by name. This, however, was of small moment to court politicians, and on Jan. 3, 1667-8,

'One William Quick, a mariner, was of Charlestown (1636), and removed to Newport two years later. He left Rhode Island in June, 1644, on account of religious troubles [4th Mass. Hist. Coll., V, 194; VH, 55, 323-4]. His avocation as a mariner would naturally lead him to and fro through the Vineyard Sound when going between Boston and Newport.

Colonel Richard NicoUs, the Duke's representative in New York, wrote to Mayhew that "all the Islands except Block Island from Cape Cod to Cape May are included in my Masters patent." This was sufficiently comprehensive to include the Elizabeth group, and Col. Francis Lovelace, in his notice of May 1 6, 1670, addressed it "to all Persons concerned who lay of the Elizabeth Isles," among the other places enumerated. By this process of benevolent assimilation these waifs and strays on the map came to be under the jurisdiction of New York. The individual ownership of such indefinite property was of little concern in those times, and transfers of title were seldom recorded. For this reason the early holders of the several islands composing this group have pretty successfully evaded detection. It is known that some of them were purchased before 1671 by William Brenton of Newport, but no record of it has been preserved other than an adjudication of his title in that year.^

The Nashanow Islands

This group of islands was known as Nashanow to the Indians of the seventeenth century, and the following statements relative to the aboriginal ownership of some of the group establishes the priority of this name. It is the only occurrence of it known to the author, and its similarity to Naushon will be noted. Probably it is the origin of the name of the largest island, Naushon.

The testimony of Old Hope, the Indian of Mannomett, as foUoweth: - Saith, that hee knew the Uttle island, lying next Saconessett, called Nanomeesett, and a necke of land or little Hand called Uckatimest, belonging to the great Hand called Katomucke, and another little iland lying between the said great iland and Nanomesett belonging to Job Antiko, his grandfather Comucke, and soe to Jobs father, Thomas Antiko; and said Hope further saith that the said great iland, called Katomucke, and another little iland called Peshchameesett, to belonge to Webacowett.

'In his will, proved Nov. 13, 1674, Brenton gave to his son-in-law, Peleg Sanford, "all interests in Elizabeth Islands and Gay Head lands." The inventory of his estate includes "my part in Elizabeth Island, ;£40."

Thomas Antiko to give the above said Hand Nanomeesett, and the said necke and httle iland unto his two sons James and the abovesaid Job Antiko, for many year agon, being near the time that Napoitan, sachem of Barnstable died of the smale pox/

Aborigines And The Missions

It is doubtful if there were many Indians who lived on these islands as a permanent abode. They were not fitted for their support on account of their size, with the exception of Naushon, and we may conclude that they were temporary habitations for them during the summer season and when the fishing was good. These Indians seemed to have no tribal connection with those of the Vineyard, but held allegiance to the Sachem of Buzzards Bay, who was a vassal of "a great Sachime upon the Mayne near Pacannakicke." In 1654 Seayick was the local Sachem and in 1666 it was Quaquaquijott.

Few myths and traditions of Algonquian origin relating to these islands have been preserved. Wait Winthrop, Jr., who used to spend some vacations here about 1700 at his father's island (Naushon), has recorded some that he heard. One was to the effect that before the English came to America there was a white whale kept in the great pond at the west end of Naushon. Another relates to the great Indian deity building a stone bridge from the mainland to Nonamessitt, during which he was bitten by a crab. Snatching his hand away suddenly with pain he flung the crab over to Nantucket whence grew all the crabs in that region.

There is a singular absence of Algonquian place names, exclusive of the names of the islands forming the group, and this is a further indication that it was not much more than a place of resort and rather less than an abode. In 167 1 Mayhew stated that there were "15 families [of Indians] at Elizabeth lies 7 whereof praying families."

These islands were likewise in the missionary field of the Mayhews, the work beginning about this date with some native converts as assistants to the elder Thomas Mayhew.

