Nantucket: The Founding Families in Your Tree
Tristram Coffin is your ~8th great-grandfather. He purchased Nantucket Island in 1659.
Nantucket Island lies about thirty miles south of Cape Cod. Its Wampanoagname may mean “far away island” or “sandy, sterile soil tempting no one.” The nickname “The Little Grey Lady of the Sea” refers to how the island appears from the ocean when fog-bound. It was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1966 as the finest surviving example of a late 18th and early 19th century New England seaport town.
When English settlers arrived in 1659, approximately three thousand Wampanoag people lived on the island in groups governed by sachems. The settlers established a community that eventually became predominantly Quaker, supported the abolition of slavery, and became part of theUnderground Railroad. You descend from nearly every original proprietor and recruited tradesman:
| Name | Born | PID | Relationship |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tristram Coffin | 11 Mar 1609 | L8BH-G24 | ~8th great-grandfather, chief purchaser |
| Dionis Stevens | Mar 1610 | MCCT-B3T | ~8th great-grandmother, Coffin’s wife |
| Thomas Macy II | Apr 1608 | LRKP-D6J | ~8th great-grandfather, co-founder |
| Peter Folger | 1617 | 99BX-1P2 | ~10th great-grandfather, interpreter/surveyor |
| Mary Morrell Folger | ~1619 | — | ~10th great-grandmother, indentured servant freed by Folger |
| Richard Gardner Sr. | 13 Jun 1621 | LV8G-Q5N | ~8th great-grandfather, tradesman/half share |
| Thomas Gardner | 30 Oct 1592 | LZV1-2K8 | ~9th great-grandfather, Richard’s father |
| George Bunker | 25 Apr 1621 | M8FY-TT3 | ~8th great-grandfather, founder |
| Edward Starbuck | ~1604 | LC7G-RVY | ~9th great-grandfather, proprietor |
| Nathaniel Starbuck I | 1636 | L29T-3PQ | ~8th great-grandfather |
| Thomas Coleman | ~1602 | LZBG-JXV | ~9th great-grandfather, proprietor |
| John Swain I | ~1634 | LZZJ-ZF2 | ~8th great-grandfather, original purchaser |
| Richard Swain | ~1595 | MMWT-9Q2 | ~9th great-grandfather, original purchaser |
Among the founders: Tristram Coffin, the chief purchaser who organized the settlement; Peter Folger, the interpreter and surveyor whose granddaughter would give birth to Benjamin Franklin;Thomas Macy, who fled religious persecution in Salisbury; and Mary Coffin Starbuck, Tristram’s daughter, who brought Quakerismto the island and became its most influential citizen. Their wedding gift to Jethro Coffin and Mary Gardner — theOldest House— still stands today.
The significance of this cannot be overstated. These families did not just found a town. They built an industry, a culture, and a community that shaped American history.
The whalingindustry that launched from Nantucket fueled the economy of colonial and early America. The Quaker values that took root there produced some of the nation’s most important abolitionists and reformers. And you carry the blood of virtually every family that made it happen. Read more about Nantucket’s whaling era.