Gardiners Island

A 1639 Settlement Still in One Family

Beginnings: It's hard to say whether Lion Gardiner realized how deep his roots would reach when he bought the magnificent island in Napeague Bay on March 10, 1639, from Wyandanch, sachem of the Montauketts. The cost is said to have been ``a large black dog, a gun, some powder & shot, and a few Dutch blankets . . .'' He won perpetual rights to the island from Charles I of England.

Isle Profile: The 6-by-3-mile island between Long Island's forks is in almost pristine condition. It has woods of white oak, swamp maple, wild cherry and birch, and fields where pheasant, wild turkey and woodcock roam near the quiet beaches, cliffs and ponds. ``It was a real oldtime plantation,'' M.A.E. Cooper wrote in 1935, recalling arriving on the island as a child in 1874. Her father was an overseer and her mother a housekeeper. ``I spent those happy childhood years in what seemed like a little paradise.''

Strange Doings: Gardiner's youngest offspring, Elizabeth, born on the island Sept. 14, 1641, was the first child of English parentage born within what is now New York State. It wasn't a good omen - she died at 15, apparently as a result of giving birth, but not before accusing Elizabeth Garlick, a local woman, of witchcraft. Decades later, in 1699, Capt. William Kidd, a privateer in trouble with the English government for alleged piracy, buried a treasure of gold and gems on the island. John Gardiner, Lion's grandson, cooperated with the British in surrendering the booty, which some accounts place at 20,000 pounds sterling, which would be worth millions of dollars now.

The Revolution: The Gardiners supported East Hampton's resistance to British oppression, and during the war the island was plundered of crops and animals and left in ruins.

Where to Find More: ``Gardiners Island: A Collection of Historical Highlights of the Island,'' 1958, and ``The Manor of Gardiners Island'' by Martha J. Lamb, 1885, in the Suffolk County Historical Society, Riverhead.