How long the work was continued regularly is not known, but John Weeks was preaching to the Indians in 1700 at a salary of ;!^io per annum/ and later a native preacher, Jannohquosso, held services here. In 1727 another native, Daniel Shohkau, "still preached the Gospel to a few families at Winthrops Island" (Naushon). With the increase of the white settlers the conditions were not favorable nor congenial for the two races to live on these small islands together, and it is probable that the last Indian had left before the close of that century.^

Incorporated With Tisbury Manor, 1 67 1

When the Mayhews were in New York arranging their affairs with Governor Lovelace in 1671, the charter of Tisbury Manor was created on July 8th, as explained elsewhere, and this group of islands was made a part of that disjointed manor. Its connection with the town of Chilmark thus began and was to continue for nearly two centuries. Again, on Nov. i, 1683, it was included by name in the establishment of Dukes County as ''Elizabeth's Island," - and when the Lordship and Manor of Martha's Vineyard was created in 1685 the Elizabeth Islands were included in the new dignity.^ After the transfer of jurisdiction from New York to Massachusetts by the charter of 1 69 1, the Elizabeth Islands were again named in the act confirming the settlement of the County of Dukes County. From these various acts this group came to have a habitation and a name, and henceforth its status was fixed. A curious legal complication occurred in connection with them shortly after the change. A suit for trespass on the island of Naushon had been entered for the October term of the County Court at Edgartown in 1695, and the defendant, Anthony Blaney by his attorney, demurred to the competency of the court to try the case. He contended that the Justices and "the Marshall who a rested him" had no authority "for such action on Ilesabeth Hands" because their commissions were for "Marthas Vineyard" only. Upon an examination of this allegation the judges were forced to "allow the defendants plea Sufficient

^In the transfer of the Manor back to Governor Dongan, the Elizabeth Islands were not in the "excepted" list and inferentially they remained a part of the Lordship, though never after mentioned in its affairs.

to barre further proceedings." New commissions were accordingly issued the next year in which the words "Dukes County" was substituted for "Marthas Vineyard," and the defect was healed.^

Annals Of The Revolution

These islands were not the scene of any conflicts great or small between the British and American forces, but their proximity to the line of water communication made them a sort of frontier post for the rebels and a rendezvous for the ships of the King's navy in search of the enemies' boats. ^ Captain John Linzee of the Falcon was an early marauder in this section, both ashore and afloat. Mrs. Elizabeth Bowdoin, wife of the owner of Naushon, sent a communication to the Provincial Committee of Safety, dated Dorchester, June 4, 1775, in which she recites the depredations of landing parties from this sloop of war under his command. Elisha Nye, who was acting as her agent at the island, sent in an account to her amounting to £14:10:0 for sheep, beef, a gun and "riding my horse and use of my well," which represented her losses from this particular raid. Mrs. Bowdoin asked the Committee to send troops to protect her husband's property, as the stock of sheep has been a source of supply to the Province as subsistence and wool.^ Captain John Grannis and a company of thirty men were immediately sent from Falmouth as a coast guard. ^

The first military movement of the provincial authorities in connection with these islands was the inclusion of them early in 1776, in the Sea-Coast Defence establishment. Major Barachiah Bassett was the officer in command of this detachment as a part of the Vineyard quota. On March 21, 1776, the town officials of Martha's Vineyard petitioned for seventyfive men to be stationed at the Elizabeth Islands with two cannons mounted at Tarpolin cove. In answer to this. Major Bassett was directed to mount four nine-pounders wherever he thought advisable for the defence of these islands, and they were probably mounted at Naushon. He informed the General Court "that it will not be in my power to afford protection which is necessary for these Islands westward of Tarpolan Cove Island & the vessels that are constantly parsing without I have at least Ten Whale Boats." These were allowed. In November of that same year, however, the Sea Coast Defence establishment was disbanded by the Provincial authorities, but Major Bassett was directed to retain Lieut. Elisha Nye, two Sergeants and twenty-one men at the Elizabeth Islands as an exception to the general order. ^ Nye was commissioned by the Council as a Captain early in 1777, and rendered excellent service as a commanding officer.^ The roster of the company which served under him during this year and part of the next follows herewith:

Muster Roll of the Company Commanded by Elisha Nye in 1777' Elisha Nye, Captain Stephen Nye, ist Lieutenant William Tobey, 2nd Lieutenant Shubael Hatch \ Howes Hallet '\

'See Vol. I, 359-61, for complaint of the Vineyard authorities on the discrimination in favor of the smaller section of the county. ^See Vol. I, 364-5. 'Mass. Arch. (Rev.), XXXVI, 157.

Attempted Annexation To Dartmouth

The political connection of these islands with Chilmark, seven miles across the Sound, would not be productive of the best administrative results, and as a natural consequence this disarticulated portion sought relief and improvement, but the means chosen was only a shift of the place but not the burden. In 1788 Holder Slocum and five others describing themselves as ' Proprietors of the four Ehzabeth Islands (so-called) known by the names of Peskanees, Nashwinnah, Cutterhunker and Pennakees," petitioned the General Court for a separation from Chilmark and annexation to Dartmouth. The reasons assigned by them for this change of jurisdiction were as follows: (i) ''There is great Disparity in the assessment of their Taxes, from which they cannot gain any Relief without passing twenty Miles over sea." (2.) - They have not been notified "when a valuation was about to be taken." (3.) - If

(to use an old Proverb) might be worse than the Disease." (4.) - That "agreeable to the Maxim Taxation and Representation ought ever to go hand in hand," they conceived themselves deprived of one of the "Essential Rights of Freeman as they have no Voice in the Election of Town Officers for said Chilmark." (5.) - They could offer "many other just and weighty Reasons" but concluded that these were sufficient.

The General Court directed that the town officers of Chilmark and Dartmouth be notified of the petition and given an opportunity to be heard thereon.^ Under date of Dec. 25, 1788, Robert Allen, town clerk of Chilmark, filed the remonstrance of that town in which the allegations of the petitioners are traversed. He stated (i.) that no petitions for relief from taxation had ever been received from the Elizabeth Islands; (2.) "that persons residing on sd Islands have at several times been persuaded by the Inhabitants of Chilmark to have an assessor chosen amongst them but they have ever Refused"; (3.) that the petitioners were " exceedingly mistaken mark authorities, though the ''many other just and weighty reasons" which remained unspoken by the petitioners might have disclosed unexcepted strength. The house of Slocum, however, was ''divided against itself," for under date of Jan. 8, 1789, Christopher and Giles Slocum of Cuttyhunk, calling themselves owners of that island, sent in a remonstrance against the proposed change of jurisdiction, and the petitioners, on Jan. 23, following, were given leave to withdraw. This ended the short campaign for separation.

Separation And Incorporation

For three-quarters of a century the idea of independent existence slumbered, and two generations of people passed out of existence. With a handful of voters and no political influence the prospects of severing relationship with Chilmark were chimerical. The growth of the summer tourist and seashore visitor revived the sentiment, and to this was added the wide personal and business relation of the late John M. Forbes, the "Master of Naushon." In 1863 this sentiment had crystallized, and the inhabitants of the several islands began anew the campaign for separation. Petitions signed by Edward Merrill, John Flanders, John W. Flanders, Benjamin

C. Church, Henry J. Allen, W. R. Veeder, Daniel Hamland, Jr., and Henry P. Macomber, were presented to the General Court, asking that the islands be incorporated by the name of "Monohansett,"* They alleged unequal taxation, appropriations, division of town offices, etc., and the usual accompaniments of loss of rights and privileges.

Notice was served on Tristram Mayhew, Samuel T. Hancock, and John Hammett, as Selectmen of Chilmark, and on Dec. 22, that year, they were directed by the town to present a remonstrance. This they did, and state in objection that the proposed town "is a portion of the small town of Chilmark owned principally by non residents and very sparsely populated ; and that all the legal voters are but sixteen in number, a part of whom are tenants and laborers, temporary residents, and they are not sensible of unequal taxation."

Notwithstanding the apparent absurdity of incorporating such a few persons into a body poHtic, yet the great influence of Mr. Forbes prevailed, and the prayer of the petitioners was granted. The name selected, however, was not that asked for, but instead Gosnold was chosen in honor of the first discoverer, and on March 17, 1864, the new town was added to the list of independent communities in the state.

With such a small, isolated and scattered population it will not be expected that either elaborate measures or complete facilities for instructing the youth have been undertaken here. The records of Chilmark give scanty and irregular information on this subject. The first entry relating to it is under date of 1754, when the town voted £,^ "toward procuring a school on the Islands belonging to sd town." The use of the plural indicates that this appropriation may have included Nomans Land as one of the "islands."^

In 1789 the sum of ;^5 was appropriated ''for the use of the inhabitants of the Islands for a school,"^ and in 1790 the sum of ;^8 was voted specifically "for the use of a school at Elizabeth Islands."^ The location of this school is not known, but it is probable that it was at Pasque or Cuttyhunk, where most of the inhabitants of the islands were centered.

In 1850 there was one school with fourteen scholars, for which $42 was expended, and in 1863 there were fifteen scholars, and an appropriation of $57.60 for their education.

When the town was incorporated, in 1864, the appropriations for school purposes were doubled at once. In 1864 it was $100; in 1867 it was $260.57; '^^ 1885 it was $439.55; in 1895 it was $501.80; and the present year (1910) it is $571.19, and yet there has been no increase of scholars in all these years. The number this year is fifteen, but the amount expended per capita has increased from $3.80 to $38, a most creditable showing.

In addition to this the town has a public library of about three hundred volumes, which is to be reckoned as an adjunct to the educational privileges of its people.

The following named persons were licensed innholders in the town of Gosnold by the County Court for the years specified : Zaccheus Lambert, 1755-64; Robert Hatch, 1755-68; Roger Merrihew, 1756-7; John Shreve, 1760; Barnabas Hinckley, 1773; Elisha Nye, 1773; John Nye, 1 784-1806. Lambert kept his inn at Tarpaulin Cove and it is probable that all the public houses above licensed were there or on the island of Naushon.

Nunn Ames Sett

This island is the eastermost of the group, and is about two miles long and half a mile wide. It was purchased of the Sachem Seayick by Thomas Mayhew, Sr., prior to 1666, as in that year he sold it to his daughter Martha, wife of Thomas Tupper of Sandwich.^ It passed into the possession of Wait Winthrop and thence into the Bowdoin family with the transfer of Naushon.'

A house was built on the island about 1769 for Paul Robinson, and he was later succeeded in the occupancy by Oliver Grinnell. Governor James Bowdoin died in this house in 1790, and after his death it remained unoccupied for seven or eight years, everything being left untouched.''

The name of this island was written in 1682 as Monahhanesuh. It is a small island of about twelve acres. It was sold by the Elder Mayhew to John Haynes in 1681, and by the latter reconveyed to Matthew Mayhew the next year.'' Richard Sarson sold it to Wait Winthrop in 1688, and it then followed the line of possession of the successive owners of Naushon.^

The modern pronunciation and spelling of this islet is Uncatena. It lies between Nonamessett and Naushon. It was probably one of the "other small islands" conveyed by Seayick to Mayhew whence it passed into the possession of the Winthrop and Bowdoin estates. A house was built on it about 1800 and was occupied by Seth Robinson.^

This island, the largest in the group, which is about eight miles long and nearly two miles wide, has had several names attached to it since the coming of the English to this locality. Its Algonquian name was Cataymuck (1654) or Kataymuck, varied as Katamiwick (1666), the translation of which, like that of Cataama on the Vineyard, is "great fishing place." It was called Tarpolin Cove Island as early as 1682, and for many years after; Elizabeth's Island (1702), Naushaun (171 7), Winthrop's Island (1727); but the title of Naushon has sur- vived each of these, and for the past hundred years has been almost exclusively used. It is derived from Nash-chawan, meaning between the tide rips or currents at each end, rather than the sides.

It was purchased from the Sachem of Monument, Seayick, April 20, 1654, by the Rev. Thomas Mayhew, Jr., the only recorded instance of a land transaction made by the young missionary during his lifetime. The deed conveys "one Hand neare Woods his hole Called by the Indians Cataymuck."^ After his death the title does not appear to have been vested in his children, as on Aug. 7, 1668, the Sachem Seayick executed an instrument in which he validates certain prior grants in which he has "by severall deedes gyven & conveighed unto Thomas Mayhew of Martin's Vineyard the island called Kataymuck * * * * -vvith severall other islands named in the deedes." These earlier conveyances are not of record, but before this confirmation, on Sept. 27, 1666, the Governor had disposed of one -quarter of Cataymuck to Peter Oliver of Boston. This deed gives a few additional particulars and the description of the part conveyed is liere quoted:^

One full quarter part of the greater Island of Elizabeth Island, beginning at the Western end Called by the Indians Katamiwick, being about eight miles long, l}'ing Northward from Martynes Vineyard & Southv/ard from Monument Bay, being brought & purchased by us of Quajaccset Sachem of Monument & also of Quaquaquijott a great Sachime upon the Maine near Pacannakicke.'

In 1 67 1 Governor Lovelace recognized the equity of Matthew Mayhew in the fee of the island as first purchased by Thomas Mayhew, Jr., and "recommended to him (i. e.. Governor Mayhew) to give some compensation to the Grand Childe for his consent to his Fathers Right. "^ On Jan. 12, 1 68 1, the Governor, shortly before his death, sold the remaining three-quarters of the island, "being part of the manor of Tisbury," to John Haynes, merchant, late of Boston, and provided in the deed that the place was "to be hereafter called

'The original deed is in the collection of the Pilgrim Society at their hall in Plymouth, and one of the witnesses was young Thomas Paine. It is not recorded in our county records.

^This deed is also in Pilgrim Hall, but is recorded in our registry, Vol. I, folio 328. The consideration was a debt liquidated by Governor Mayhew to Thomas Daggett.

Major-General Wait Winthrop First Master Of Naushon

Sileby."^ The significance of this is not apparent from such investigations as the author has been able to make. Sileby is a parish in Leicestershire, England, but it has no known connection with our Mayhew family, a connection which readily suggests itself because of the predilection of the Governor in bestowing here the names of places with which he was earlier associated in England. The Vicar of Sileby informs the author that the name of Mayhew has not been found in his parish registers, and it can only be surmised that it may be the home of some one connected with the Governor by marriage, possibly his first or second wife's. The new name, however, did not have any "hereafter" and does not appear in subsequent records after the Governor's death.

Haynes did not retain his interest long as the next year he reconveyed it to Matthew Mayhew.- The latter sold this for ;^46o in 1682 to Wait Winthrop of Boston.^

The Winthrop Estate

When this beautiful island passed into the possession of Major General Wait Still Winthrop it became the suburban estate of a man of wealth and culture who made it his playground and proceeded to develop it as such. "It may be worth something in time," wrote Winthrop to his brother, Governor Fitz John, when he announced the acquisition of the property. He began the improvement of it at once, procured tenants to develop and cultivate the land, while he gathered here and there game and edible birds and wild animals to stock the place. As early as 1698 his correspondence shows the installation of a buck and doe moose and wild turkeys. Here the younger Wait Winthrop spent his vacations and amused himself with studies of the aboriginal lore of the islands. Being on the great highway of coastwise commerce it was a frequent port of call for ships to replenish their water barrels at Tarpaulin cove. "Here arrived an English ship from Nevis," wrote young Wait, in 1702, "the master whereof sent my Father a dozen and half of oranges." It is probable that this cove or the "French Wate.-^^g Place" was the location of the first house on the island. Captain Kidd, the pirate, made harbor here on his last voyage before his arrest. Winthrop writes, under date of July 12, 1699: "Captain Kidd and his crew

Tarpolin with the man there." In 1702 the house "on the east End of Elizabeths Island was raised," as we read in the pages of young Wait's diary, and from these brief glimpses of happenings there we may obtain some knowledge of the life at Naushon under its first gentleman owner.

The western quarter of Naushon, sold to Peter Oliver, became the subject of considerable litigation, though the absence of records obscures the exact conditions. Nathaniel Oliver, son of Peter, in 1695, began suit against Anthony Blaney, ''of Elizabeth Hand for entering into and withholding the possession of one full quarter part" of this island, "beginning at the westcrmost end."^ Oliver was non-suited on a technicality, as related elsewhere, and nothing further is heard of the case. In October, 1702, in association with James and Daniel Oliver and Sarah Noyes, he again entered suit for the possession of this quarter section, this time against Caleb Ray and Joseph Fuller, "in that they refuse to deliver to him" this tract of land. As there are no records to show what claims Ray or Fuller had to this particular property it can only be surmised that it came into their possession by some purchase or purchases which gave them good title. ^ Through the laxity of jurisdiction over these islands before 1700 the documents covering these transactions may have been recorded at Barnstable, Newport or Plymouth.

The Bowdoin Family

From this time on the tenure and occupation of the island is clear. After the death of Wait Winthrop, Nov. 7, 171 7, his son John and daughter Ann Lechmere, on Jan. 11, 171 7, sold it to James Bowdoin of Boston for ;^i,5oo, although it had been inventoried at ;^2,ooo, including the stock. ^ By will, dated September, 1713, not executed, he bequeathed to his only daughter Ann, wife of Thomas Lechmere of London, "all my island called by the Indians Katamick otherwise called and known by the name of Elizabeth Island alias Tarpolin

'Dukes Court Records. Anthony Blaney was a tenant of Wait Winthrop as early as 1684, and Winthrop's correspondence indicates that he had much difficulty in collecting the rental (5 Mass. Hist. Coll., VHI, passim).

contingent upon the failure of his son John to pay ;£2,ooo to his sister Ann Lechmere within twenty years, and if done it was to become his. There were legal complications between the heirs and Bowdoin extending over many years, and it was not until 1744 that the new family acquired an undisputed title to their property.^ Since its acquisition by the Bowdoins, to the present day practically, it has been a country gentleman's demesne, and there is attached to it all the accompaniments of the life of the squire and his tenants from generation to generation. The Bowdoin family were the "Masters of Naushon" for one hundred and twenty-five years, continuing and maintaining the traditional standard of generous living first set by Major General Winthrop. The sons of the first Bowdoin, James and William, stocked it with deer that they might have a park after the manner of the nobility of England, and in 1766 they procured the passage of a law protecting these animals from destruction by the poachers. Descendants of these deer still roam the island, and its subsequent owners have stocked it with English and Scotch game birds and varieties of our native prairie fowl.

Lieutenant Governor James Bowdoin, by his will dated March 23, 1789, proven Nov. 16, 1790, bequeathed this property "to my dear son James Bowdoin, the whole of my share, viz: one half of the Islands Catamock or Naushon, Nanemasset and Ankatarmy (Uncatena)," and this third James Bowdoin, by marriage with his cousin Sarah, an only daughter of his uncle, William Bowdoin, acquired the other half. The new owner enjoyed his inheritance for about twenty years, and by will dated June 4, 181 1, bequeathed it to his nephew James, the son of Sir John and Lady Tempe (nee Bowdoin), upon condition of his assuming the name of- Bowdoin, his mother's family.^ In default of heirs the property was devised to James Bowdoin Winthrop, and under like default to Bowdoin College as residuary legatee. James Temple Bowdoin died Oct. 31, 1842, and the Trustees of Bowdoin College entered suit for the property, claiming possession to the exclusion of young James Temple Bowdoin, in whom the property was entailed.

of the uncle, and sundry nice points of law. Eminent counsel was employed on both sides, including Daniel Webster and Rufus Choate, but before a trial was had a compromise was agreed upon by the parties, who agreed to the sale of Naushon with all the stock and other personal property thereon to William W. Swain of New Bedford and John M. Forbes of Milton for the sum of $20,000, of which Temple received seven and the college three-tenths/

The Forbes Family

The joint ownership of Swain and Forbes lasted thirteen years, during which time the islands were used for sheep raising and general agricultural purposes in addition to its development as a country estate. Swain sold his interest to Forbes Nov. 7, 1856, and ever since that date it has been in the possession of the family, being inherited by J. Malcolm Forbes, son of John M., and in turn by his heirs, a period of sixty-seven years. ^ In the history of the island it has been the property of but three families; Winthrop, 48 years; Bowdoin, 115 years; and Forbes, 67 years, covering a total of 228 years as a gentleman's suburban estate.

The Forbes family, as the last "Masters of Naushon," has emulated successfully its predecessors in the high ideals of the establishment created by the Winthrops and the Bowdoins, and it bids fair to pass on under their tenure with this unique reputation untainted by commercial exploitation.

This small island, lying on the north side of Naushon, contains about four acres. It was acquired by the Elder Mayhew of the Sachem of Monument, and sold in 1682 to Matthew Mayhew.^ The latter left it to his son Matthew and of him it was purchased, in 1714, by Benjamin Weeks of Falmouth.^

Pesketennees (1670), Passhikhanneset (1696) Pashketaneset (1713), Pesketineasset (1775), and Pesk (1790). It is on the west end of Naushon separated by Robinson's Hole, being in dimension about two miles long by one wide, and containing about eight hundred acres. This island has a tidal inlet about half a mile long and its name in Algonquian denotes this: Pash-kehtan-es-et, ''where the sea breaks through or divides."

The first owner was Thomas Mayhew, who sold it in 1670 to Daniel Wilcox of Dartmouth.^ The latter sold it, in 1696, in two equal parts, to Abraham and John Tucker,^ and it was generally called Tucker's island while in their possession.

Here we found a club house with appointments calculated to render not only the members of the club and their famihes comfortable, but all the guests invited by them. The island includes more than a thousand acres which the club has divided into two farms, erected commodious buildings, including club house, ice house, stabhng &c. The club has also vegetable and flower gardens, sail boats and row boats, and the river which sets a mile into the island is stocked with a hundred thousand menhaden as bait for the use of the club.^